We are witnessing the decline and fall of America in so many ways. I am not, however, too disturbed by our diminished status meaning, for example, that one day we will no longer have the role of "cops of the world." But when I think who will fill this vacuum left by the United States and the answer increasingly appears to be authoritarian China, one of the last countries I wish a growing influence, I become very concerned.
Liu Xiao story is not over but it will fade in time. Liu is, in fact, only the most recent representative of that long strain of thinking that has arced through modern Chinese history from May Fourth Movement figures such as Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, and Hu Shi to more recent democracy advocates such as Wei Jingsheng, Fang Lizhi, and Ai Weiwei. How many of those names are familiar, perhaps only the last. But each in its own way lays the foundation for a gradual process of questioning. Liu is one of those steeping stones and thanks to him there will be others, whether that leads to change is too large a question to bee answered as dissent everywhere is confined and despised. But ghost live on.
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Foreigners wanting to help are "meddling"?
Awww. C'mon, folks. Just think of it as international proletarian solidarity, why doncha?
Awww. C'mon, folks. Just think of it as international proletarian solidarity, why doncha?
trump would not bother with this because it puts no money in his pocket or that of his family -
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Advocating justce is interference. Promoting human dignity is meddling. The photo of Mr and Mrs Liu speaks volumes of how much the leaders hate and fear China's true heroes. He will be remembered long after everyone forgets about Xi Jinping
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Old Saying: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again hoping that this time you will get a different result.
For 4 or 5 thousand years the Chinese have risen, then destroyed themselves in civil wars because they do not seem capable of letting go the conception of government as a central controlling entity. Each time they rise again they fail to see it was the oppressive controlling government which lead to the last failure not whatever thing it is they choose to think this time.
Why do they fear letting people be themselves?
Why do they .......
They may become the worlds super power for a while but it is inevitable they will destroy themselves again, it is their history it is it seems their preferred fate.
For 4 or 5 thousand years the Chinese have risen, then destroyed themselves in civil wars because they do not seem capable of letting go the conception of government as a central controlling entity. Each time they rise again they fail to see it was the oppressive controlling government which lead to the last failure not whatever thing it is they choose to think this time.
Why do they fear letting people be themselves?
Why do they .......
They may become the worlds super power for a while but it is inevitable they will destroy themselves again, it is their history it is it seems their preferred fate.
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The civil wars come when the emperor his lost his legitimacy; not a bad system when you think about it. The willingness of the people to join that struggle commendable. But not a period one wishes to live through.
Liu Xiaobo was executed in slow motion by the Chinese Communist Party, the cadre of paranoid, soulless old men who fear the loss of power. His crime? He threatened to make those pathetic old men look bad, and lose face. The risk that he would rally Chinese citizens hungry for something better, like democracy, was too high.
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Democracy with a small ‘d’ is always a strong cry, creating it and more importantly maintaining it another story as current times indicate. The CCP is not a monolith but that difficult to see behind the Leninist’s curtain. Liu Xiao knew that and was working on aiming change with his word and actions. His message is still there, do these seem like good times for it or not? Look around.
With toothless and useless Trump as our president, poor Mr. Liu and his supporters have very little hope of gaining help from the US. Xi will be emboldened, as Putin has been. I am sad for Mr. Liu.
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CCP got away with organ harvesting, didn't they? Nothing seems to have changed. This tragedy reminded me the spectacular high speed train accident some years ago in which victims were almost buried by officials at the site of accident with train debris in order to hide the scale of casualties. PRC may be a bigger place now, but the filth being churned out by CCP machinery, decorated and served through ministry officials etc. is truly staggering. The refusal of information circulation and endless manipulation of information (notice the German doctor being used in a propaganda video in this case -- against the written warning by the German Embassy not to produce any videos, as they realistically feared the risk of being manipulated) simply make others to look down PRC as a whole, while paying court to Xi as a useful alternative to Trump (occasionally and opportunistically).
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In Confucian tradition, scholars get respect. In President Xi`s China they get a death sentence.
