Caring for China Center

China is quickly becoming a modern country with rapid economic growth far outpacing most other developing nations in the past. Few nations have made a transition to modern constitutional democracy peacefully. China might.

To make this huge transition, though, the people of China need our support.

The Caring for China Center was founded to help the people of China to survive in this moment of difficulty and to seize this moment of opportunity.

The people of China need your help now. Join us as we pursue the following opportunities.

Support Chinese advocates of change working in China.
People in China who criticize the government are often sent to prison, but many others suffer a fate that is almost worse. In a prison or laogai camp (“reform through labor” camp), you know where you stand and that things probably won’t get much worse. There is little left to fear.

Most advocates of change, though, live with a constant threat that things really could get much worse. They could be put on the local black-list where no one is allowed to hire them. They may not be able to buy or rent property. They could be called in for interrogation. They could be forced to migrate to a different region. They need our help as they continue spreading their message. Sometimes they just need food.

The Caring for China Center works with over eight hundred Chinese advocates of change in China. We are looking for bloggers, people who travel inside China, and publishers to carry the conversation, and we are seeking donations and fund raising opportunities to help these international advocates of change for China.

Advocate a balanced, rational, and compassionate relationship with China.

Many politicians and members of the media are continuously criticizing the nation as a whole. However, the Chinese Communist Party and China the nation are two completely separate things. China is a great nation filled with great people and is even led by many great men. China is not perfect, but neither is any other nation.

We should encourage China to keep doing better, but we will be more effective if we do that with kindness. The Caring for China Center was founded by Xu Wenli a former political prisoner who still loves his country very much despite being sentenced to a total of 28 years of imprisonment and spending two terms totaling sixteen years in prison under severe conditions. He was imprisoned, not for inciting riots, but for simply for publishing articles with opposing views and founding a peaceful opposition party, The Chinese Democracy Party. If anyone has a reason to call for the immediate overthrow of the government, it is Xu Wenli, but he does not because he wants what is best for his country and its citezens. If he is not calling for democracy now at all costs, we should question those over-zealous politicians and others who are.

The Caring for China Center advocates a balanced, rational, and compassionate relationship with China in conversations with the United States and other western governments, and in conversations with members of online and traditional media.

Encourage a change in culture before a political transformation takes place in the Chinese government.

Shortly after his second release, Xu Wenli stated, “Democracy in China requires the establishment of a firm foundation, which can happen only under stable conditions.” The United States of America was one of the most successful democracies in world history, but contrary to popular myth it was not created in a day or by a small group of men.

In the one hundred and fifty years leading up to 1776, American had been experimenting with self-rule at the business, city, and colony levels. Before that, their ancestors had hundreds of years of experience with varying degrees of independence and self-government in Europe.

While they did not have the vast amount of scientific information we have now, even the average farm-hand was very well educated in the topics most relevant to establishing a government of the people and by the people. Democracy implies the direct involvement of the majority of citizens in the day-to-day decisions of government not just periodic elections. The level of political education common at the founding of the US supported this kind of involvement. Success in other democracies is also related to percentage of the population that are educated and involved in government.

The Caring for China Center is building a framework for a new form of government in China including a draft constitution, as well as recommendations for cultural changes necessary to support self-rule.

Continue to press for the release of individual prisoners of conscience.
The Chinese government continues to imprison anyone that says anything they do not like, but they occasionally agree, when pressured, to release a specific number of prisoners of conscience.

We are seeing encouraging results on this front. Aside from the few specific cases where the prisoner of conscience is heavily sentenced, many others are getting much shorter sentences. This makes it much safer for people to call for change and to expose corrupt officials. China still has a long way to go but we are definitely making great progress.

The Caring for China Center maintains a list of advocate of change who are in prison or in other types of danger. We work with the US and other governments, as well as other organizations to request and obtain the release of many on this list.

Support local Chinese exiles.
Freedom from prison for Xu Wenli came at the price of being banned from ever returning home to China. Others advocates of change manage to leave other ways and avoid prison, but also can never return. They all find themselves exiles in a foreign country.

Exiles have it tough. They frequently do not know the language, do not have a degree from a well known university, do not have any business contacts, and have to deal with an immigration system designed to keep people out.

If they have enough money they can buy counterfeit documentation to make immigration easier, but besides the fact that this is unethical, the organizations doing this, in the US at least, are associated with the Chinese Communist Party. It is strange. Immigrants claim to be oppressed democracy advocates to get through US immigrations and then join pro-communist protests after gaining residency.

The Caring for China Center is careful to only work with exiles who are faithful to the cause of free speech, democracy, rule of law, and other basic human freedoms. We then help them find a place to live and work, start businesses, continue writing about change in China, or helping in any other way we can.

- by Luke Gedeon, Executive Director