World-China Forum

Will the web bring democracy to China?

The internet has helped Chinese dissident Wang Dan span the distance from his exile home in Los Angeles to Beijing, where 20 years ago he shot to fame as a top leader of the Tiananmen democracy protests. Wang - still youthful-looking at 40, but fleshier than when the reedy Peking University history major rallied the masses at Tiananmen - also believes information technology will help civil society change China in the ways for which he fought.

"The internet has changed the meaning of exile," he said in a wide-ranging interview days before the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown in the heart of China's capital.  "I don't think we're really in exile, because I use the Internet, MSN, Skype, Twitter, Facebook ... so I have a lot of contact with mainlanders," said Wang.

He was jailed twice and has not been allowed back to China since being exiled in 1998. Now chairman of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association, with a Harvard doctoral degree, Wang concedes that the China of today is far richer, more powerful and influential than the country he left. But he insists that Communist Party rule by force and deception remains the norm and the basic characteristic of this government never changed.  "The government has already lost control of activities of civil society on the internet - that's the hope," said Wang, describing the World Wide Web as a key weapon in an ongoing struggle between state and society. (Reuters/TVNZ)

NGOs in China: the Rise of Civil Awareness

Generally speaking, Chinese NGOs operate in numerous fields including environmental protection, labor rights, as well as women's rights. A few of these organizations are founded and run by independent individuals while most receive financial and policy support from governments at different levels. Indeed, Chinese NGOs' reliance on official resources affects their independence. They have to accommodate the demand of higher-ranking decision-makers at times to maintain their existence and development. However, the hidden advantage of this mechanism is that the visible governmental hand in China's NGOs has actually added the credibility so that they are more likely to convince the public because people tend to believe the role of the government in regulating and supervising the operations. When comparing China's NGOs with their counterparts in western countries, one should be aware of the current reality in China and keep from intuitive misunderstandings.

After all, the overall progresses within a society could never be achieved by a few policy-makers or scholars only. Instead, civil awareness is the ultimate force to promote the degree of civilization and forward the democracy and equality within this society. The rapid and positive development of NGOs in China is a good sign of an increasing social awareness of Chinese citizens. In addition, Chinese NGOs may serve as an effective catalyst in China's democratization. Based on the current development, many are expecting that Chinese NGOs could reach more fields, especially those comparatively critical and sensitive ones, in the long run for the sake of the real social well-being. (Erdong Chen, People's Daily)

China quake: From rubble, civil society builds

The Chinese government has long been suspicious of NGOs, especially foreign ones, because of the support some lent to the overthrow of governments in former Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and Georgia.The earthquake's aftermath, however, has shown local authorities how useful NGOs can be. "When the [People's Liberation Army] and volunteers left, the government recognized the necessity of NGOs, which can respond to needs rapidly, raise funds, and come up with plans," says Han. More than 100 groups, Chinese and foreign, are now building houses, counseling survivors, restoring sanitation systems, and undertaking a thousand other tasks that need doing. "The government welcomes that kind of help because it has money and materials but lacks people," says Tian Jun, founder of the 5/12 NGO coordination platform in Chengdu. (Peter Ford, Christian Science Monitor)