Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1162-W791
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1162-W791
Release
Date: December 12, 2018
发布日：2018年12月12日
Topic:
In Celebration of 40th Anniversary of the Democracy Wall Movement -- Contents
Displayed During the 4th "Human Rights Without Borders" Exhibition in
the US Congress by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation
标题：《民主墙运动四十周年纪念》 -- 有关魏京生基金会2018年12月在美国国会举办的第四届“人权无疆界展”中纪念民主墙40周年的文字内容
Original
Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
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In
Celebration of 40th Anniversary of the Democracy Wall Movement
--
Contents Displayed During the 4th "Human Rights Without Borders"
Exhibition in the US Congress by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation
This
year marks the 40th anniversary of the Xidan Democracy Wall Movement in Beijing
China, which has been recognized by academic circles of various countries as
the beginning of China's modern democratic movement and an important turning
point for the Chinese people to resist the tyranny of the Communist regime. The
Wall also influenced democratic movements of the former Soviet Union, countries
in Eastern Europe, and Taiwan, and lasted throughout the 1980s until the
Tiananmen Democracy Movement in 1989.
Starting
in the spring of 1978, many Chinese who had grievances went to Beijing to
petition the central government. Some of them lost their hope for such actions,
and began to display big-character posters in places of high pedestrian
concentrations. They used this method to tell their grievances and attract the
attention of China's senior leadership, hoping to get their problems resolved.
Starting
in the summer, some young people who had been thinking began to disassociate
themselves from the petitioning crowd and started to display big-character
posters on politics, culture and art. Later on, many of these posters were
concentrated on a wall about 100 meters long next to the Xidan Telegraph
Building on Changan Boulevard in Beijing, which became known as the Xidan
Democracy Wall.
Originated
by non-governmental thinkers, this spontaneous movement did attract attention
of senior leaders within the Chinese Communist Party. Soon after, internal
briefings gathered and printed daily were provided to the Communist leaders. In
the struggle where the reformists led by Deng Xiaoping and Hu Yaobang defeated the
traditional Communists represented by Hua Guofeng, the Wall played a key role
in support of the public opinion.
Amidst
this strong atmosphere formed by non-governmental thinkers, Mr. Wei Jingsheng
authored his famous article, The Fifth Modernization - Democracy and Others and
published it on the Democracy Wall. This article and a series of subsequent
articles led to a climax in criticizing Mao Zedong and created a precedent for
direct criticism against the Chinese Communist system, which laid a foundation
of public support for the subsequent de-iconization of Mao Zedong and the
campaign for redressing of the false and wrong cases.
When
1979 arrived, the Democracy Wall Movement had caused resonations not only
throughout the country, but also around the world. New Democracy Walls sprung
up in countries and cities such as Taiwan, Paris, Prague, Warsaw, and Moscow,
etc.
Deng
Xiaoping, as a staunch defender of the one-party dictatorship of the Chinese
Communist Party, clearly saw the threat of the democracy movement to the
one-party dictatorship of the Communist Party system. Even during the
Sino-Vietnamese War by China, he asked the Ministry of Public Security to
compile blacklists of different lengths of names and make preparation to
eliminate the Democracy Wall. To this end, Wei Jingsheng and the core members
of the Exploration magazine he founded met and adopted a resolution to have Mr.
Wei Jingsheng write one last article to force Deng Xiaoping to move
prematurely, which caused international and domestic repercussions and
preempted further suppressions. This is the reasoning behind the essay titled
Democracy or New Dictatorship by Wei Jingsheng.
As
expected, the arrest of Mr. Wei Jingsheng and others caused an uproar. Deng
Xiaoping had to temporarily halt large-scale searches and arrests of people
involved in the Democracy Wall, allowing the Wall to survive for one more year.
With this arrest as a turning point, the Democracy Wall underwent important
changes. A group of people headed by Mr. Liu Qing, a magazine editor, and the
famous poet Bei Dao carried out rescue activities. Pro-reform leaders at all
levels in the Chinese Communist leadership also carried out actions against
Deng Xiaoping's efforts to eliminate the Democracy Wall, which played a role in
the formation and cohesion of opposition factions formed within the Communist
Party that restricted Deng Xiaoping's dictatorship.
In
October of 1979, the trial of Mr. Wei Jingsheng began. Wei Jingsheng presented
a strong self-defense that was recorded by Qu Leilei, a CCTV staff and the only
person allowed to make audio and video recordings in the trial. Liu Qing, Bei
Dao, Li Nan, Xu Xiao and others transcribed and turned the recordings into
large-character posters and leaflets, and distributed them at the Democracy
Wall, which resulted the second climax of the Democracy Wall movement.
This
second climax caused a long-term suppression of the leftist faction in the
Communist leadership led by Deng Xiaoping, and preserved good atmosphere and public
support within the Communist Party and the Chinese society for the development
of the democratic movements throughout the 1980s.
