The Guardian, 22 May 2012

After the brutal suppression of protests in 1989, five exiled student leaders are looking for a way home

In their youth, they asked the Chinese communist party for social reforms. Those requests were answered with bullets, beatings, betrayal, imprisonment and exile. Now, all they are asking for is permission to return home.

It’s been almost 23 years since the optimism that gripped China during the seven-week Tiananmen protests was brutally swept away. Now, five exiled Tiananmen leaders have written an open letter calling on Beijing to allow them to return home in the spirit of human rights at a time when “China is undergoing profound changes”.

“I want to be able to visit my parents,” said Wang Dan in an email. “The Chinese government not allowing us to return is another continuous punishment.”

As the soft-spoken bespectacled student leader with a bullhorn, Wang captured the imagination of the world during that spring of 1989. He also captured the attention of the state security apparatus and was singled out as China’s most wanted man, earning him the first of two prison terms before being exiled to the US in 1998.

“China claims it’s a rising power. But a big country should be able to have a dialogue with its own citizens. It’s what we demanded over 20 years ago, and I echo that demand today,” says Wu’er Kaixi, who headed China’s most-wanted list after Wang’s arrest. “If it has to take place in a courtroom, I welcome that too. But I would much rather that this dialogue happens in a dignified and more constructive manner.”

Officially, China calls the demonstrations a “counter-revolutionary riot” instigated “by a small clique of bad elements”. There has never been a public inquiry. Internet searches of Tiananmen and 4 June are blocked, and there is virtually nothing in China’s schoolbooks about the incident.

“We never wanted to confront or be the enemy of the state in 1989. We wanted to urge the government to have peaceful political reform. They answered us with a military crackdown. They put us in a position to be their enemy, and have been treating us as such ever since,” says Wu’er, who works as an investment fund manager and political commentator in Taipei.

“Being jailed is normal for us. Before I made the decision to challenge Communist authority I knew my life would be very hard,” says Wang Juntao via Skype. Wang was speaking just days after a New York memorial service for Fang Lizhi, a fellow Tiananmen exile and one-time pre-eminent Chinese astrophysicist who died in April in Arizona.

Wang, a long-time reform activist, was first jailed in 1976 when he was 17. He was later sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role as a “black hand”, or mastermind, of the Tiananmen movement.

“That first prison time in 1976, was very, very hard. After Tiananmen the international pressure made it easier in some ways. But I still suffered a lot. I’ve suffered from psychological problems stemming from living in isolation for four and a half years. I think we all have,” says Wang, who was exiled to the US after the Clinton administration struck a deal with Beijing.

While a number of dissidents have returned to China, the permission to do so comes attached with stipulations that most dissidents refuse to accept.

Xiang Xiaoji, now a lawyer in New York, explains: “I will never apologise for anything. What I did was right, and I will never promise to stop pushing for democracy in China. I will not accept their political conditions to return home,” Xiang says. “Besides, I’m not scared of a jail sentence. I’ve been in exile for 23 years, and I’m 55 now. I’ve never regretted what I did in the past, so why would I be scared of what I’ll do in the future?”

Cain Nunns is a freelance journalist based in Taiwan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/22/china-tiananmen-exiles-protest?newsfeed=true