Political Organizations in Exile

Abstract

With the advent of economic reform the Chinese government adopted an open-door policy and sent students abroad: the option of external exile was then available but seldom used by students. Not until 1983 did a group of students from mainland China studying in the United States establish the Chinese Alliance for Democracy. This marked the beginning of an era of exile politics. Exile politics has developed along with rapid domestic economic growth. Rampant corruption and high inflation accompanying economic development underlay the social support for the 1989 Students’ Demonstration. Chinese exile politics reached a climax in the wake of 1989, when a number of renowned intellectuals and students fleeing China after the military suppression of the Demonstration sought refuge in the West. The Front for a Democratic China was subsequently established.

The main Chinese sources for this chapter are as follows: CAD Newsletter. ‘Zhongguo minzhutuanjie lianmeng huiyuan tongxun’, Internal Newsletters of the CAD, edited by the CAD Supervisory Committee in New York. FDC Newsletter. ‘Minzhu zhongguo zhenxian huiyuan tongxun’, Internal newsletters of the FDC, edited by the FDC Secretariat in Paris. China Spring, the publication of the CAD, renamed Beijing Spring after the UFDC was established, published in New York. Democratic China, the publication of the FDC, published in Paris. Human Rights Tribune, renamed Human Rights Forum since the Summer 1993 Issue, the publication of HRIC, published in New York. Central Daily News, published in Taiwan, with occasional coverage of Chinese overseas exiles. Journal of Contemporary China (in English), the publication of the CMC, edited by Zhao Suisheng, published in USA. Papers of the Center for Modern China (in Chinese), renamed Modern China Studies in 1994, the publication of the CMC, edited by Li Shaomin, then Zhao Suisheng, now Wu Guoguang, published in the USA.