Shih
Ming-de, a pioneer of the Taiwan Democracy Movement and former chairman of the
Democratic Progressive Party, once commented that the important turning point
of the Taiwanese democracy movement, the Formosa Incident, began by following
the example of the Democracy Wall Movement in Beijing. As a continuation of the
Democracy Wall movement ten years later, the great Tiananmen Democracy Movement
of 1989 in Beijing, China was the beginning of the disintegration of the
Communist Party system in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This
history is the great contribution of the Beijing Democracy Wall Movement to a
high tide of global democratization.
(The
Wei Jingsheng Foundation wants to express its gratitude to Dr. Gang Li for his
translation of the English version of this display panel.)
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中文版
Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1162-W791
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1162-W791
Release
Date: December 12, 2018
发布日：2018年12月12日
Topic:
In Celebration of 40th Anniversary of the Democracy Wall Movement -- Contents
Displayed During the 4th "Human Rights Without Borders" Exhibition in
the US Congress by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation
标题：《民主墙运动四十周年纪念》 -- 有关魏京生基金会2018年12月在美国国会举办的第四届“人权无疆界展”中纪念民主墙40周年的文字内容
Original
Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2018/report2018-12/DemocracyWall40exhibition181212inUScongressA1162-W791.htm
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《民主墙运动四十周年纪念》
-- 有关魏京生基金会2018年12月在美国国会举办的第四届“人权无疆界展”中纪念民主墙40周年的文字内容
今年是西单民主墙运动四十周年。民主墙被各国学界公认为中国现代民主运动的开始，也是中国人民反抗中共暴政的重要转折点。同时，它也影响了苏联、东欧和台湾的民主运动，延续到整个八十年代，直到一九八九年的天安门民主运动。
从一九七八年春天开始，许多有冤屈的人们在北京上访。一些人感觉上访没有什么希望，就开始在北京的一些人群比较集中的地方张贴大字报，倾诉冤屈，试图得到上层人物的关注，解决自身的问题。
从夏天开始，一些比较有思想的青年，开始脱离上访申冤的内容，贴出一些议论政治和文化艺术的大字报。后来集中在西单电报大楼旁边的一堵大约一百米长的墙上，民间称之为西单民主墙。
起源于民间思想家们的这场自发的运动，受到了共产党内部人士的关注。不久之后，就有每天整理印刷的内部刊物送交到党内人士的手中。在以邓小平、胡耀邦等人为首的改革派击败华国锋的凡是派的斗争中，起到了关键的民意支持的作用。
魏京生先生就是在这样强烈的民间气氛的促使下，写下了《第五个现代化-民主及其它》这篇文章，并张贴在民主墙上。这篇文章和之后的一系列文章，引起了之后批判毛泽东的高潮，并开创了直接批评共产党体制的先例。这为之后的非毛化运动和平反冤假错案运动，打下了民意基础。
进入到一九七九年之后，民主墙运动不仅在全国各地引起了共鸣，而且在很多国家和城市引起了一波新的民主墙运动，如台湾、巴黎、布拉格、华沙、莫斯科，等等。
邓小平是共产党一党专政的坚定维护者。他清醒地看到了民间民主运动对共产党一党专政体制的威胁。甚至在对越战争进行期间，他就已经让公安部整理了几份长短不同的黑名单，准备消灭民主墙。为此，魏京生及其创立的《探索》杂志的核心成员开会通过了一个决议：魏京生写最后一篇文章引得邓小平提前动手，造成国际和国内的影响，阻止其进一步的镇压。这就是《要民主还是要新的独裁》一文出台的原因。
如意料之中，魏京生等的被捕引起了轩然大波。邓小平不得不暂时停止了对民主墙的大搜捕，使得民主墙多存活了一年。以此被捕为转折点，民主墙发生了重要的变化。民间刊物编辑刘青和著名诗人北岛为首的一批人，开展了营救活动。党内一些当时持改革观点的各级干部，也开展了反对邓小平绞杀民主墙的行动。因此对党内形成制约邓小平独裁的反对派，起到了形成和凝聚的作用。
一九七九年十月份开始了对魏京生的审判。魏京生进行了态度强硬的自我辩护。这份辩护，被唯一获准携带录音录像设备的中央电视台职员曲磊磊做了录音。刘青、北岛、李楠、徐晓等人连夜转写成大字报，并印刷成刊物在民主墙散发，引起了民主墙运动的第二次高潮。
这第二次高潮对以邓小平为首的左派形成了长时间的压制，为整个八十年代的民主运动在共产党内和中国社会上的发展，保留了良好的气氛和民意支持。
台湾民主运动的先驱，民主进步党前主席施明德就曾评价说：台湾民主运动的重要转折点美丽岛运动，就是在北京民主墙运动的榜样作用下开始的。十年后民主墙运动的延续，1989年伟大的天安门民主运动，是苏联和东欧共产党体制解体的开始。这是北京民主墙运动对全球民主化高潮的伟大贡献
（魏京生基金会感谢李刚博士将此篇译成英文。）
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