"The Voice of Thy Brother's Blood Crieth Unto Me"

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 011680

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EB, R, G, EAP/CM, EAP/PD, ECA, DRL
STATE PASS USTR STRATFORD
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN, CELICO, DAS LEVINE
USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KPAO SOCI SCUL PGOV PINR CH
SUBJECT: "The Voice of Thy Brother's Blood Crieth Unto Me"

Ref: A) Guangzhou 11470, B) Guangzhou 10336,

-- C) Guangzhou 6981, D) Guangzhou 4104,
-- E) Guangzhou 3991 and previous (all notal)

(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified. Please
protect accordingly. Not for release outside U.S.
Government channels. Not for internet publication.


1. (SBU) Summary: Senseless killing matters deeply to
Chinese -- particularly when involving excessive
governmental power (as in the "control" of public unrest).
That's why governments, including those in south China,
work assiduously to control and suppress public outcry,
including that emanating from abroad, over, for example,
the authorities' deadly riot suppression actions at
Dongzhou. Such government killings also reinforce the
notion that rapid economic development "eats people" -- to
use the words of Lu Xun, China's most prominent modern
author. Any fundamental change to this state of affairs
has to ultimately come through the assertion of will by the
Chinese citizenry. U.S. public diplomacy programs on the
rule of law and democratic institution-building inject
important concepts about legitimate dispute resolution but
they could and should be complemented by programs that tap
into and reinforce the core values and the basic decency of
the Chinese citizenry, including their appreciation of
American humanity and humanities. Such programs can help
rapid economic development in south China to occur without
"eating people." End Summary.

Dwelling in the South of Nod
--------------

2. (SBU) Killing people is not only wrong, but it is also
embarrassing. When Chinese officials or even academics are
put into a position of having to defend the governmental
killing of protestors at some scene of civil unrest (and
septel deals with reports of possibly another incident),
they clam up, hem and haw, or avoid meetings that
inevitably have to touch on the subject (refs B and C).
The intentional governmental killing of people differs from
the killing of people that occurs through government non-
feasance (such as in coal mine disasters and other
accidents where the failure of regulation is often a
contributing cause). So while discussion, including with
U.S. Consulate personnel, is permissible about the
accidental deaths of people deriving in part from some
faulty governmental action or non-action, once there is
some official pronouncement in the aftermath of killings to
suppress civil disorder no further discussion is
permissible, as was the case in the fatal handling of the
Dongzhou protestors. This distinction is also very clear
in how the central authorities have treated the topics;
they have been forthcoming about the number of both major
industrial accidents and civil unrest incidents, but while
figures for the numbers of the deaths incurred in the
former are available while the numbers of deaths in the
latter are not. Civil unrest incidents are also those that
can call into the question the political viability of very
highest leaders in the Province (ref E).

"Diary of a Madman"
--------------

3. (SBU) This refusal by Guangdong provincial or local
authorities to further address instances of civil unrest
involving killing translates also to the suppression of
foreign government and media commentary as well as to the
sharp curtailing or banning of domestic commentators. The
effect domestically has not been, however, necessarily
ideal from the standpoint of the authorities. To be sure,
there are undoubtedly those who believe -- as the
government statement asserts -- that the Dongzhou rioters,
for example, were a hoodlum mob bent on wanton destruction
of energy facilities built for the greater good of all
Guangdong citizens. This might even have a high degree of
accuracy, but once government killings come into play the
far stronger impression is that rapid, relentless,
government-planned and -led economic growth is responsible,
thus reinforcing the arguments of those calling for less
globalization by China and greater equality and fairness as
determined by Communist Party dictate even at the expense

GUANGZHOU 00011680 002 OF 003


of slowing down market opening and reform.


4. (SBU) A large number of academics and journalists, not
to mention many young business executives, do not want to
turn back the clock to a more socialist, party-led model of
equality, but feel that the government's overweening
preoccupation with rapid economic growth needs to have a
humanitarian component to offset the notion that such
development "eats people" -- to use the words of Lu Xun,
China's most prominent modern era writer (in his "Diary of
a Madman" short story in which the supposedly mentally
deranged narrator has looked at the whole of Chinese
history and found its grandeur and power to be founded on
the eating of people). In fact, to this end there is a
conscious attempt led in part by Guangzhou's most
progressive and highly influential magazine, the
"Nanfengchuang" (the "South Wind Window"),to revive the
spirit of the New Culture Movement of the 1920s of which Lu
was a key figure along with China's most prominent liberal,
Hu Shi (a colleague and friend of the American educator and
philosopher John Dewey) and Chinese Communist Party co-
founder Chen Duxiu, then a leading Beijing University
professor and an advocate of joining science and democracy
to advance China (ref D).

