On December 19, 2024, it marked the 23rd anniversary of the death of Wang Ruowang, a pioneer of the democratic movement. The China Democratic Party held a commemorative event titled “The Path of Wang Ruowang and the China Democratic Party” in Flushing on December 17. Wang Ruowang’s widow, Yang Zi, presented the China Democratic Party with the Chinese and English ribbons used by Wang Ruowang, symbolizing the passing on of his spirit from one generation to the next.
Dozens of young members of the China Democratic Party participated in the event, listening to the elders recount the history of the party.
Wang Ruowang was a prominent figure in modern Chinese literature and the democratic movement. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1933 as an “old revolutionary” and held a high-ranking position within the party after the CCP came into power in 1949. However, he eventually broke ties with the CCP completely and was known as a “unique rebel.” In 1957, he was labeled a “rightist,” expelled from the party, sent to labor in the countryside, and his first wife died of mental illness. In 1968, he was imprisoned for four years for criticizing Mao Zedong. In 1986, during the anti-bourgeois liberalization movement, he, along with Fang Lizhi and Liu Binyan, was criticized by Deng Xiaoping and expelled from the party for the second time in 1987. In 1989, he was arrested on September 8 for participating in the 1989 democratic movement and imprisoned for 14 months on charges of “subverting the dictatorship of the proletariat.” In August 1992, he was invited by Columbia University in the United States and visited as a scholar with his wife, Yang Zi (born Feng Suying). In 1995, he founded the China Democratic Party in New York, serving as chairman until his passing in 2001 in Queens, New York.
Chen Liqun, Vice Chairman of the China Democratic Party Committee, stated that the China Democratic Party founded by Wang Ruowang in the United States in 1995 preceded the China Democratic Party established in mainland China by three years. When establishing the party domestically, Wang Ruowang proposed merging his founded China Democratic Party with the mainland party. She read a written statement from Zhu Yufu, the founder of the mainland China Democratic Party: “Mr. Wang Ruowang’s integrity and courage are greatly admired and cherished by friends in the country.”
Chen Liqun also mentioned that members of the China Democratic Party have made significant sacrifices to promote the democratization process in China. “Several hundred party members in China have been sentenced to prison, accumulating over a thousand years in total, as Yan Jiaqi once called it ‘a thousand-year prison term for the China Democratic Party.'”
Political commentator Hu Ping expressed the hope that people would remember the history of the founding of the China Democratic Party and pass it on to future generations.
Democratic activist Gao Ping said, “If Wang Ruowang had followed the party line and not spoken out with a different voice, he would have lived better than any of us. But he cared about the common people, cared about the Chinese people; he was determined to speak, to write, to act.”
Democratic activist Cai Guihua from Shanghai, in an interview, expressed that Wang Ruowang had long been calling for the downfall of the Communist Party, completely denying the party, and his indomitable spirit and determination were admirable, as he had the spirit of never giving up even in the face of death.
Wang Ruowang’s widow, Yang Zi, addressed the young members of the China Democratic Party, saying, “You will see a China without the Communist Party, and I hope that in my lifetime, I can return with you; this is my wish.”