1989 student leaders, intellectuals still divided over China's path to democracy

After a quarter of a century, figures who once took the centre stage of Tiananmen Square in 1989’s student movement have their own reflection on democracy they dreamt for China.

Wang Dan and Wuer Kaixi, then student leaders at Tiananmen Square and now living in Taiwan, showed up this March at the island’s legislature chamber occupied by students. The students were protesting Taipei’s handling of a service trade pact with Beijing.

Wang, now teaching humanities and social and political sciences at two of Taiwan’s universities, said Taipei’s protest reflects the growing desire for a so-called fifth right – the civic right of every individual – to prevent democracy from being damaged if the four pillars of democracy – political parties, the parliament, elections and the media – fail to uphold their roles.

“Development of individual civic rights is thus highly important to oversee if any areas of those systems have gone wrong,” he noted.

Watch: Wang Dan: China lost legitimacy after Tiananmen

For Zhou Duo, one of the four intellectuals who launched a hunger strike in Tiananmen Square on the eve of the crackdown, and later negotiated with the troops to allow students leaving the square on June 4, said street movements will not help promote democracy on the mainland – for fear that it could easily lead to populist figures coming into power.