38-430: "The Fifth Modernization" is an essay by human rights activist Wei Jingsheng , originally begun as a signed wall poster placed on the Democracy Wall in Beijing on December 5, 1978. The poster called on the Chinese Communist Party to add democracy to the list of the Four Modernizations , which already included industry , agriculture , science and technology , and national defense . It openly stated democracy
76-409: A dictator . Of course, internal problems cannot be solved overnight but must be constantly addressed as part of a long-term process. Mistakes and shortcomings will be inevitable, but these are for us to worry about. This is infinitely better than facing abusive overlords against whom there is no redress. Those who worry that democracy will lead to anarchy and chaos are just like those who, following
114-456: A dictatorship is often associated with brutality and oppression. As a result, it is often also used as a term of abuse against political opponents. The term has also come to be associated with megalomania . Many dictators create a cult of personality around themselves and they have also come to grant themselves increasingly grandiloquent titles and honours. For instance, Idi Amin Dada , who had been
152-412: A state of emergency ; rule by decree ; repression of political opponents ; not abiding by the procedures of the rule of law ; and the existence of a cult of personality centered on the leader. Dictatorships are often one-party or dominant-party states. A wide variety of leaders coming to power in different kinds of regimes, such as one-party or dominant-party states and civilian governments under
190-462: A transition to genuine democracy during or after their term. The label has been applied to leaders such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk of Turkey (1923–38), Josip Broz Tito of SFR Yugoslavia (1953–80), and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore (1959–90). The association between a dictator and the military is a common one. Many dictators take great pains to emphasize their connections with the military and they often wear military uniforms. In some cases, this
228-672: A British army lieutenant prior to Uganda 's independence from Britain in October 1962, subsequently styled himself " His Excellency , President for Life , Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO , MC , Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular ". In the movie The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin satirized not only Adolf Hitler but
266-517: A foreigner and of openly agitating for the overthrow of the government of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist system in China."... For his outspoken views, Wei was sentenced to a prison term of 15 years. Wei ultimately spent a total of 18 years in different prisons in China. During this time, he wrote letters explaining his views which were compiled into a book, The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings . Some of
304-560: A longer history for political-military figures in both Latin America and Spain. Franco also used the phrase " By the Grace of God " on coinage or other material displaying him as Caudillo , whereas Hitler and Mussolini rarely used such language or imagery. Over time, dictators have been known to use tactics that violate human rights. For example, under the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, government policy
342-650: A personal rule, have been described as dictators. The word dictator comes from the Latin word dictātor , agent noun from dictare (say repeatedly, assert, order). A dictator was a Roman magistrate given sole power for a limited duration. Originally an emergency legal appointment in the Roman Republic and the Etruscan culture , the term dictator did not have the negative meaning it has now. It started to get its modern negative meaning with Cornelius Sulla 's ascension to
380-472: A population of 7 million) during his four-year dictatorship. As a result, Pol Pot is sometimes described as "the Hitler of Cambodia" and "a genocidal tyrant". Because of its negative and pejorative connotations, modern authoritarian leaders very rarely (if ever) use the term dictator in their formal titles, instead they most often simply have title of president . In the 19th century, however, its official usage
418-472: A similar title, "El Caudillo " ("the Head", 'the chieftain') and for Stalin his adopted name, meaning "Man of Steel", became synonymous with his role as the absolute leader. For Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco, the use of modest, non-traditional titles displayed their absolute power even stronger as they did not need any, not even a historic legitimacy either. However, in the case of Franco, the title "Caudillo" did have
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#1732852093057456-471: A writer and academic who specializes in China, wrote: On March 25, hearing through the grapevine that a crackdown was imminent, Wei and his colleagues rushed out a special edition of Explorations entitled "Do We Want Democracy or a New Dictatorship?"... Wei and some thirty other Democracy Wall activists were rounded up [soon after]. That October, Wei Jingsheng was brought to trial and accused of "supplying military intelligence [on China's war with Vietnam] to
494-579: Is most prominent for having authored the essay " The Fifth Modernization ", which was posted on the Democracy Wall in Beijing in 1978. As punishment from the government for writing his manifesto, Wei was arrested and convicted of " counter-revolutionary " activities, and was detained as a political prisoner from 1979 to 1993. Briefly released in 1993, Wei continued to engage in his dissident activities by speaking to visiting journalists, and as punishment, he
