Professors, Protesters Discuss Jiang Visit

A week long, campus-wide discussion of China came to a close last night during a panel discussion held at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

About 100 people attended the talk, titled "Reflections on the Visit of President Jiang Zemin."

The strongest message was sent by Lobsang Sangay, a Tibetan activist and Ph.D. student at the Harvard Law School who expressed his frustration with the exclusion of Tibet from discussions on China.

Lobsang described the situation as a "taboo" on Tibet and urged the University to focus more attention on the Tibetan people.

"I appeal to Harvard University and the Fairbank Center [for East Asian Studies] to facilitate forums [on Tibet]," he said.

Lobsang said that the rallies this weekend helped the Tibetan cause.

"Jiang heard loud and clear that Tibet is a serious issue," he said.

Attendants at the discussion, moderated by Professor of History William C. Kirby, said it seemed to lack the energy of the earlier discussions leading up to Jiang's visit.

At the previous discussions, "a lot of people were blowing off steam," said Adam Brookes, a visiting scholar at the Fairbank Center.

But the audience did not seem to mind the peace.

"I am very happy that this panel was much less adversarial. People were dealing with issues," said Eric D. Mortensen, a fifth year graduate student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Among the other issues discussed was the significance of Jiang's visit on U.S.-Sino relations highlighted by Ying-Mao Kau, professor of political science at Brown University.

"The accomplishment is very significant," he said. "It shows confidence building between the two nations."

The panelists were not in agreement about U.S. policy toward China. Kau expressed disagreement with the current policy of engagement.

"I am worried that engagement may turn into some kind of appeasement," he said.

The panel also included Juntao Wang, one of the student organizers of the 1989 democracy movement in Beijing, who said he hopes that human rights issues do not get in the way of U.S.-Sino relations.

"We need political reform. We need basic human rights," he said. "But we should not hold human rights as a hostage."

At the heart of the optimism expressed toward U.S-Sino relations is the effect of Jiang's visit on public opinion.

Ezra F. Vogel, director of the Fairbank Center, said the public no longer sees the Chinese President as "just a butcher of Beijing."

"I think Jiang was quite successful in breaking the spell of wild hostility," Vogel said.

Vogel said he attributes the change in public opinion to Jiang's personality.

"He can laugh, he has a sense of humor," Vogel said.

Silence prevailed when Kirby opened up the discussion by offering four very broad main areas of discourse--Taiwanese independence, the political impact of Jiang's visit on the U.S., Tibetan independence and U.S.-Sino relations as a result of Jiang's visit.

"I guess everybody is all talked out," he said.

One member of the audience, who introduced himself as a Kennedy school student and an organizer of the protest, brought up an additional issue.

"I found myself somewhat frustrated by the stance of the Fairbank Center. Dissenting opinions were silenced," said the student, referring to space that was supposed to be allocated to protesters but was blocked off.

Vogel said that this was a decision on the part of the Harvard University Police Department and the Secret Service.

The biggest complaint expressed by the audience reflected Lobsang's--the ignorance of the rights of the Tibetan people.

"After panels and a visit from Jiang, still nobody is talking about human rights in Tibet. I find that very sad," Mortensen said.