'Open minds' are only relatively so

Beijing scholar Wang Qisi (王緝思), director of the Institute of North American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has always been considered part of the open-minded faction. But not long ago at a symposium on the Taiwan issue sponsored by Harvard University's Fairbank Center, he had someone else say on his behalf, "if the people of Taiwan want independence, it's enough just to give us that chunk of land" -- a statement which immediately aroused the antipathy of US professors.

Those scholars probably should be counted among the open-minded faction. But this is only relative to Beijing's "conservative faction" and it certainly doesn't mean they can open their minds very far. If anyone still is overly concerned with the shifting positions of the open-minded faction and the conservative faction in Beijing's ordering of personnel, they will be disappointed.

Wang Dan was a student leader during the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations in Beijing. He is currently a graduate student at Harvard University.

Translated by Ethan Harkness