Teng Biao
 |
| Liu Xiaobo (3rd from right, standing) and Teng Biao (left) and other famous human rights lawyers (January 2, 2006, Beijing) |
I
When I came to know Liu Xiaobo’s name, the CCP had already labeled him as a behind-the-scenes “black hand” of the 1989 “counter-revolutionary riot.” Initially, my understanding of his views and thinking unexpectedly came from just a few words of official propaganda I read. That “counter-revolutionary riot” was later called the “turmoil,” and then the “political disturbance,” and then, in the end, it became a sensitive word. “Liu Xiaobo” became a restricted area. His body disappeared again and again inside iron walls. His writing was heavily blocked by the Red Wall. It was difficult for his ideas and spirit of resistance to break through the cage, but he nevertheless inspired a handful of “unwise” rebels.
Having grown up in a remote mountainous area of China in the 1970s, I didn’t have an opportunity to get a taste of this universally shocking “black horse of the literary scene” of the 1980s. It was in 1996, in the documentary “Tiananmen,” which was then quietly circulating among people in mainland China, that I first saw the stuttering Liu Xiaobo. In the beginning of that year, he had just emerged from more than six months jail time, but before the end of the year, he was given a three-year term of reeducation through labor (RTL).
By the time his RTL term was completed in 1999, China already had the Internet, as well as a firewall. Liu Xiaobo was, of course, one of the names that the authorities were most keen on people not being able to retrieve. There were not that many people who were willing to have contact with him; those who knew him affectionately called him Stammer Liu. This is probably the inevitable lonely fate of a rebel under a dictatorship: his body is imprisoned and ruined, his speech is prohibited from circulating, he’s harassed in his daily life, and cynical people avoid him like the plague.
The first time I met Liu Xiaobo in person was in 2004, at a dinner party. At that time, the “rights defense movement” was just emerging. He was very concerned about the rights defense movement and wrote many articles, one after the next, with commentary on rights defense events and figures. The New Youth Study Group case, Taishi Village case, Chen Guangcheng incidents, the Black Brick Kilns Scandal, the Yang Jia case –– for almost every important, hot case, one can see his incisive commentary. From the time of our first meeting until just before he went to jail at the end of 2008, we were often together, drinking, chatting, and participating in pro-democracy activities. I also introduced the rights lawyers Gao Zhisheng, Li Heping, and others to Liu Xiaobo, Zhang Zuhua, et al. The dividing line between “human rights defenders” and “pro-democracy activists” at that time, had already started to slowly fade. In March 2008, the first time I was abducted and detained, Liu Xiaobo also specially wrote an article titled “The Insanity of the Dark Forces – Reflections on Teng Biao’s Abduction,” and denounced the authorities’ wanton trampling of human rights.
Liu Xiaobo showed me a draft of Charter 08, and I also made my suggestions to him in person. At that time, in the version that I read, there were 20 “Fundamental Recommendations.” I said that was too many – the main points weren’t prominent; and that 10 were enough. Later, the formally released version had 19 provisions. Charter 08, with freedom and human rights as its core, and the establishment of a democratic constitutional government as its goal, reflects the basic consensus of Chinese civil movements on the direction of China’s political future, and is a historic political text issued by some Chinese people who were not in favor of the government. The Charter 08 Movement was a concentrated display of people power, accumulated since the 1970s through the pro-democracy movements and rights defense movement, and brought the post-1989 civil liberalization movement to a new level.
My name was mentioned in Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court’s criminal verdict of Liu Xiaobo. I also specially published an essay “Testimony on My Testimony,” in which I wrote: “I suggested some revisions, such as removing the content about environmental protection and social security, etc., and reducing the number of clauses in order to focus on the human rights, rule of law and political framework. My point is that it’s unreasonable for you to take Xiaobo into custody and not me. Xiaobo was not the only person to participate in the drafting of Charter 08; I am also willing to assume legal responsibility relating to Charter 08. …. If Liu Xiaobo committed a crime, then I am an ‘accomplice.’ As one of the first group of signatories of Charter 08, if you count the promotion of Charter 08 as a crime, I demand to bear the same responsibility. If signing and disseminating Charter 08 constitutes inciting subversion of state power, I also signed it, disseminated it, and will continue to disseminate it. I demand to share Mr. Liu Xiaobo’s suffering because that is tantamount to sharing his honor. To stand on your defendant’s dock and live in your jail is not my disgrace.”
Because I signed Charter 08, I was suspended by the China University of Political Science and Law. But Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment; he paid an enormous price. However before July 2017, no one knew –– including Liu Xiaobo himself–– the price that he would pay was his life.
