Tienanmen è ancora qui/2

Da racconti così simili scaturiscono le riflessioni così diverse di due reporter americani che quella notte tra il 3 e il 4 giugno 1989 erano là, a Piazza Tienanmen. Nicholas Kristof (per il New York Times)...

So, 20 years later, what happened to that bold yearning for democracy? Why is China still frozen politically — the regime controls the press more tightly today than it did for much of the 1980s — even as China has transformed economically? Why are there so few protests today? One answer is that most energy has been diverted to making money... Another answer is that many of those rickshaw drivers and bus drivers and others in 1989 were demanding not precisely a parliamentary democracy, but a better life — and they got it. The Communist Party has done an extraordinarily good job of managing China's economy and of elevating economically the same people it oppresses politically.

... e Claudia Rosett (per il Wall Street Journal):

Since the Tiananmen uprising of 1989, China's rulers have loosened the economic strictures enough to allow remarkable growth... Out of this, China's rulers have devoted enormous resources to projects meant to suggest they run a modern nation - sending astronauts into space, convening conferences on the climate, and hosting the 2008 Olympics. Count me unimpressed. The real sign of modernity will come when China opens up its political system enough so that the country's leaders no longer fear June 4 but treat the Tiananmen uprising with the honor it deserves... The answer of free societies, the old American dream, is that you may choose for yourself. Freedom, in the framework of a true democracy, allows individuals to weigh their own talents, skills and ambitions, choose their own trade-offs, and chart their own dreams. That gives rise to innovation, exuberance and prosperity of a kind that no government can plan or centrally command into existence.

Il Wall Street Journal ha contattato alcuni dei «sopravvissuti» per interrogarli sull'incerta eredità di Piazza Tienanmen: ecco cosa è uscito fuori. Wang Dan è nella lista dei 21 leader più ricercati del movimento studentesco del 1989 e ha le idee ben chiare sul significato di Tienanmen.

I believed then and I believe now that the reforms that my fellow students and I were advocating - for democracy, workers' rights and free speech, and against corruption - are the central challenges that will shape China's destiny... Economic reforms have allowed millions of Chinese people to lift their families out of poverty, and many in China find their lives changed for the better. But the central causes that the Tiananmen generation - students and citizens alike - took up remain unresolved. The economic growth is impressive. But what about media censorship, which contributed to the high number of victims in the 2008 tainted-milk scandal? And government corruption, which led to shoddy construction practices in Sichuan and its devastating consequences during last year's earthquake? Or the widening gap between the rich and the poor?

La Cina di oggi basa la sua potenza sul potere economico e militare, ma nel ventunesimo secolo, osserva Wang Dan, «il potere basato sui principi motali e i diritti umani è altrettanto importante». Il governo cinese «dovrebbe compiere quattro passi per convincere il mondo di essere una potenza responsabile»: risarcire le madri di Tienenamen che hanno perso i loro figli; permettere ai cinesi costretti all'esilio di tornare in patria; rilasciare tutti coloro che sono ancora in prigione per aver preso parte al movimento dell'89 e tutti i prigionieri politici più recenti perseguitati per la loro richiesta di riforme politiche; e, infine, impegnarsi negli obiettivi di lungo termine condivisi dagli studenti di Tienanmen e dai firmatari di Charta 08: stato di diritto, tutela dei diritti umani fondamentali e fine della corruzione. «Solo allora la Cina inizierà a voltare la tragica pagina di Tienanmen».