I Saw Three Chinas

Ross Willmot is Executive Director of the Ontario Association for
Continuing Education.

“Coercion and the outrageous brutality which occurred in Tiananmen
Square in June of 1989 is not the answer to the problems inherent in
China’s educational system,” states Phillips, who is president of
the 17 Canada-China Friendship Association societies across Canada. A
former teacher in China, born and raised there, she has personally
experienced three eras of Chinese history: the social-reform period of
the Communists since the Revolution of 1949; the republican rule of
Chiang Kai-Shek; and the final days of the Imperial Ching dynasty. As a
director of educational tours, she has visited more than 50 Chinese
cities and towns.

China’s future, Phillips writes, may well be jeopardized by its
leaders’ inability to free intellectuals to carry out badly needed
legal, social, and educational tasks. She believes that, unless reforms
go hand in hand with China’s economic progress, true democracy cannot
exist there.

Student demands for freedom and democracy are consistent with promises
made by their government in recent years, she notes. Students are asking
for more flexibility, more freedom of choice, and better returns on
their years of study. They demand an end to corruption, an inquiry into
the private possessions of top leaders, and the abolition of political
nepotism.

The students’ demands threaten those in power, whose reaction
reflects their fear, Phillips concludes. Unless the Chinese government
sees the need for understanding and dialogue with youth, China’s
situation looks bleak.