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Events >> The Democracy Award >> 1998 Democracy Award

It is fitting that the National Endowment for Democracy should present its Democracy Award jointly to Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan. Together, they represent the two generations of the post-Mao democracy movement in China -- the generation of the Democracy Wall movement of 1978-79, of which Wei Jingsheng is the preeminent figure; and the generation of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations of 1989, whose democratic aspirations and values Wang Dan has espoused with exemplary eloquence, integrity and self-sacrifice.

Each has been imprisoned by the Chinese dictatorship for engaging in peaceful dissent from official policy:

Wei Jingsheng was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1979 for circulating articles he had written advocating democracy -- most famously his bold essay "The Fifth Modernization: Democracy," which said that the regime's economic reform program called "The Four Modernizations" would be "a new lie" in the absence of real political participation by the people. He was released as a political gesture in 1993 shortly before the vote on China's abortive bid to host the 2000 Olympics, then arrested once again and sentenced to 14 more years in prison. He was released only last November following Jiang Zemin's visit to the United States.

Wang Dan was arrested in June 1993, having been marked number one on the government's "most wanted" list following the military crackdown in Tiananmen Square. He, too, was released in a political gesture in 1993, in this case to influence the vote of the U.S. Congress on Most Favored Nation trading status for China. Like Wei, he resumed his advocacy of democracy and was arrested once again, held incommunicado for 17 months, and then sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in a pro forma trial that characteristically violated normal standards of justice. Wang remains in prison.

Each possesses a distinctive democratic voice whose power derives from a combination of intellectual depth and uncompromising devotion to principle. In a collection of prison letters published recently under the title The Courage to Stand Alone, Wei elaborates upon his view of constitutional democracy as a system that should "mediate, neutralize, and balance all different opinions and interests." A genuine Chinese patriot who is also an advocate of Tibetan rights, Wei writes "The meaning of democracy is not majority rule over the minority. indiscriminate abuse of majority rule only leads to social disunity and the widening of divisions already in existence." As we know, this observation has relevance far beyond the borders of China.

Wang Dan is an advocate of a "peaceful and rational" democracy movement based upon the recognition that "the realization of democracy is a long-term and difficult process" requiring patience and tenacity. The basic principles of such a movement, he said shortly before his most recent arrest, are 1) "to expand the space for freedom within legal boundaries"; 2) to "oppose violence and uphold the principle of peaceful resistance" while continuing "to act as a social conscience"; 3) to protect "social stability" while "fulfilling our civic duty to participate actively in public affairs"; and 4) to avoid rash action and meaningless sacrifice, but to "stubbornly defend morality and justice and the basic principles of our ideals."

In today's world, the power of the democratic idea is irresistible. The question facing China is whether democratic change will come peacefully or through violent upheaval. Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan represent the peaceful alternative. For this reason, and for their courage and steadfastness in the cause of democracy, the National Endowment for Democracy is proud to present its Democracy Award to Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan.