Beijing Confronts a New Kind of Dissident - The New Citizen Movement can continue even as Xu Zhiyong sits in jail. By EVA PILS AND JOSHUA ROSENZWEIG Jan. 26, 2014 11:11 a.m. ET On Sunday, the Beijing Number One Intermediate Peoples Court sentenced Xu Zhiyong to four years imprisonment for gathering crowds to disrupt order in public places. In doing so, the Chinese authorities have made it clear that they will not tolerate the New Citizen Movement he helped to launch, because the kind of China it advocates—one with participatory democracy by citizens, human rights, rule of law and constitutionally limited state power—would be a radical departure from what China is now. Mr. Xu was convicted of gathering crowds to disturb social order. He had been involved in organizing protests outside the Ministry of Education to demand equal education rights for the children of migrant workers. In response to widespread anger over corruption, the New Citizen Movement also included public calls for the disclosure of official assets. All of the protests were peaceful. The verdict has been widely condemned abroad, with many lamenting that the Chinese authorities have now begun imprisoning even moderate critics such as Mr. Xu. The New Citizen Movement, whose motto is freedom, justice, love, is not revolutionary. It neither articulates particularly novel political goals nor advocates the overthrow of the current government to achieve those goals. Its vision for Chinas future is, for example, similar to ideas expressed by jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and others in Charter 08. This vision doesnt look radical to the many people in and outside China who take the moral force of the movements principles for granted. But labeling it moderate does a disservice to Mr. Xu and fellow members of the New Citizen Movement, some of whom are also facing criminal convictions. The only moderate thing about Mr. Xu is his unwavering advocacy of non-violence. The moderate label fails to recognize the force of popular resistance he and others have successfully coordinated, a force that observers of China must seek to understand better. Unlike the Charter 08 movement, the New Citizen Movement has been far more effective in spreading its message and organizing ordinary people to support it. Enlarge Image Protesters outside Xu Zhiyongs trial, Jan. 22. The banner reads, Citizens request officials to publicly disclose assets. kim kyung-hoon/Reuters The New Citizen Movement trials signal a new stage in the evolution of protest in China. A decade ago, in the early years of what became known as the rights-defense movement, Mr. Xu was part of an effort to work within the system and focus on case-by-case legal advocacy to effect gradual institutional changes. This stood in clear contrast to earlier efforts to organize politically through opposition parties and, because of its relative moderation, was seen by many to be a more sustainable approach. A similar strategy was pursued from outside China by civil society organizations pouring money into projects that, it was hoped, would advance rule of law in China. But this strategy, also known as reform incrementalism, depended on the willingness of the authorities to listen and absorb the reform messages so patiently submitted to them. That never happened. Instead, advocates who wanted to change the system from within found themselves marginalized and stigmatized. Lawyers lost their licenses. Organizations such as Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative), co-founded by Mr. Xu in 2003 to work on rights defense, came under attack for various reasons including alleged tax evasion. The unwillingness of the authorities to allow people like Mr. Xu to pursue a program of moderate institutional change contributed to the emergence of the New Citizen Movement. The human rights advocates ideas and goals have not become more radicalized. Rather, an environment of fear and instability has pushed them to seek new, extra-institutional forms of expression. If you could not make an argument to defend your client at trial, you had to make your case available to the public by posting it online (as was done for Mr. Xus own final statement at his trial). If government intransigence prevented reform of policies that treated rural residents as second-class citizens, why not show them that hundreds or even thousands were willing to risk imprisonment or other forms of punishment by openly demonstrating for reform in the streets? In the process of taking its protests outside the system, the New Citizen Movement allowed disadvantaged segments of society to express their sense of injustice in more coordinated ways, and to derive new courage and power from their status as citizens with rights. In this respect, it is particularly worth noting the work of Mr. Xu and his colleagues with Chinas petitioners—those trying to express their grievances and criticisms about governance through a system for submitting complaints that the government all too often ignores. In addition to distributing food and clothing to petitioners, many of whom travel long distances to lodge their complaints and live year-round on Beijings streets, those working with Gongmeng tried to expose the existence of the extra-legal black jails where many petitioners were sent. By exposing the existence of such jails, human rights advocates like Mr. Xu have made themselves feared and hated by those whose positions might be put at risk by such disclosures. The authorities have done their best to make it appear that this was the trial of a traditional dissident, in the hope that attention will soon fade away. But dont be fooled. Mr. Xu and those who share his beliefs represent a new and serious threat to the regime. The New Citizen Movement—whose stated principle is not to have leaders and not to be organized—has proven uniquely successful so far in rallying popular opposition while articulating a vision for a democratic China. This is why locking up Mr. Xu and others will do little to ease the fears of the government.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 06:08:41 +0000
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