Eliminating anyone who poses a threat to the Communist power is the only agenda that drives the so-called development fantasy of China; Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo was its last victim
Dipin Damodharan
The so-called factory of the world has a serious problem that has now turned out to be the biggest trouble to its own citizens, and indeed, a threat to the global ecosystem as the dragon is on the way to become the new colonial power. China is yet to realise that development sans freedom doesn’t make any sense, more than that it doesn’t make the idea of development meaningful and fruitful.
It’s subverting the very essence of development as growth is primarily linked to the freedom of speech and democratic rights of individuals. Fascist rulers always think that this interconnection has nothing to do with their power to control the massess. The champion of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, thought like that, the same was the case with the Soviet Union. ‘Time’ made both the countries as just the dark shades of history. In a civilised world, it’s not, definitely, the way to go.
China has been proving it again and again with multiple acts of fascism, read communism here, that there’s little scope for true dissent in their socio-political set up. Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan are just the peripheral outcrops of that fascist mindset of a Communist state, where everything including the thinking process of society is hijacked, managed, and controlled by the government. Eliminating anyone who poses a threat to the Communist power is the only agenda that drives the so-called development fantasy of China.
Those who want the protection of state inside the dragon’s territory have to give up all their thoughts and aspirations, dreams and hopes, ideas and ideals; and compromising their political quotient is a must to lead a ‘peaceful’ life. Those who dare to challenge the tyranny of dragon, even in a non-violent mode, have no life, literally. The level of fear is unimaginable for an ordinary person who does not share the government’s political vision.
Liu Xiaobo was such an ordinary man in China who was never interested in the one-sided ideology of Communism. There was something great in the character of this multi-faceted personality who shined as a lecturer, writer, literary critic, and activist. As a man with dignity and honour, he was not ready to live in that fear. For spreading the good words of democracy, for co-authoring a petition that called for crucial reforms, including independent courts and elections for higher office in China, for taking up the path of non-violence to express his protest, China mistreated their first and only Nobel laureate in an uncivilised manner that shocked the voices of humanity. He was sentenced for the crime of speaking.
On July 13, 2017, Liu Xiaobo, 61, became the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in custody since the Nazi era. China’s brutal treatment of one of the great figures of modern times, the Nelson Mandela of our age, is a reflection of the autocratic character of Xi Jinping and his repressive state.
“If we don”t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don”t believe in it at all.” The words of renowned thinker Noam Chomsky tell us why China can never be a world leader though they have been trying to emphasise their global leadership status to fill the so-called vacuum created by the US as Donald Trump has got some disastrous ideas on development.
Though Liu Xiaobo died of late-stage liver cancer, it must be interpreted as a political murder executed by the state. “Even as Liu was dying of cancer, China refused to allow Liu to travel for treatment that might have saved his life. In a move that felt crass and disgusting, the Chinese authorities filmed the dying Liu without his consent to make propaganda films falsely depicting merciful treatment of him,” Nicholas Kristof wrote in The New York Times (NYT).
Look at the words of Geremie R. Barmé, Editor, China Heritage, after Liu’s death that expose the hypocrisy of Beijing. “Xiaobo: diagnosed who knows when, treated now with cynical and calculating precision, the kind of precision that keeps the high-speed trains of the People’s Republic running on time. A cynicism synchronised so that this dastardly year in which Xi Jinping will duly, daresay humbly, accept a second five-year term as party-state Chairman of Everything can unfold without a political hitch. A diagnosis that, perhaps, will allow a little more time to a man who has been robbed of so much time over this quarter of a century. How did his wife, Liu Xia, put it? Her words break my heart and assault the decency of every thinking person in the world: ‘Can’t operate, can’t do radiotherapy, can’t do chemo.’”
Xiaobo did nothing ‘wrong’ except his brilliant non-violent struggle for a free China. Leaving a lucrative and influential career in the West, he came to China to bring the spring of
democracy. During Tiananmen Square student democracy protests of the late 1980s, he rushed to support it in a peaceful manner. That was his commitment to the ideology of freedom, and he took up a tough mission to make his countrymen free from the iron-fist of Communism inspite of the impending hardships.
“When the troops opened fire on protesters (Tiananmen movement) on the night of June 3-4, 1989, he could have fled but stayed to negotiate with the Army and arrange a safe exit for students from the center of Tiananmen Square. In the 1990’s as well, he could have moved to the West, but instead he stayed to fight for freedom in his own country,” observed Nicholas Kristof in his NYT piece.
What makes Liu an unusual star in the group of freedom activists? The answer lies in one of his most celebrated statements. “I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies.” But, China was not that much ‘literate’ to get Liu Xiaobo’s point.
For participating in the Tiananmen Square protests, he was sentenced to two years in prison. Later he was in a labour camp for three years, because he criticised China”s one-party system. For over twenty-five years, Liu had fought for a more liberal and democratic China. He had a dream to make an ecosystem where that the country”s citizens are able to enjoy the freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.
But the dragon wanted to live for the fulfilment of its evil desires and upkeep. Liu was arrested in December 2008, and sentenced in the following year to eleven years” imprisonment for undermining the state authorities. For his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China, Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, a development that irritated China madly.
The so-called super powers are in a mute mode now. I haven’t heard anything form Trump on Liu’s death. Chinese people need to realise that this is their time to think, and Liu Xiaobo’s death holds a message for them to make China free from the ruthless rule of Communist Party.
The dragon knows the game. It will be an iron-fist dictatorship with the mechanical rule without any freedom being the purpose of all. If you still doubt it, just look around and see the destiny of scores of activists who gave up their lives for the cause of freedom. There”s intellectual slavery all around you. China just needs to tip it and top it with a system of economic growth based on the Communist Party’s ‘desires’. They never reveal the truth. The spirit of Liu will remind China about the great yet imminent ‘disaster’ to happen. After that, there will be a memorial in Tiananmen Square to Liu.
(The writer is the Founding Editor of Future Kerala business daily)
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