DPC Members’ "Millennium Sentence"

Chinese Democratic Party Members’ "Millennium Sentence"

"Qianshao" 2010-6

By Yan Jiaqi

Translation by Qiongyan Weng, Sunday, May 22, 2011

（翻译自严家祺先生《中国民主党人的“千年刑期”》，原载《前哨》2010年6月号）

In 1998, Wang Youcai Prepared to Establish the Chinese Democratic Party

On April 4 this year in New York Long Island, it was announced that "The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee" was founded, and Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai were elected "co-President". Before that, a number of organizations composing the name of "Chinese Democratic Party" had been set up outside the Mainland China. One of them is “The Chinese Democratic Party National Alliance Headquarters” led by Xu Wenli.

Five days after the founding of "The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee"  by Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai,  “The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Alliance Headquarters” led by Xu Wenli declared that "The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee" under the auspices of  Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai imposed its leadership upon all the Chinese Democratic Party organizations in or outside the Mainland China, there “The Chinese Democratic Party National Alliance Headquarters” could not recognize its status; and that "The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee" is a newly-founded faction within the Chinese Democratic Party, therefore it can’t claim its leadership over the Chinese Democratic Party. Simply put, Xu Wenli recognizes "The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee" under the auspices of Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai as a new faction but doesn’t recognize Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai’s “leadership”.

All the overseas organizations of "The Chinese Democratic Party" recognize the "Chinese Democratic Party" planned by Wang Youcai in 1998 in mainland China to be established. Wang Youcai was the first person to initiate the idea of founding the “Chinese Democratic Party” in 1998 in mainland China. When Wang Youcai and Wang Juntao announced the founding of "Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee" in New York,  “The Chinese Democratic Party National Alliance Headquarters” led by Xu Wenli made the above statement, to which "The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee" led by Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai made no response. Currently, all the organizations of “The Chinese Democratic Party” coexist and function on their own respectively without new disputes.

The China Democratic Party Founded in 1912

Those who are familiar with the history of modern Chinese political parties all know that in the late Qing Dynasty around the 1911 Revolution, the political groups and political parties included the Hua Xing Society, the China Alliance composed of Xing Zhong Society and the Guang Fu Society, the Preliminary Constitutional Association, the Constitution Promotion Society, the United Republican Party, the Liberal Party, the Socialist Party, the National Progressive Society, the Public Party of the Republic, the Republican Progressive Association, the Unity Party, the People’s Association, the National Association of the Republic of China,  the Constructive Seminar of the Republic, the Republican Unity Party, the Republican Club for Advancement , the Republican Promotion Association, the National New Deal Association, the Constitutional Party, the Kuomintang, etc. The words that appeared the most frequently in naming the organizations are "Republican", "Constitutional", and "National."

I have cited so many names of the political groups and political parties to justify that the normality of the phenomena of formations of various kinds of organizations before and after the upheaval of a nation. Many organizations were short-lived and got involved in the merger, consolidation, split, and reorganization of the above-mentioned organizations.

In March, 1912, Yuan Shikai was inaugurated as the provisional president in Beijing. In the same year in May, the People’s Association, the National Progressive Society, the Public Association of the Republic of China, the Unity Party, and the Kuomintang led by Wu Ting-fang, Pan Hongding united to form the Republican Party. This is a "Pro-Yuan" Party, and a Yuan's royal parties.

In August 1912, the League, the United Republican Party, the National Progressive Society, the Republican Progressive Association and the Public Party of the Republic united to form the “Anti-Yuan” Kuomintang.

When the Republican Party and the KMT formed the two opposing political parties in the Senate, Tang Hualong and Lin Ch'ang-min, etc. representing the Constitutionalism set up the Democratic Party on August 27, 1912, thus the formation of the Democratic Party's political parties and political groups such as the Constitutional Party, the Constructive Seminar of the Republic, the Republican Promotion Association of China, the National New Deal Association, the National Association, the Republican Unity Party, and the Republican Club for Advancement.

The Chinese Democratic Party in the Past 20 Years

         What is interesting is that the earliest Chinese Democratic Party was founded after a secret meeting with Yuan Shikai. Tang Hualong was named the Democratic Party Secretary General, and afterwards the "Pro-Yuan" Liang Qichao was elected the Party's leader. Liang Qichao adhered to the will of Yuan Shikai and merged the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Unity Party to reform the Progressive Party as so to fight against KMT for the political power. In 1913, the Progressive Party’s "Talent Cabinet" was set up, and Liang was named the Attorney General. When Yuan's imperial ambitions were gradually exposed, Liang actively engaged in “Anti-Yuan" campaign and the "Movement to Protect the Country".

Perhaps from the very beginning, the name of Democratic Party was utilitarianly used by Yuan Shikai. Decades later, the name of Democratic Party was occasionally used, but these “Democratic Parties" were too small to arouse much attention and leave much trace in China's modern history. In March 1941, the Chinese Democratic Political League was established, and was renamed the "Chinese Democratic League" in 1944. Because the original party was composed of Youth Party, thus the "Political League" was named instead of a "Party".  This "League" is the so-called Democratic Party affiliated to the Communist Party after 1949.

