People in China observe what has happened to the overseas dissidents and they think they had a

“People in China observe what has happened to the overseas dissidents and they think they had a lucky escape in 1989 If the dissidents had won, it would have been worse. Now they think that the US wants to take advantage of the human rights issue to advance its own interests. The Chinese government learned that it must stamp on movements immediately, but at the same time they had to improve their relations with the people so they went for economic reform The dissidents were the losers, but they became famous. They got so famous that they forgot that they had lost and that they must have done something wrong. They became corrupted by what the West had to offer – not money, but fame.”Wang remains optimistic about change in China.

“The Chinese are not interested in politics at the moment,” he said. “Some people think that’s bad for democracy, but actually it’s bad for the Communist Party. The Communist Party needs people to believe in dreams more than the democrats do Democracy is about interests. Communism is about illusions.”LU JINGHUALU JINGHUA, 38, was dressed in baggy trousers and a T-shirt.

Her office – a large room at the top of a scruffy Manhattan building – was crammed with computers. From time to time she broke off the conversation to attend to clients who wandered in. Lu’s English is rapid, if rudimentary, her voice hoarse from the Marlboro cigarettes that she keeps stacked beside the machines.Her father, an army veteran and a Marxist, was none too pleased, she said, when his daughter got involved in the pro- democracy demonstrations. Lu Jinghua had set up her own shop on Changan Avenue, the boulevard that bisects Beijing and runs across the top end of Tiananmen Square.”I was making money,” she laughed, “doing well, so people said to me, why did I join the movement? But I had a small business – no status And besides, my personality hadn’t changed I agreed with democracy.