532-589: Is perfectly legitimate; for instance, Francisco Franco was a general in the Spanish Army before he became Chief of State of Spain, and Manuel Noriega was officially commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces . In other cases, the association is mere pretense. Some dictators have been masters of crowd manipulation , such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Others were more prosaic speakers, such as Joseph Stalin and Francisco Franco . Typically,
570-562: The Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi officially assumed the title of "dictator" (see Dictatorship of Garibaldi ). Shortly afterwards, during the 1863 January uprising in Poland, "Dictator" was also the official title of four leaders, the first being Ludwik Mierosławski . Past that time, however, the term dictator assumed an invariably negative connotation. In popular usage,
608-733: The National Endowment for Democracy Award in 1997, the Olof Palme Memorial Prize in 1994, and the International Activist Award by the Gleitsman Foundation in 1993. Dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power . A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a polity . The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule
646-825: The People's Republic of China during China's Cultural Revolution , where Mao set out to purge dissidents, primarily through the use of youth groups strongly committed to his cult of personality , and during Augusto Pinochet 's junta in Chile . Some dictators have been associated with genocide on certain races or groups; the most notable and wide-reaching example is the Holocaust , Adolf Hitler 's genocide of eleven million people, of whom six million were Jews. Later on in Democratic Kampuchea , General Secretary Pol Pot and his policies killed an estimated 1.7 million people (out of
684-605: The United States. He was sent to the United States due to international pressure, especially the request by US President Bill Clinton . In a September 2021 documentary titled What Really Happened in Wuhan by Australian journalist and author Sharri Markson , Wei claimed that he attempted to warn American authorities about COVID-19 in October 2019 after being informed of an outbreak by contacts in Beijing . He also claims that China
722-521: The communist government under Mao Zedong played in causing the famines, and it forced Wei to start questioning the nature of the system under which he lived. Wei would later write about this period: "I felt as if I had suddenly awakened from a long dream, but everyone around me was still plunged in darkness." In 1973, he began working as an electrician at the Beijing Zoo . Wei did not publicly voice his feelings until 1978, when he decided to take part in
760-509: The dictator's people seize control of all media, censor or destroy the opposition, and give strong doses of propaganda daily, often built around a cult of personality . Mussolini and Hitler used similar, modest titles referring to them as "the Leader". Mussolini used "Il Duce " and Hitler was generally referred to as "der Führer ", both meaning 'Leader' in Italian and German respectively. Franco used
798-533: The dictatorship following Sulla's civil war , making himself the first Dictator in Rome in more than a century (during which the office was ostensibly abolished) as well as de facto eliminating the time limit and need of senatorial acclamation. He avoided a major constitutional crisis by resigning the office after about one year, dying a few years later. Julius Caesar followed Sulla's example in 49 BC and in February 44 BC
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#1732852093057836-529: The few activists who explicitly argued against Marxism and the leadership of a Marxist party. Wei is also known for his editorial work in the short-lived magazine Explorations ( 探索 ) in 1979. He published a letter under his name in March 1979 in which he denounced the inhuman conditions which existed in Beijing's Qincheng Prison , where the 10th Panchen Lama was imprisoned. His dissident writings eventually led him to be tried and imprisoned. Orville Schell ,
874-556: The institution of dictatorship itself. A benevolent dictatorship refers to a government in which an authoritarian leader exercises absolute political power over the state but is perceived to do so with regard for the benefit of the population as a whole, standing in contrast to the decidedly malevolent stereotype of a dictator. A benevolent dictator may allow for some civil liberties or democratic decision-making to exist, such as through public referendums or elected representatives with limited power, and often makes preparations for
912-671: The letters were directly addressed to Deng Xiaoping , other letters were addressed to different family members of Wei. He remained imprisoned until 14 September 1993, when he was released just one week before the International Olympic Committee held a vote over whether it should award the 2000 Summer Olympics to Beijing or Sydney . Wei continued to speak out, despite the threat of arrest. On 27 February 1994, Wei met with United States Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights John Shattuck to discuss human rights conditions in China, and he also met with journalists. Wei
950-464: The lives of the people. Democracy, freedom, and happiness for all are our sole objectives. Wei differed from the mainstream of the Democracy Wall movement (which believed that the primary conflict was between a bureaucratic class and the people) because unlike the majority of movement participants, he argued that a totalitarian political system was the source of the people's grievances. He was one of