Reinterpreting "Harmonious Society"
--------------

5. (SBU) These sort of ideas have considerable resonance
in an area in which Sun Yatsen remains a major local hero.
Lu Xun, for his part, lived for a time in Guangzhou, and
not only is there a statute of him, but also the Chen
Family Shrine, one of Guangzhou's most popular and famous
tourist sites, features a garden full of sculptures
depicting scenes from Lu's "The Autobiography of Ah Q" and
"Kong Yi Ji." We have also been struck about how many
university students in this area are familiar with the
stories, even if, in this audio-visual media world, they
may not actually have read the stories.


6. (SBU) It is this considerable resonance that gives
impetus to attempts here by progressive academics and
journalists to reinterpret the Communist leadership's own
attempt to imbue its policies with a "humane" element with
slogans such as "taking people as the base" ("yiren
weiben"). In this vein, a recent "Nanfengchuang" editorial
asserts that in the now ubiquitous slogan of building a
"harmonious society" ("hexie shehui"),the "he" character
is derived from components meaning "barley" and "mouth" and
thus implies that everybody has the right to eat (or
"livelihood") while the "xie" character is derived from
components meaning "speech" and "all" and thus implies that
everybody has the right to speak freely. Therefore, the
editorial argues, "harmonious society" can only be based on
equitable economic development coupled with a genuine
democracy based on equal rights -- something of an echo of
Communist Party co-founder Chen Duxiu's formula of science
and democracy leading China out of its predicament in the
1920s.

A Role for U.S. Public Diplomacy
--------------

7. (SBU) In this climate of ideas, there is a role for
U.S. public diplomacy even though our interlocutors and
audiences are not able to talk directly and freely about
the civil unrest incidents and killings themselves.
Indirectly, however, our public diplomacy programs on the
rule of law and democratic-institution building deal with
this issue and have drawn in large numbers of people. In
addition to using speakers traveling from the United States
or already on the ground in China, for example, Fulbrighter
Scholars, Consulate Guangzhou's own self-generated and
self-manned "legal series" on law topics and "town hall
series" (conducted in the style of an American town hall
meeting) on social, political, and economic topics enjoy
great popularity, with local universities coming to us to
hold such series on their campuses. We anticipate that our
"Bill of Rights" countdown series in which Consulate
speakers will deal with each of the first ten amendments of
the Constitution in the weeks leading up to our
Independence Day celebration will play to similarly

GUANGZHOU 00011680 003 OF 003


enthusiastic audiences.


8. (SBU) We should not, however, underestimate the
audience for American culture and humanities. A discussion
series on American movies (brilliantly revived by our
colleagues in Consulate Shanghai and unabashedly emulated
by us) revealed just how closely Guangzhou audiences
connected with the basic humanity and decency of Americans
as depicted cinematically. While a first glance at
audiences at Consulate Guangzhou's English pedagogy series
might suggest that the primary interest is improving
linguistic skills, a closer examination reveals that there
is a very large audience for American literature and
thought. American literature specialist Ernesto Suarez,
our Fulbright Scholar at Guangzhou's Zhongshan University,
is in demand not only at Zhongshan but also at other
institutions every weekend throughout China. Recently, the
Shantou University English Language Department approached
the Consulate about strengthening the American literature
component of its program in line with the desire of
students to learn not merely the language but also the
values of the American people speaking that language.
Moreover, the huge amount of positive media attention
attending the use of the Ambassador's Cultural Preservation
Fund for a museum in Hepu reflected the great appreciation
by many Chinese of American respect and understanding for
the ancient Middle Kingdom's legacy (ref A).

Concluding Comment
--------------

9. (SBU) The March 20 edition of the English language
"China Daily" reported the majority of Chinese people liked
Americans, with 63 percent of those polled deriving these
views from mass media, 21 percent through movies, and 4
percent through direct contact with Americans. These
numbers are probably higher in Guangdong, given the larger
number of opportunities to see and interact with Americans
in a relatively more open part of China. To be sure, the
degree of liking of Americans is related to the sheer
success of the United States, with its technological and
economic prowess, but it is also the case that there is a
strong appreciation for our moral and humane values of
tolerance, openness, and diversity. For their part, the
Chinese have had a long and strong humanist tradition that
greatly values principles and human life. There would seem
to be substantial room for a strengthening of the humanity
and humanities ties that can bind, and, with it, the
reinforcement of a value system in China that will not
tolerate the "eating of people" in pursuit of economic
development.

Dong