Chinese Dissident Szeto Talks Of Democracy

A dispute during an externally-sponsored event on the prospects for Chinese democracy caused the Harvard University Police Department to remove audience member Wei Chaoyong, a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, from the Fong Auditorium yesterday evening.

The event featured Szeto Wah, a prominent Chinese dissident and the Chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement of China, who said that the international community would be mistaken to think that the country’s communist government was moving towards a more democratic society.

“On the surface, the Chinese Communist government has allowed some concessions toward democracy,” Szeto said, speaking in Chinese. “In reality, that’s not the case.”

During a period for questions after the presentation, Wei objected to Szeto’s pessimism, suggesting that he was not taking a nuanced view of the situation facing the Chinese government.

“I was jailed for Tiananmen,” Wei said in Chinese, referring to the infamous 1989 demonstrations in which democratic student protestors were forcibly removed by the Chinese military. “But I disagree with your [Szeto’s] dwelling so negatively on past history. I think we should move on, and think about Chinese Democracy critically.”

Wei continued to speak for about five minutes. Many among the audience, which included Harvard undergraduates and outside visitors, responded, urging Wei to “calm down, please,” before Harvard University police were called to the scene.

In an interview after the event, Wei said that he was saddened to hear the negative audience reaction to his interjection.

“If we truly care about China, we should see if democracy is the only acceptable form of government,” he said. “We have to consider how democracy would be transplanted to Asia.”

Szeto’s talk touched upon the degeneration of Chinese morals, offering anecdotes that he said showed the dissolution of traditional marital and family values.

“Maybe some people think I’m too pessimistic. But I don’t think I’m pessimistic—just realistic,” Szeto said. “If China doesn’t improve, doesn’t adopt democracy, Hong Kong will not improve, will not have democracy.”

“I think that the disruption showed there’s such a difference of political opinion within the Chinese community,” audience member Jeffrey Kwong ’09, added after the event.

But a divergent opinion did not justify Wei’s tactics, according to Kwong.

“I think at a place like college, you should have a level of respectful decorum for a speaker, and the audience tonight clearly did not understand that,” Kwong said.