988-462: The newly emerging Democracy Wall movement which was then taking place in Beijing . On 5 December 1978, he posted an essay which he authored on the wall. Entitled " The Fifth Modernization ," Wei's essay was a response to paramount leader Deng Xiaoping 's essay, the Four Modernizations . The basic theme of Wei's essay is that democracy should also be a modernization goal for China along with
1026-411: The other four modernizations which were proposed by Deng (industry, agriculture, science and technology, and national defense). Wei signed the essay with his real name and address. The essay immediately caused a stir because of its boldness and because its author was not anonymous. It was also the only essay which addressed Deng Xiaoping by name, and it was also the only essay which referred to him as
1064-605: The overthrow of the Qing dynasty, worried that without an emperor the country would fall into chaos. Their decision was to patiently suffer oppression because they feared that without the weight of oppression, their spines might completely collapse! To such people, I would like to say, with all due respect: We want to be the masters of our own destiny. We need no gods or emperors and we don't believe in saviors of any kind...we do not want to serve as mere tools of dictators with personal ambitions for carrying out modernization. We want to modernize
1102-443: The republic in times of emergency . Like the terms " tyrant " and " autocrat ", dictator came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive rule. In modern usage the term dictator is generally used to describe a leader who holds or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power. Dictatorships are often characterised by some of the following: suspension of elections and civil liberties ; proclamation of
1140-521: The second half of the 19th century, the term dictator had occasional positive implications. For example, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , the national leader Lajos Kossuth was often referred to as dictator, without any negative connotations, by his supporters and detractors alike, although his official title was that of regent-president. When creating a provisional executive in Sicily during
1178-450: Was an additional modernization that needed to be pursued if China truly wanted to modernize itself. This activism -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Wei Jingsheng Wei Jingsheng ( Chinese : 魏京生 ; born 20 May 1950) is a Chinese human rights activist and dissident. He is best known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement . He
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1216-512: Was arrested the following week along with fifteen other democracy and labor activists. Although he was released shortly afterward and sent into exile in Tianjin , Wei was arrested once more on 1 April 1994 when he tried to return to Beijing. Charged with plotting against the state, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but he would only remain in prison until 16 November 1997, when he was released, ostensibly for medical reasons, and promptly deported to
1254-612: Was aware of the virus much sooner than they admitted and intentionally spread the virus during the World Military Games in Wuhan when they were held between 19 and 27 October 2019. In 1996, Wei Jingsheng was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought . He is a winner of numerous other human rights and democracy awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1996,
1292-628: Was enforced by secret police and the Gulag system of prison labour camps. Most Gulag inmates were not political prisoners, although significant numbers of political prisoners could be found in the camps at any one time. Data collected from Soviet archives gives the death toll from Gulags as 1,053,829. The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan 's military dictator Omar al-Bashir over alleged war crimes in Darfur . Similar crimes were committed during Chairman Mao Zedong 's rule over
1330-596: Was imprisoned again from 1994 to 1997, making it a total of 18 years he has spent in various prisons. He was deported to the United States of America on 16 November 1997, on medical parole. Still a Chinese citizen, in 1998 Wei established the Wei Jingsheng Foundation in New York City (now based in Washington, D.C. ) whose stated aim is to work to improve human rights and advocate democratisation in China. Wei
1368-553: Was more common: The usage of the term dictator in western media has been criticized by the left-leaning organization Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting as "Code for Government We Don't Like". According to them, leaders that would generally be considered authoritarian but are allied with the United States such as Paul Biya or Nursultan Nazarbayev are rarely referred to as "dictators", while leaders of countries opposed to U.S. policy such as Nicolás Maduro or Bashar al-Assad have
1406-420: Was proclaimed Dictator perpetuo , "Dictator in perpetuity", officially doing away with any limitations on his power, which he kept until his assassination the following month. Following Caesar's assassination, his heir Augustus was offered the title of dictator, but he declined it. Later successors also declined the title of dictator, and usage of the title soon diminished among Roman rulers. As late as
1444-631: Was the oldest of four children, brought up by Chinese Communist Party cadres. In 1966, Wei joined the Red Guards as a 16-year-old student during the Cultural Revolution . He lived in remote rural areas in Northern China and was able to speak with peasant farmers about the widespread famines that had occurred a few years before, during the Great Leap Forward . He uncovered the role that
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