Yang Ruohui made a mistake that he perhaps could not have avoided. As a kid he let himself be brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party—and his father (“INTERVIEW: Former ‘little pink’ supporter of Beijing on what made him change,” Radio Free Asia, June 6, 2024).
He had told me ever since I was a child that I should serve my country and its people, and worry about the world before I worry about myself. I could be happy when the world was happy. He told me all of that in an environment where lots of information is blocked, a China rife with indoctrination by the Chinese Communist Party.
Stuff like how foreign countries are in dire straits, and that only the Chinese Communist Party can save China, that the Chinese people only have the Chinese Communist Party to turn to, so they should be loyal “little pinks.” It’s only when people come to know what is really happening and learn its true history that they realize that the leadership in Zhongnanhai [the leaders’ official residences] is actually the biggest blight on the land and its people….
I think you need to spend a long time away from party censorship and surveillance. Then, gradually, imperceptibly, you start to understand what’s really going on in China, and you naturally gravitate towards opposing the party.
The evolution that Yang (shown above, right, during a congressional hearing) seems to describe here as though it were universal, occurring naturally once one has the means to grasp the truth, is not; if it were, the CCP would already be dead. Many little pinks—i.e., zealous young supporters of the Chinese Communist Party—continue to excuse and serve the CCP even when they do have substantial access to other perspectives and to more objective accounts of China’s history and the nature of its government.
Later in the interview, though, Yang does stress the relevance of individual responsibility: “It’s a matter of personal conscience and fundamental values. I think if someone with a conscience has access to information about what is really happening, proper news reports, and true history, then the question isn’t so much why you oppose the Chinese Communist Party. It’s why don’t you oppose it?”
He says that what struck him most about the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989 wasn’t the actions of the Chinese Communist Party, since by the time he learned about what happened there, “I had long known about the suppression of Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Hongkongers.”
What really moved me the most was the freedom and openness of society back in 1989. We all grew up under the dictatorship of Xi Jinping, or at least under the Hu Jintao era [before that], and we had never experienced a mass movement on that scale, and it was for freedom and democracy. Our country and its people were so united in seeking democracy. Even the army, police, judges and the official media, who are now Xi Jinping’s lackeys, stood up to support the students.
That moment was very moving, and made me feel as if there is actually hope for our country and its people. They may have tried before and failed. But their spirit hasn’t died, so we have to keep on going. One day, we will be able to retake Tiananmen Square.
Yang is the founder of the activist group Assembly of Citizens and a student at Humber College, Canada.
