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RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0482
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 8022
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE 5461
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 3735
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0016
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 3661

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CANBERRA 000755 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y SUBJECT LINE 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2018 
TAGS: AS CH PHUM PINR PREL
SUBJECT: CHINESE DISSIDENT CHEN ZIMING CALLS ON DCM 
 
CANBERRA 00000755  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief Of Mission Daniel A. Clune.  Reason: 1.4 (D 
) 
 
SUMMARY 
 
¶1.  (C/NF)  During a call on the DCM on July 23, Chinese 
dissident Chen Ziming said that while the economic situation 
of ordinary Chinese is improving, the democratic rights 
situation is not.  Chen, who has been visiting Australia for 
the past two weeks and has spent a week in New Zealand, noted 
that this is his first trip outside of China since Tiananmen, 
but that he does not expect trouble when he returns to 
Beijing on July 30.  He will travel to Inner Mongolia during 
the Olympics because of anticipated increased restrictions by 
security authorities.  Chen was appreciative of U.S. efforts 
to promote democracy and human rights in China in general and 
for its representations on his behalf to Beijing.  Chen noted 
that the burgeoning middle class that he estimated to be 
currently at some 50 to 80 million people is not beholden to 
the Party for its livelihood and will eventually be a force 
for increased democracy in China.  He expressed surprise that 
there had not been greater Australian interest in China's 
human rights situation, commenting that this had turned his 
trip into more of a vacation than he had expected.  Chen said 
that Australia has never appeared to him to be very 
interested in being assertive to support human rights in 
China.  End Summary. 
 
DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT IN CHINA 
 
¶2.  (C)  Chen was accompanied by his wife Wang Zhihong, Mr. 
Zhang Xiaogang, Secretary of Independent Chinese Pen, 
affiliate of the worldwide writers association International 
Pen, Mr. Fang Yuan, a Chinese dissident based in Canberra, 
and Mr. Chen Yonglin who is now Secretary of the Chinese 
Dissidents Association in Australia.  Polcouns and EconCouns 
also sat in at the meeting.  Chen was appreciative of U.S. 
representations to Beijing authorities over the years on 
human rights and democracy issues and said that he himself 
has benefited.  Chen noted that he had been in prison 13 
years for his dissident activities at the time of Tiananmen 
Square and had his democratic rights, including freedom to 
speak to the press, seriously circumscribed following his 
release.  He described the Democracy Movement in China as a 
"three steps forward two steps back" process.  Though some 
freedom of expression is allowed for ordinary Chinese, from 
the late 1980s leading dissidents have been increasingly 
restricted in publicizing their views, Chen asserted.  He 
added that a 200 member democracy think tank that he had set 
up no longer exists. 
 
¶3.  (C)  The DCM told Chen that the one of the core 
objectives of our diplomatic engagement with China is the 
promotion of human rights and political reform.  The U.S. 
raises human rights issues in nearly all of its high-level 
meetings with the Chinese government.  As Chen had noted the 
U.S. raises both individual cases as well as the need for 
China to carry out reforms to protect its citizens, rights. 
The DCM added that the U.S. felt that the U.S. - China Human 
Rights Dialogue held in May was constructive.  We made it 
clear to the Chinese, both before and during the Dialogue, 
that we wanted it to be "results-based."  It is too early to 
judge whether the Dialogue was a success.  In the meantime, 
we will continue to take every opportunity to raise with the 
Qwe will continue to take every opportunity to raise with the 
Chinese government our concerns regarding specific human 
rights issues.  Chen responded that among western nations the 
U.S. has clearly done the most to promote democracy and human 
rights in China. 
 
GROWING MIDDLE CLASS WILL POSE CHALLENGE 
 
¶4.  (C)  China's growing middle class will over the next 
decade become a force for increased democratization in China, 
Chen said.  He estimated that there are currently 50-80 
million people in China's middle class and that number is set 
to expand dramatically over the next 10 years.  This members 
of this powerful new class are not beholden to the Chinese 
Communist Party for their livelihoods and will be more likely 
to challenge the authorities in the longer term.  Chen 
commented that while the Party is still very firm in 
controlling overtly political activity, it has already lost 
many of its tools of coercion over day-to-day life.  Most of 
the new middle class is willing to accept for now this 
implicit deal of staying out of politics in return for 
 
CANBERRA 00000755  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
greater freedom to live their daily lives, he said.  Chen 
expressed confidence that any attempt by the Party to regain 
the coercive tools over day to day life that it had as late 
as the early 1990s would face strong opposition from urban 
Chinese and particularly the new middle class. 
 
WILL NOT BE IN BEIJING FOR THE OLYMPICS 
 
¶5.  (C)  Chen, who has been visiting Australia for the past 
two weeks and has spent a week in New Zealand, noted that 
this is his first trip outside of China since Tiananmen, but 
that he does not expect trouble when he returns to Beijing on 
July 30.  He will travel to Inner Mongolia during the 
Olympics because of anticipated increased restrictions by 
security authorities.  He added that the number of political 
dissidents in Beijing is growing (to 5-10,000 over the next 5 
years) and that authorities will have increased difficulties 
keeping them all under surveillance.  Chen also said that 
though police personnel are getting better equipped, their 
motivation appears to be flagging, with some telling him 
almost apologetically that they are working for the security 
agencies simply "to feed their families." 
 
¶6.  (C/NF)  Asked about his reception in Australia, Chen said 
that he was surprised and disappointed at how uninterested 
Australians seemed to be in human rights in China.  He said 
that Australia had never seemed to take a particularly 
assertive approach in raising human rights with the Chinese 
Government and that the Australian Embassy in Beijing had 
never been active in reaching out to dissidents.  Chen said 
he had met with Graham Fletcher, the DFAT First Assistant 
Secretary for North Asia (and former DCM in Beijing) for an 
interesting but not very substantive discussion.  This had 
been his only contact with the Australian Government, he 
said, adding that attendance at his lectures had been 
disappointing.  Of those who came, almost all were ethnic 
Chinese, mainly students studying in Australia. As a result, 
Chen laughingly said that his trip to Australia had turned 
into more of a vacation than he had expected. 
 
COMMENT 
 
¶7.  (C)  The meeting had been sought by Chen who had spoken 
earlier at a Sydney Catholic club promoting his new book on 
the 30 years of reform in China.  It is rare for Beijing to 
allow a dissident of Chen's visibility the freedom to travel 
to and from China.  Nonetheless, Chen did not appear 
apprehensive over Chinese authorities apparently expecting 
little backlash from his actions while "vacationing" 
overseas, particularly his meetings with U.S. and Australian 
authorities.