European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes Anthony Lewis communist China unstable As Ever turns 40 forty years ago sunday from the Wall Over looking Tiana men Square Mao tse Tung declared the establishment of the people s Republic of China. For the crowd waving red banners in the Square and for millions of chinese elsewhere it was a new mint of Hope for a reborn China United and democratic. Historic anniversaries Are important symbols in China much noted. But official celebrations cannot hide the grim reality of this anniversary. China is a sullen divided society held enthralled Bya totalitarian clique. The people s Republic has a 40 year record of wasted opportunities and wasted lives. Since the massacre in Tiana men Square in june the chinese leadership has worked hard to project Anair of normality. It has imposed silence on its own people by intimidation and stopped meaningful for eign television coverage. The tactics have had some Success. The world s at Tention Span is never very Long and people s concerns have drifted away from China. But the brutality that we saw on our screens in june has not stopped. The shooting of peaceful demonstrators for democracy has been succeeded by the systematic arrest beating and torture of those who have expressed doubts about the perfect Wisdom of the chinese communist party and its leaders. Merle Goldman professor of chinese history at Boston University details the repression in an article for a forthcoming Issue of the new York review of books. Anyone interested in China has read bits and pieces inthe newspapers but it is chilling to get a sense of the whole. One of the key student leaders Wang Dan has been imprisoned and brutally beaten Goldman writes. Journalists and literary figures Are among the others under arrest. Be win fun a poet who had criticized the military and Liu Xia obo a critic who had rejected marxism leninism have reportedly been tortured. It is a Retreat to the China of the 1950s Gold Man concludes. Even some of the methods Are Simi Lar such As forcing the Urban population to spend Lon hours in ideological indoctrination sessions and in writing some people in the West have assumed that Deng Xiaoping would at least continue his economic re forms. But that seems to be another false Hope. The government is now cracking Down on the coast Al provinces revoking the decision making Powers Given them As a vital part of the economic Reform movement and removing Many of their leaders. The government has attacked private enterprises As corrupt and promised to close Many of them Down. William Safire the shattering of Hopes in these last months is no new phenomenon for the people s Republic. Again and again in its four decades it has presided Over turmoil and repression. Mao tsp lung s Lunatic idea of the great leap for Ward set the country Back for years and Cost More than 25 million lives. A generation was wasted in the cultural revolution. But there Are differences this time. Deng Xiao Ping had seemed to offer Hope of change from the maoist cult of personality to rational politics and economics. By opting decisively for the totalitarian Model he destroyed the lingering legitimacy of the system. Another difference this Lime is that a significant number of potential victims have got out of China and arc organizing against the tyranny. They met in Paris last weekend and established the federation for democracy in China. The federation looks Tike a serious Enterprise. Its leaders include not Only students but politicians and the Man who was probably China s leading business Man wan Yunnan. It says it will draw on the 56 million chinese who live outside China for funds. Its manifesto is uncompromisingly critical of the Beijing regime. China denounced France As Brazen for allowing the new federation to meet there. That indication of concern was a compliment to the federation and to France. It made one wonder about the role of the United states. The Bush administration has been strikingly reluctant to criticize the chinese government. It has said nothing about arrests and torture that would surely have evoked an outcry if the victims had been say soviet dissidents. Its reasoning is that America needs a stable this China the China savaged by elderly tyrants is not going to be stable Gorbachev s not ours and not ours to lose London the most resentful political question asked by american conservatives after world War ii was who lost China the imputation was that Western Irre solution inspired by subversives in High places enabled Mao to seize control from Chiang. Liberals hotly replied that China was never ours to lose but the accusation Laden question bedevilled them for a decade. Now the tables Are turned. Hard liners around the world arc nibbling their nails at the possibility that Mikhail Gorbachev will fall or turn mean and that accommodation lists will bedevil us for years with who lost Gorbachev we will stand charged with sourpuss ism failing to help the soviet Leader with Trust and Trade thereby losing the glorious moment of Opportunity for peace with Freedom. People like me Don t Trust the new soviet dictator. We Sec the Success of a cult of personality that concentrates Power in one Man s hands we note the ease with which he manipulates the levers of Kremlin Power orchestrating permission to criticize so As to Force out his critics we gape at the skill with which he Winkles West Germany out of the Western military Alliance while ridding the soviet Union of economic responsibility for the Basket cases of Eastern Europe. We Are not persuaded that he is motivated by the Ideal of democracy or that his Kab faction has permanently abandoned the goal of communist supremacy he is pouring weaponry into Cambodia showing surprising strength in Afghanistan doing nothing to restrain his syrian client in the bloody occupation of Lebanon and maintaining his investment in totalitarian regimes in our hemisphere. These arc not Confidence building measures. Nor arc we taken in by arms control stunts. His latest Man Euver is to temporarily unlink a missile treaty from his previous insistence that we abandon a spaa1 shield but in the Fine print Reserve the right to tear up the treaty if we deploy a missile defense. We would be fools to negotiate such an iffy treaty we arc developing space defences to use them not to give the soviets an excuse to resume All out missile production when they can again afford it. Though we arc not dazzled by the foot work we arc not Blind to major tactical retreats by our superpower opposition. The promised dismantling of the Krasnoyarsk radar a flagrant abm treaty violation is significant. Rat on its economic Back the soviet Union is making genuine concessions. The soviet motive May be solely to save Money to provide a safety valve for the pressures of dissent and to Rainvi Goral a system that is failing to feed the populace but the daring and scope of the changes cannot be minimized. Gorbachev has permitted Poland to install a non communist prime minister and Solidarity leaders promptly installed the world s most telegenic spokeswoman. He has encouraged Hungary to open its Western Border beginning the exodus that will Lead to German reunification and Europe is holding its breath As the Kremlin Boss prepares for a speech in East Berlin next week. This is Heady stuff. Boris Yeltsin is free to criticize Rupert Murdoch is free to buy half of a newspaper in Hungary and All the publicized movement is in the right direction. We have to give him credit though we Don t have to give his nation credits. But the soviet Market is due for an anti Freedom correction logic suggests crack Downs in store. In a private letter to Margaret Thatcher before her visit with the soviet Leader pres ident Bush warned of the Adverse affect any reversal would have on american opinion toward the soviet leadership he urged a steadiness of Western policy in the face of these Likely ups and Downs. When the Bear finally turns and snarls what will happen to Gorbachev he is More Deng than Zhao More survivor than victim if he chooses not to fall if he Fol lows his practice of Rushing to the forefront of the furious then his will be the hardest of the hard faces. At that Point our soft liners will say it was basically our fault we Are the devils who made him do it our failure to embrace him Cost us the magic moment. We did not recognize or. Good Guy As a result we lost the Glas Nostic Opportunity for which the word Gorbachev has come to the same internal pendulum that brought him Forward will turn him out or turn him mean. Who lost Gorbachev Gorbachev was never ours to lose. Sec that question already has me on the defensive c naw York times
