Hello Everyone:
Welcome to attend our event today. I hope such day, in the future, could be remembered in China’s history of democratic transformation. Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China had undergone drastic changes. Domestically, the Chinese Communist Party’s rule went back from authoritarianism to totalitarianism. Internationally, China began to expand both in the political economy and the ideology. Some people say this is a dark age. But throughout history, it is dawn after the darkness. Therefore, everything that happened in Chin does not mean democracy would not have hope in China. In contrast, the great uncertainty generated by China may perhaps provide us some opportunities that we have never imaged. The founding of the think tank “Dialogue China” is the result of our consensus on such understanding: we need to be prepared for the opportunities. The Dialogue China would like to gather all the people who wish China to change, no matter that person is Chinese or not Chinese. We hope to have dialogue on China’s future problems between different political forces. The dialogues also include the issues of Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong’s future. The Dialogue China is not a place for empty propaganda. Rather, it is a place to generate concrete policies, institutions, and solutions. We will analyse China’s reality, but what we will focus on more is the transition period of China’s democratic transformation.
The members of the Dialogue China includes the public intellectuals and students of 1989. For 29 years, we did not forget and did not give up on what we have dreamt of. We hope the Dialogue China could be our another effort 30 years after Tiananmen. We have realised that we need new people to join the effort in order to change China. In our team, we have representatives from students who are born in the 1990s, we have representatives from China’s middle class, we have representatives from overseas Chinese. We have also realised that the regional influence in changing China is un-ignorable. In our team, we also have young representatives from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Learning from all the lessons of the past 30 years, we will present the team to the public as a professional team. We will present a new face of the Chinese civil society. We know that we will face many challenges. But we are very confident because we are standing on the right side of the history. Certainly, we know that the changes we are expecting will not come easily. We will achieve the goal step by step with patience and confidence. Our goal is clear: we hope China will be a country with justice, freedom, civility, and prosperity. Such country could be able to earn the world’s respect.
To realise our goal, we need support from various sectors of the society. With such support, democracy and freedom will eventually take root in China. In the end, I hereby represent the Board of Executives, Academic Committee, Advising Committee, and all team members to announce that the think tank for China’s opposition, Dialogue China, is founded. Thank you.