After the Chinese Communist Party established the regime on the mainland, in 1983 Wang Bingzhang founded the first pro-democracy organization abroad in the United States, i.e. "the Chinese Democratic Alliance" rather than naming it "Party". In 1989 after the "June Fourth" massacre, “the Democratic China Front" was established in Paris. Although this name shares with the word “Democratic” as in the name of "the Chinese Democratic Alliance", it is not called "the Democratic Party".

As the Communist Party on the mainland China implements the "one-party dictatorship", it does not allow anyone to set up any political party except for a few so-called "democratic parties" attached to the Communist Party. Some "parties" formed in secret were soon suppressed.

Until one year after Deng Xiaoping, "the Communist Party’s Empress Dowager Cixi ", passed away, the mainland China for the first time launched the campaign of establishing party openly. At the time, I wrote an article stating, "Since June 25, 1998,  Wang Youcai announced the formation of the Chinese Democratic Party in Zhejiang Province, China has established the Planning Committee of the Democratic Party in one province after another.

On November 9, Xu Wenli and others released a “communiqué” to announce the establishment of 'Chinese Democratic Party’s Beijing-Tianjin Regional Committee’. On the same day, 53 Chinese Democratic Party founders from 23 provinces and municipalities in China determined to establish the Chinese Democratic Party’s National Planning Committee in accordance with the provision in the Constitution that 'citizens have freedom of association” and under the situation that the Chinese government has signed the United Nations human rights conventions (see Press Freedom Review). On December 30, 1998, I commented in the article "China is Launching a ‘Silent Campaign to Form Parties’" (also see the article in "Contend" Monthly, January 1999, “Causes and Consequences of Sentencing Xu, Wang and Qin): "The Chinese Democratic Party formation campaign is far beyond the scale when the then Chinese Communist Party formed the Party. In the information age today, this scale is what the Communist Party at that time could not compete with”.

The Chinese Democratic Party Members’ "Millennium Sentence" in the Age of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao

On December 18, 1998, Jiang Zemin spoke in "the Great Hall of the People" in Beijing that we must eliminate "the factors undermining social stability" and "eradicate them at the preliminary stage”.  Three days after Jiang Zemin's speech, two courts in Beijing and Hangzhou sentenced Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai to 13 years and 11 years in prison respectively. On the fourth day after Jiang Zemin's speech, Qin Yongmin was sentenced 12 years "imprisonment" by Wuhan Intermediate People's Court.

According to incomplete statistics, since December 21, 1998, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao’s regime has sentenced more than hundred "Democrats" to imprisonment which amounts to more than 1,000 years. Among them, there are Liu Xianbin (13 years’ imprisonment), Wu Yilong (11 years’ imprisonment), Charles Jianguo (9 years’ imprisonment), Zhu Yufu (7 years’ imprisonment plus 2 years more later), Mao Qingxiang (8 years’ imprisonment), He Depu (8 years’ imprisonment), Gao Hongming (8 years’ imprisonment), Zhu Zhengming (10 years’ imprisonment), Liu Shizhun (5 years’ imprisonment), Xu Guang (5 years’ imprisonment), She Wanbao (12 years’ imprisonment), Pei Jian, Cheng Fan and Kong Youping (15 years’ imprisonment), Hu Mingjun (11 years’ imprisonment), Wang Sen (10 years’ imprisonment), Li Dawei (15 years’ imprisonment), Xu Wanping (12 years’ imprisonment), Yang Tianshui (12 years’ imprisonment), Chen Shuqing (4 years’ imprisonment), Lvgeng Song (4 years’ imprisonment), Wang Rongqing (6 years’ imprisonment), Xueming Kai, Xie Changfa and so on.

Prior to this, there were a number of people who had been arrested and imprisoned because of establishing political parties, including Chen Yan Bin (15 years), Yang Tianshui (10 years), Hu Shigen (20 years), Liu Jingsheng (15 years), Wang Tiancheng ( 5 years), Chen Xi (3 plus 10 years later), Liao dual (3 plus 4 years later), Lu Yongxiang (5 years), Huang Yanming (5 years), Zeng Ning (4 plus 2 years later), Pang and so on.

When the Communist Party of China was established in 1921, the then warlord government did not arrest those who founded the Communist Party. The then 13 representatives (including Mao Zedong) gathered in one representative’s home in Shanghai to have "the First Chinese Communist Party’s National Meeting". They were searched by the concession policeman and moved to Jiaxing, Zhejiang, to continue the meeting on a boat in the South Lake. However, the Communist Party’s regime today gives a thousand times heavier blow and adopts a thousand times harsher repression upon the democratic party movement than the warlord government in 1921.

"The Real Party", "The Network Party" and "The Network Nation"

The freely established parties were severely repressed in the mainland China, but anyone is free to form political parties overseas. The exiled Chinese, the overseas Chinese and the Chinese students studying in Europe, America, Japan, Australia and other countries and regions  founded a number of self-independent "Democratic Party" at different times and different locations. In addition to The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Alliance Headquarters led by Xu Wenli and The Chinese Democratic Party’s National Committee under the auspices of Wang Juntao and Wang Youcai, there are the Chinese Democratic Party’s World Union led by Wang Jun, The Chinese Democratic Party’s Overseas Headquarters led by Xie Wanjun, and the Chinese Democratic Party’s U.S. Headquarters led by Liu Dongxing.

