A Day in The Life . . . . . . Of China: Free to Fly Inside the Cage

(5 of 18)

"Like in Tiananmen," says the student. "Deng wasn't actually there, right? He didn't actually kill any of us himself. But he gave the orders to have us killed. He caused it."

After a few moments, Bi breaks the silence. "Don't worry, we are all friends here," he says, pointing to the school clock. It says 3:30. This time I am the one who is lost. "We are now supposed to be on daylight saving time, which is an hour ahead," Bi explains. "But we keep to Hong Kong time as a sign of our sympathies. So you see, in this place you can say what you want. Just remember to be careful outside." As we leave Bi's classroom, he turns out the lights and, without even a faint smile, sets the clock ahead an hour. Like many Chinese, Bi is expert at concealing his feelings behind a facade of impassivity and self-control. "You never know who may come by and see the clock," he says. "It is crucial to go through the motions. Be subtle even in protest."

The same don't-make-a-big-thing-of-it, be-subtle manner is present in Shanghai, one of three Chinese cities directly under the national government's jurisdiction. There, a lobby notice in the Hilton hotel duly conforms to official policy: WESTERN NEWSPAPERS ARE UNAVAILABLE. But upstairs, there they are. The hotel's televisions air the supposedly banned daily news shows of ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN -- all broadcasting press conferences by Chinese dissidents who have escaped Beijing's dragnet.

Similarly, everyone I speak with who has attended a "re-education" session designed to promulgate the government's version of the Tiananmen tragedy professes to have listened stonily to the government's lies. Those forced to respond claim to have merely parroted the official line verbatim -- a transparent but unpunishable form of dissent.

"A lot is still possible as long as you are careful not to gloat," says a low-level government official in Beijing. "That's where I think the students went too far. They forced a crackdown by causing the leaders to lose face when Gorbachev visited. Problem is, the students weren't up on their Mao." Had they been, they might have come upon a 1927 essay in which the future Chairman identified atrocity as a desirable power-holding tactic. "To right a wrong," Mao wrote, "it is necessary to exceed the proper limits, and the wrong cannot be righted without the proper limits being exceeded . . . To put it bluntly, it is ((sometimes)) necessary to bring about a brief reign of terror."

"I guess the main reason I was surprised that the demonstrators rubbed the leaders' noses in it," says a professor of Chinese literature in Guangzhou, "is that their actions were so uncharacteristic of the way in which most smart Chinese operate. The emperors and their policies change rapidly in China. As the old proverb says, 'In the morning, welcomed as the guest of a high official; in the evening, held as a prisoner under the steps.' To survive in China, you must keep your head down and be ready to change your allegiances and enthusiasms quickly -- or at least appear to. The elements are simple enough. Trust the papers only for sports. In politics, believe nothing until it is officially denied. Report your own opinions by saying things like 'I heard it on the bus,' or 'The rumor is . . .' Learn to recognize euphemisms."