Triggering another Tiananmen?

It is time to pay attention to Beijing whether the political awakening of the Chinese could be a new driving force for China’s changes.

YOU SANG-CHULThe author is the head of the China Institute of the JoongAng Ilbo and CEO of China Lab. Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin was known for being talkative, singing often and speaking English a lot. He sang a song first at the welcoming dinner for President Kim Dae-jung’s visit to China in 1998. He eventually made Kim sing in return, even though Kim was not so confident in singing.

Jiang also insisted that he meet guests from two countries — the U.S. and Japan — in person among foreign guests. He claimed he should meet Americans because he was good at English and that he would have to meet the Japanese to teach them about the past history of invasion they didn’t know about. When he met with then-JoongAng Ilbo President Hong Seok-hyun in July 1996, which was his first interview with Korean media, Jiang showed his expertise as an engineer by mentioning the semiconductor circuit gap.

The biggest contribution of Jiang, who was known as the leader of the working class, was the establishment of the “Three Represents” ideology, which means that the Communist Party of China (CPC) represents productivity, culture and fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. Here, the key is “the overwhelming majority” as it included “capitalists” in addition to farmers and workers.

The CPC’s inclusion of capitalists has changed the party, as it led to the birth of renowned private companies like Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. They are the driving force for China’s emergence as a G2 country. Twenty years since, the Xi Jinping era is completely different. Private companies’ fear of being absorbed by state-owned enterprises, and the free era of Jiang Zemin has turned into the suffocating era of crackdown.

His memorial service is held on Tuesday. The memorial for Zhou Enlai in 1976 resulted in the first Tiananmen Square incident, and the death of Hu Yaobang in 1989 triggered the second Tiananmen Incident. Can the memorial service in 2022 lead to a third Tiananmen incident? Many think it won’t be possible due to the tight control of the Chinese authorities. But the latest street demonstrations of Chinese people and their slogan of “Overthrow the CPC!” were unthinkable until recently. It is time to pay attention to Beijing whether the political awakening of the Chinese could be a new driving force for China’s changes.