AsiaInstituteforSocialPoliticalandEconomicResearch

The 75 year old scholar, Sun Wenguang, was severely beaten by five men for performing a ritual honoring the deceased Zhao Ziyang.  Zhao was viewed as a top echelon supporter of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and with the 20th anniversary of that movement approaching, Chinese governmental officials wanted to avoid any public recognition of those associated with the movement.  The use of physical force against a 75 year old man seems to be a most egregious and unwarranted suppression of expression.  A society that does not tolerate peaceful expressions of dissent is setting itself up for an explosive expression of dissent if a trigger event such as a major economic crisis or natural disaster unleashes widespread social dissatisfaction.  An extreme concern about preserving a monopoly on political and social power may be what leads China's political establishment to have so little tolerance of discussion of certain taboo topics such as Taiwan, Tibet, Tiananmen, Falun Gong, etc.
 
Social scientists such as Lewis Coser have described how intra-group conflict can allow for the development of cross-cutting cleavages that will allow a society to reduce pressure within it and preserve the integrity of the society, whereas suppressing such conflict will inevitably result in a schism when conflict can no longer be suppressed.  Freedom of expression is a safety valve that could better serve China's desire to preserve the integrity of its political regime than the present pattern of terror and suppression that seems to guide public discourse within the People's Republic. Besides the pressure releasing benefits of free expression, it has the merit of allowing people to speak their mind and own the consequences and promises of their beliefs.  To interfere with this basic right is a simple way to deny human beings the ability to be creative and flourish.  A society of 1.3 billion people will need tremendous creativity to continue the growth that is essential to the present regime's preservation.