Taipei, June 4 (CNA) Wang Dan, a former Chinese student leader turned democracy activist, said Sunday that the Communist Party of China (CPC) will "definitely cause its own collapse, without the need of any outside force."
Meeting the press and members of the public in Taipei, Wang spoke of his personal plan and answered questions regarding his views about the likelihood of China's longtime and only ruling party updating itself in such a way as to meet the growing needs of the Chinese people and the world trend toward democracy.
As a student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, Wang said that if China is ever to democratize itself, it will not be a result of the CPC's own initiative. "Look at the examples of former CPC General Secretaries Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang, who tried seriously to reform the party but failed."
He said China's rampant corruption has actually been caused by the CPC itself, which has triggered widespread discontent among the population. "This is why the CPC will eventually bring itself down -- even now, it is not willing to solve the corruption problem with institutional changes," Wang said.
If China is to fight corruption properly, it must resort to a change of its institutions and systems, instead of doing so through the party's disciplinary or inspection organs, said Wang, who is to leave Taiwan for the United States after having taught here for eight years.
He said that China's current leader, Xi Jinping, is using the old method of the Cultural Revolution to fight corruption -- using a group of corrupt officials to fight another group of corrupt officials.
The time will come when Beijing's ruling class will be forced to confront the issue of political transformation, Wang said, and "it will not be possible for it to get around the June 4 Incident" -- which he said "is not past history but an ongoing story."
If given another chance to lead a mass movement calling for democracy in China, Wang said he will do something "more constructive."
He said he hopes to talk to Chinese students studying in the U.S., offer lectures over the Internet, and crowd-source funds to help June 4 Incident victims.
"We will also continue our oral recording of June 4 stories, so that more people will get to know what really happened during the 1989 campaign," he said.
He said he plans to set up a think tank in the U.S. that will be dedicated to studying the democratization experiences of other countries for the reference of China.
"Studies of institutions and systems will be our focus, including feasible policies to improve people's livelihoods, so that the Chinese people will know that there are alternatives for solving social welfare, education and employment problems that are different from what the CPC has to offer," he said.
