For China’s leaders, the price of repression has never been higher. Double-digit economic growth (12 percent last year) and a surge in trade make China increasingly dependent on the rest of the world. At the same time, liberalized economic policies have the country once again testing the old limits of change. Out of jail just a few days, Wang Dan himself concedes this is not the China he left in 1989. He may not be able to write a-book about human rights, but he could chase his fortune on the stock or realestate markets, as many former dissidents have. He can watch the CNN reports of his own release via satellite in any one of thousands of Beijing apartments. Private high schools and universities are sprouting. One newspaper in Sichuan province even published a commentary on democracy last month. None of this amounts to overt political liberalization. But even if inadvertently, Beijing opened the doors to the same process that a decade ago fostered democracy in former authoritarian strongholds like Taiwan and South Korea.
That, of course, poses a dilemma for the Clinton administration as it decides how to balance China’s trade status and its record on human rights. Given his campaign rhetoric and congressional pressure, it is unlikely Clinton will be able to avoid some sort of conditions on China’s trade status. But strict conditions could well prompt retaliation; American companies might be denied access to the vast opportunities in China’s fast-growing economy. One solution would be nonlegislative conditions that allow the administration to push Beijing behind the scenes, rather than publicly.
Wang Dan, meanwhile, has his own decisions to make. His choice is between going abroad to complete his education, or waiting at home for China to change. At least now he has a choice.
