internet - Voice from the past: Wang Dan

Last week I got an article by Wang Dan, former student leader at the 1989 Tiananmen Square and currently residing in Hong Kong, here in a translation by ESWN. I want to quote some parts, since I very much disagree with what Wang Dan has to say. He says all the right things people outside China want to hear, but who are at least doubtfull when you are living in China yourself. ESWN counters already some of his arguments too.
Wang Dan says:

Today, we still do not have a good way of countering the brute violence used by
the Chinese Communist government. Even from the viewpoint of the
inevitable democratic reform that will come, we cannot predict how the broad
masses will deal with the government's violence in China.

And:

We believe that as more Chinese netizens can access foreign website, the
Internet discussion groups will increase geometrically. At that time, the
Chinese government will face much more severe pressure and make them
leery of political oppression. The pace of democratic reform will increase as a
result of the free dissemination of information. The accumulated political
problems will not be permitted to continue indefinitely. A growth of an
Internet discussion community will enable discussants all over China to link up
and communicate, and make them more effective and coordinated to sketch out the
future democratic society.

With ESWN I have my doubts here. It is a very naive view on China and ignores the country's realities as they have developed since the early 1990s. Whether you like it or not, the one-party system has proved to be more stable than expected at the early 1990s and is stronger than ever. Not the central government has gotten more grip on the society, I would see there a certain erosion of power. But the balance of power between different regional and bureaucratic power houses has created a stronger regime, not one that is on the way out as Wang Dan suggests.