November 1, 1997
The protests at Harvard when President Jiang came to visit were an excellent example of a protest done right. Different groups, many with differing agendas, all came together in one spot to give a greeting to the Chinese President that he will never forget. In fact, it was only at Harvard that Jiang actually acknowledged the presence of the of protesters outside the lecture hall where he was speaking. Indeed, he could not ignore us: A high powered amplifier, thousands of people chanting in unison, and large drums to keep everyone in sync.
The protesters had the Swedenborg Church to thank for generously allowing everyone to congregate on their front lawn which faced the auditorium where Jiang was speaking. Without their assistance this protest might not have been sosuccessful. Indeed, it was a little bit of a thrill (as well as a little bit amusing)watching a woman in her sixties who was a member of the church inform some of the pro-Jiang demonstrators that they were not welcome on church property. Ifonly other churches were so conscious of political issues!
Given so much apathy in this world, this was one of the most inspirational events I’ve ever seen. Catholics, Buddhists,
Socialists, anti-death penalty, Amnesty International, Chinese dissidents, pro Taiwan and Tibetan independence, and
many other groups all got together to make a single statement: Jiang was not welcome and his atrocities against
humanity and the environment were not acceptable.
The event was also deeper than that. Many speakers noted that the United States was also guilty of the same crimes
as Jiang. Some spoke about a death penalty that is used against minorities at an alarming higher rate than whites for
the same crimes. Others spoke of an economic system that sometimes crushes those at the bottom or refuses to offer
proper medical care to all citizens. It was a pleasant surprise to see such objectivity in the midst of so many passionate
viewpoints.
While so many of us were protesting Jiang’s atrocities, manycounter protesters were actually there to proclaim their
support of the president. A favorite chant of theirs was “One China,” an obvious statement that they believed Tibet and
Taiwan were not sovereign nations. It became a little heated as many of us responded back with, “One Taiwan” or
“One Tibet.”
I conversed with many of the pro-Jiang protesters, all of whom were Chinese Americans. Many of them outright denied
the events at Tiananmen Square where uncounted numbers of students were killed by the Chinese Army. It became
especially tense when a woman approached the entire group and told them in Chinese how she personally witnessed
the army kill her friends. The group responded to her in both English and Chinese, “Liar!” One man took his anti-Jiang protest sign and placed it between the woman and the crowd when too many of the pro-Jiang demonstrators began
hollering at the woman to her face. It soon became obvious to many of us in the crowd that we were in the wrong area
and needed to find those who agreed with our views about Jiang.
Despite the counter demonstrators who outright denied what happened at Tiananmen, this was perhaps the best protestI’ve ever taken part in. Not only did Jiang hear us, we also had theprivilege witnessing a diverse collection of people all focusing on a common goal. That in itself was made it all worth it.
Click here to see what this all looked like on the original site.