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China fears free speech. Marxist societies are necessarily opposed to freedom, since Marx looked forward to the day when everybody would think alike and then the state could wither away. China has embraced capitalism, but it remains a Marxist country--its ideology is Marxist capitalism. Marxist capitalism sounds like a contradiction, but Marx and Engels said that every country had to go through a capitalist stage before reaching the final stage of communism. China's leaders do not talk about the subject, but they believe that Chairman Mao made a mistake by trying to jump from feudalism into socialism without passing through capitalism.
The cruelty of every Marxist state that has ever existed comes from the belief that we must look forward to a final stage of history characterized by uniform thought.
The cruelty of every Marxist state that has ever existed comes from the belief that we must look forward to a final stage of history characterized by uniform thought.
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Chinese dictator and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party "President" Xi knows that Americans value their Chinese-made Apple I Phones more than they value human rights.
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The title should be "In Liu Xiaobo's Last Days, the West Fights China for His Legacy."
I feel sorry for Liu Xiaobo's illness, I wish him a peaceful passing. Of course I pray a miracle that can save him.
I also pray for the West to STOP looking at China from above, from a moral high ground. Please STOP pretending that you represent the best interests of the Chinese people.
WE ARE NOT THAT FOOLISH!
I feel sorry for Liu Xiaobo's illness, I wish him a peaceful passing. Of course I pray a miracle that can save him.
I also pray for the West to STOP looking at China from above, from a moral high ground. Please STOP pretending that you represent the best interests of the Chinese people.
WE ARE NOT THAT FOOLISH!
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Like you, I hope that a miracle cure could save Mr. Liu, and pray for his peaceful passing. I also think it wrong that some westerners look down on China with a kind of colonial vision.
But I must ask, is it okay for the Chinese government to treat a Chinese scholar so terribly, especially when his scholarship was in the better interests of the Chinese people? Do you believe the Chinese government is working for the wishes of its people for greater freedoms? How about in Liu's case now? You can't well deny that the Chinese people would like more freedoms can you?
And since China won't allow Mr. Liu's voice to be heard, doesn't concern expressed by the international community better represent him and the Chinese people than the government stifling of his dignity in death?
On a final note, allow me to say that the people are usually not the problem, it is more often the ones governing them that are.
But I must ask, is it okay for the Chinese government to treat a Chinese scholar so terribly, especially when his scholarship was in the better interests of the Chinese people? Do you believe the Chinese government is working for the wishes of its people for greater freedoms? How about in Liu's case now? You can't well deny that the Chinese people would like more freedoms can you?
And since China won't allow Mr. Liu's voice to be heard, doesn't concern expressed by the international community better represent him and the Chinese people than the government stifling of his dignity in death?
On a final note, allow me to say that the people are usually not the problem, it is more often the ones governing them that are.
Liu Xiao was not a scholar – he had a Ph.D. in Literature and taught at Beijing Normal initially – he was an agitator and a critic who troubled his friends as much as the state he was a prolific if acidic writer, a loner and iconoclast. And he was in and out of jail often over his life. He knew his last publication (Charter 08) would put him there again but knew he had to say it. Nobel did well with the award the world needs such people sorely.
But what society welcomes radical change?
But what society welcomes radical change?
China remains a police state and no amount of pandering to china and its apologists changes that. It is foolish to deny the vile record of Xi- as it is putin, erdogan, and the apprentice itself. May all such societies get the misery they deserve.
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This is very depressing. It is obvious from this article and the accompanying one of lack of proper medical care for prisoners are clear examples of human rights violations. It is clear that Mr Liu is a political prisoner, a human rights violation per se, but his inability to take advantage of better medical care elsewhere is further damning evidence of China's unwillingness to live up to international standards. The fact that no international leader will address this directly to Mr Xi is disturbing. Ironically, the current relationship with Cuba is based on their poor human rights behavior; it pales in comparison to that of China but Mr Trump is typically silent in face of this new "best friend," Mr Xi.
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I would be less offended by Trump's silence about Liu Xiaobo if, in the same week, he had not tweeted his support for the prospect of young Charlie Gard coming to the U.S. for medical treatment.
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