Outside of the mainland China, in addition to the Chinese Democratic Party, there are hundreds of other political parties and political groups set up by the overseas Chinese, the exiled Chinese, and the Chinese students studying abroad. Many overseas Chinese political parties and groups use the word "China" in their institutional names; a number of "Parties" elect Presidents, the Central Committee Members, Department Directors, but in the last two decades in the overseas environment with a sophisticated computer networking, people can not understand exactly how big some of the "parties" are.

Today, a "virtual world" can be created on the "Internet", so people can engage in not only "real activities" but also "virtual events".  There exists a distinction between "real politics" and "virtual politics". On the Internet people can create a "virtual government" (Network Nation), a "virtual political party" (Network Party), a "semi-virtual political party" (Partial-Network Party). Politics is the actual activities people engage in. "Network" can play an important role in expanding political influence, spreading political ideas and in elections, but those who engage in political activities can not mainly live in the "network". They need to organize practical activities, mobilize the masses, have "face to face" conversation with others, participate in various meetings and speeches, and solve practical problems for people. Politicians must have "personal charisma". If politicians only publish the "announcement" or "declaration" online, it is difficult to produce the actual political influence.  Today’s politics must be combined with "actual events" and "Internet Politics". In 1998 on the mainland China, the party forming campaign was brutally crushed, and hundreds of Democrats were thrown into prisons. This is the actual politics. Overseas, if a "party" has been established for ten years or twenty years and has never organized a large-scale event participated by hundreds of or thousands of people, such a “party” can not play an actual role in China’s political realities, even though it issued a magnificent statement again and again online, held a few "plenary sessions", and appointed department director and "party officials". It is only narcissistic.  This kind of "party" is a "virtual party", "Network Party" or "semi-Network Party" in nature.

It is a fact that a "Network Party" and a "Network Nation" exist. For example, online there is a “Manchuria” which has an "Emperor", and an appointed "Prime Minister". This "Manchukuo" sells "passport" for $ 7 each. In the 21^st Century, this "Manchukuo" is a "Network Nation".

"China Democratic United Front - Liberal Democratic Party" really existed before, but today (April 2010), "China Democratic United Front - Liberal Democratic Party" is a "Network Party".  In 1993, some members from "China Democratic United Alliance" (hereafter referred to as CDUA) and some members from "Democratic China Front" (hereafter referred to as DCF) merged to form the "China Democratic United Front" (hereafter referred to as CDUF). Those remaining in the CDUA and the DCF continue their activities in the original names. Later, some CDUF members joined the "Liberty Democratic Party" (at that time there was another Liberty Democratic Party) to form the “China Democratic United Front – Liberty Democratic Party”. Those remaining in the CDUF continue their activities in the original name. In the current overseas environment, this situation is not abnormal. We know that it is quite common for political parties and groups to merge, combine or separate, but the pseudo-true “Network Party” is misleading. If a youth in the mainland China wants to join the “China Democratic United Front – Liberty Democratic Party”, he will be misled. In 1993, I made some contributions to the establishment of CDUF, but in 2010 today in order not to be misleading, I want to make clear that CDUF – LDP still exists “online”, but is inactive “Network Party” that has not held real activities for many years.  This “Party”’s “President” disregarded the large number of “CDUF-LDP” members, and recently became one of  the “Executive Committee” of the “China Democratic Party”.

Democratic Party Will Be the Most Powerful Opposite Party in China in the Future

From one perspective, the dispute between Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai-Wang Juntao depends on the fact that who can get rid of the shadow of “Network Party” so as to become an influential major party in “Real Political Activities”. From another perspective, China will certainly become a democratic country that allows multi-party competition, and Chinese Democratic Party will absolutely become a powerful major party. Li Jinjin said at the founding of the “China Democratic Party’s National Committee” that “China Democratic Party will become the most powerful major opposite party, the constructive party, and the ruling party”.

Of course, the overseas “Chinese Democratic Party” must first of all win the trust of those Chinese Democratic Party members on the mainland China who compose the “Millennium Sentence". They must win the support and trust of the people on the mainland China and empower more and more people on the mainland China with the understanding of Democratic Party’s political ideas. They must be deeply rooted on the mainland China and grow into a huge tree forming the most powerful major opposite party in China.

The future Democratic Party on the mainland China will have an organizational mechanism that is different from the current Democratic Party overseas. Once the mainland China lift the ban on political parties, the “Chinese Democratic Party” members will be most likely to publicly announce their status of “Democrats” and will register themselves accordingly and cast their votes to the democratic candidates.   In this respect, all of the current “Chinese Democratic Party” overseas is paving the way for the future “Chinese Democratic Party” in mainland China regarding its conceptualization, opinion-orientation, organization, and resource. This is the initiative stage in the history of establishing Chinese Democratic Party (Written on May 3, 2010).