End of the Wall

Farewell to free expression

Since late last year, "democracy wall," along Peking's broad Chang An Avenue, represented a unique and hopeful experiment in China's tightly controlled society. It was a place where everyone from political critics to whimsical poets could paste up wall posters, which are protected by China's 1978 constitution. Thousands of people sometimes came to the wall to read the patchwork quilt of personal grievances, sharply worded essays demanding more freedom, and short stories and poems. Last week the Municipal Revolutionary Committee of Peking, clearly acting at the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, issued a strict prohibition of all posters at the original site of democracy wall, thus effectively ending China's longest flirtation with free expression.

In theory, democracy wall was not closed down; it was merely moved elsewhere. Posters will still be allowed at a newly designated "wall for free expression," in the small Yuetan (Moon Altar) Park in western Peking. From now on, all authors will be required to register their names, pseudonyms, addresses and places of employment at a special office to be set up in the park. The new regulations also state that writers "will be held responsible for the political and legal implications" of their posters--meaning that they will be punished if their writings attack socialism or China's leaders too harshly.

The principal reason for banning democracy wall, according to one Chinese official, was that some people were using it to "peddle counterrevolution in the guise of democracy and freedom." He added that all schools, factories and government offices have places where "anyone can present opinions and demands." China's official press attacked unnamed foreigners who had used the wall for the "ulterior motive" of collecting secret information harmful to China.

In fact, the real reason for the wall's demise was Peking's concern that unhindered free expression could lead to a snowballing of discontent against the regime. Earlier efforts to curb dissent--such as the arrest last spring of nearly 30 human rights activists--had only a temporary effect, as critical posters began to proliferate again during the summer. China's leaders have been reluctant to take overtly harsh measures against poster writing, having praised it as a "good thing" late last year. By removing democracy's centerpiece to a less conspicuous and more controlled location, they apparently hope to cow China's tiny human rights movement into quiescence--without banning poster writing entirely.

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