FIVE years ago he was a young reporter dressed in jeans watching the rallies in Tiananmen Square, excited at the prospect of ordinary Chinese winning new democratic freedoms. Today he is a business executive wearing fine suits and making money instead of political waves.
Life has never been better. ''Yes, five years later I've discovered that all that stuff was just young and stupid behaviour,'' he said, referring to the pro-democracy movement. ''Now I'm focusing on a more stable life, a good job and better business.'' But for Xu Liangying, a 70-year-old scholar and dissident, life has never been harder. Inflation has become intolerable for workers and peasants as they struggle to make ends meet. Corruption is endemic and the Government is not listening. In short, all the elements which created the Tiananmen demonstrations are back in play. ''Social problems today are even more severe than they were in 1989,'' Mr Xu said.
When he declared this month that the 1989 military crackdown on peaceful demonstrators was a good thing, China's President Jiang Zemin justified his claim by pointing to the economic success and social stability which the mainland has enjoyed since.
''History shows that anything conducive to our national stability is good,'' Mr Jiang said.
But has the Communist Party secured a stable future for the country, and a new lease of life for itself, by buying off the population with economic prosperity? Or will democracy come to the fore again just as soon as the Chinese people are allowed to express their will? Did Tiananmen achieve long-term consolidation of the leadership's control, or was it simply a short-term gain? In the immediate wake of the massacre, the Government lost the hearts and minds of a big sector of the population, at least in urban centres, where millions had taken part in the pro-democracy protests.
But government propaganda, the threat of military force and economic prosperity have won converts to the dual policy of political authoritarianism and economic liberalism. Even many dissidents jailed after the massacre now believe the best hope for Chinais to carry on the economic reform drive and wait for a peaceful evolution towards a more open society.