Word: zemin
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...openness during the Clinton visit in June has fallen silent. Surveillance of dissidents has been increased, and in September police detained activists in four provinces for trying to legally register the China Democratic Party, which would have been the country's first opposition political group. Last week President Jiang Zemin issued a call to improve Communist Party control at the village level. This was a far cry from the village elections China holds, sometimes hinting that they are the first step toward democracy...
Last winter, when a Chinese instead of a South African flag flew over Harvard Yard, no one was giving Jiang Zemin any honorary degrees. He came on a cold day with rain falling like freezing spikes, and thousands of protesters greeted his fleet of black limousines before he was safely delivered to Sanders Theatre. Like Mandela's speech, the content of Jiang's was largely irrelevant. The Chinese president's visit, also like Mandela's, was preceded by speeches from a flock of Harvard professors...
...honorary degree received by the other--these elements of the two leaders' visits made me see the two men as something much larger than either of them actually were. Instead of two political figures, one a freedom fighter and the other fighting freedom, Nelson Mandela and Jiang Zemin became the avatars of Good and Evil. To the aspiring future leaders in the audience, it was as if some higher power had sought out our student body, telling us in a biblical voice: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse: Choose life, so that you and your...
...people to whom we feel a need to react. They represent something important to us, whether something we admire or something we scorn. For that reason, of all the highnesses and holinesses that have appeared on our campus in recent years, two were exceptional: Nelson Mandela and Jiang Zemin...
...course, the parallels were not perfect. We are all aware that Nelson Mandela is not Mother Theresa and Jiang Zemin no Pol Pot. But the effect was nonetheless achieved. We who witnessed both Mandela and Jiang pass through our campus have been forced to ask ourselves: Which will we choose, the blessing or the curse...