Students in China shun U.S. message
President Clinton was seen as tough but charismatic. The current President Bush as friendly but unconvincing. President Carter was perceived as sincere and humble.
Each, in his own way, spoke to Chinese university students about American ideals, and each made different impressions on the audience. But none convinced the students that the American way is better.
Chinese university students have come a long way since 1989, the year when massive student protests culminated in the tragedy at Tiananmen Square when the Communist government sent in tanks to disperse protesters. Back then, students -- and many teachers and workers who supported them -- viewed American-style democracy as a model.
Fourteen years later, with market reforms and previously undreamed of personal wealth and personal freedoms for some urban Chinese, students' hopes for their country have not changed. They still want a stronger, richer, less corrupt, more democratic China.
But most, it seems, have come to agree with the government's view that economic reforms must precede political reforms.
"Democracy is not the most urgent need for China now," said Gan Qiyu, a senior majoring in government at Peking University. "The most urgent is resolving basic food and shelter needs and achieving a well-off society. Economic development is the most important."
In conversations with half a dozen students of Peking University after Carter's speech last week, they say they recognize that China has many problems but is gradually changing for the better.
"[Achieving democracy] is a long road," said Ding Jie, also a government major. "There will be many problems along the road. It can't be accomplished in one stroke."
When Clinton spoke at Peking University in 1998 and Bush at Tsinghua University last year, students peppered them with questions on China-U.S. relations, human rights, the definition of freedom and U.S. policy toward Taiwan.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced tough grilling at Tsinghua University in July, when he was asked if he regretted his decision to send British troops into Iraq alongside U.S. forces and how he would regain the people's trust after the suicide of government weapons scientist David Kelly -- an issue which is the subject of an independent judicial inquiry in London.
Students said they went easier on Carter since he was not speaking as a government official.
"Everyone sees him as a friend of China," said Deng Xuan, a 23-year-old graduate student. "The questions were not as confrontational."
Many of the questions were more personal, such as what is his "driving force" for the work he does and what is the secret to his powers of persuasion.
Many of the 150 students and teachers in the audience said they were given some general guidance about asking questions but felt free to raise any issue they wanted.
While both Clinton's and Bush's sessions at the elite universities were aired live on national television in China, Carter's speech at the university was not mentioned in the Chinese media. Still, the Nobel peace laureate from Georgia steered clear of mentioning either human rights or the Tiananmen Square protests, which were crushed violently by the army.
Now known in China as the June 4 incident, it is a somewhat sensitive topic but not a taboo one.
"We don't discuss it much now," said Deng. "Everyone views it like the Cultural Revolution, as something that has passed into history."
Indeed, Deng, who was 9 when soldiers shot at student protesters at Tiananmen Square, is more than prepared to discuss whether her government was right in its use of force.
"It was unavoidable," she said. "Perhaps the actual means of dealing with it was improper, but overall, if they hadn't taken prompt action, like with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, the long-term turbulence would have caused a very negative effect."
Democratic reforms in China are actively debated amongst Chinese scholars, and students of government at Peking University are no strangers to the discussions.
"If we adopted a democratic system in 1989, it wouldn't have been right for China," said Deng. "We might have shared the same fate as the Soviet Union. Now, after 20 years of reform, a lot of scholars have discussed it, and people's mentality is more mature and reasonable. A lot of people can evaluate the pros and cons of the two value systems, so to move forward with democracy and rule of law now, the time is better."
Asked if Chinese students should have the same opportunity to question their own leaders as they have with foreign leaders, Zhang Xin, a 25-year-old graduate student, takes a long-term view. He knows it would be impossible now but believes democratic ideals have started to take hold. For example, leaders of his school's student associations are voted in by popular election.
"I thought the process was very democratic," he said. "The chair even has to do a midterm report. So now we have these notions, and with China in the World Trade Organization, things will gradually change. As this generation of students graduates and goes out and gets jobs, there will definitely be changes."
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