II
Why is Liu Xiaobo important? Among China’s freedom and democracy fighters, Liu Xiaobo is irreplaceable：
1. Mature and profound thought. He was a black horse in literary circles, with a background as a PhD in literature. As a scholar, writer, poet, and teacher, it was easy for him to undertake criticism in the fields of literature, art, aesthetics, and culture. His essence was that of a free and unconstrained, willful poet and an unconventional and pioneering writer, but the political reality caused him to become a dissident, pro-democracy activist, political commentator, human rights activist, and prisoner of conscience. Both in and out of prison, he was very diligent in his reading and writing, enriching his own knowledge reserves and theoretical weapons and gradually sharpening himself into a mature thinker. One can see from his essays that he was not limited to preaching morality, making ethical judgments, and analyzing aesthetics, but he also absorbed and applied knowledge from political science, philosophy, law, history, economics, sociology, psychology, and other disciplines. Moreover, this was reflected through infectious text, rich in his distinct personal characteristics. His articles were sharp, rational, and firm, and they were permeated with a deep concern for humanity; they became his most important weapon of resistance. He had a profound understanding of democracy, nationalism, liberalism, human nature, and human rights, and was filled with a spirit of self-criticism and self-examination. All of these are rare, important qualities.
2. Complete opposition to autocracy. Unlike many liberal intellectuals, his criticism of autocracy and totalitarianism was thorough. Not only on a theoretical level, but also from the aspects of politics, human nature, aesthetics and practice–– he comprehensively subverted absolutism. He did not hold illusions nor fall short on his commitment; he was not afraid of losing his platform to speak, nor of being unemployed or jailed. However, some people, because of their level of understanding, are unable to completely break with the CCP’s autocratic regime; there are also some people, because of their interests, or fear, who need to conduct self-censorship to some extent.
3. Enormous courage and long-term persistence. He had experienced weakness and made concessions, but after reflecting, he didn’t flinch; after drawing lessons from painful experiences, his spirit was raised to a higher level. On two occasions, he gave up the opportunities to obtain asylum abroad, and without hesitation returned to China. Again and again, he was subjected to house arrest, disappearance, searches, re-education through labor, prison sentences, long-term harassment, isolation and misunderstanding, but none of these challenges made him give up the struggle. The longer he fought, the more courageous he became. There weren’t any sensitive meetings that he didn’t dare organize and participate in; nor were there any topics or figures that he was afraid to comment on. The General Secretary, the one-party system, corruption, Tiananmen massacre, prisoners of conscience, Falun Gong, Tibet, Xinjiang, nationalism, he recorded all of them faithfully. With respect to the dark forces, he mercilessly exposed and criticized them, and he paid ardent attention to the weak and the sufferers, and appealed for them. There are some fighters who, for various reasons, have retreated or gone into exile; and there are some people who have given up because of fear and despair, and even a few individuals who have been lured by gain and surrendered to the dictatorship, but Liu Xiaobo persisted.
4. Extensive contacts. At a young age, Liu Xiaobo became famous throughout the country; he took part in the 1989 pro-democracy movement, and organized the Independent Chinese PEN Center. Time and time again, while engaged in resistance activities, Liu Xiaobo accumulated extensive contacts both inside and outside the system. He became an important bridge and hub, linking reformers within the Party, liberal intellectuals, independent writers, political prisoners, families of the [Tiananmen] massacre victims, democracy activists, human rights lawyers, petitioners, grassroots NGOs, entrepreneurs, university professors, young students and more. Although Liu Xiaobo was not the main drafter of Charter 08, nevertheless, it was because of Charter 08 that he was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment; the most important reason was that without the authorities knowing, he had launched this charter that sought the establishment of the “Federal Republic of China,” and moreover, collected signatures nationwide from 303 intellectuals, democracy activists and human rights defenders as initial sponsors of the charter. This could not but cause great panic among the CCP authorities.
5. Widespread international recognition. Since 1990, Liu Xiaobo has won numerous international human rights awards and has received the attention of the media, human rights organizations, and some Western governments. After winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, he received even more reports, attention, and respect from around the world. His biography and collections of his works have been translated into many languages, and he has become the most famous of China’s democracy fighters.
6. Rich experience, outstanding ability to act and lead. Since the 1980s, Liu Xiaobo transformed from an unruly, arrogant, and obstinate black horse in intellectual circles to a mature, self-disciplined freedom warrior who was prepared for loneliness and constantly sacrificed himself. His long-term resistance career, suffering in prison and brutal reality gave Liu Xiaobo a wealth of political wisdom and fighting experience and made him a democracy movement leader with extraordinary ability in action.
Some of Chinese democrats and political opponents may meet two to three or even four to five, of the six characteristics mentioned above, but it is hard to think of anyone other than Liu Xiaobo who could conform to all of these aspects. In this sense, Liu Xiaobo is almost irreplaceable. The fact that he was persecuted to death is a tremendous loss to China’s cause of freedom and democracy. Kind-hearted people once expected Liu Xiaobo–– when he walked out of the dark prison after 11 years–– to play an important role in China’s political transition. However, Liu Xiaobo could not wait for that day; more accurately, the CCP, out of fear, deliberately did not let Liu Xiaobo wait until that day.
III
Like the events such as the collapse of the Berlin Wall, 911, Tibetans’ self-immolations, and the plight of the Syrian refugees, in my opinion, Liu Xiaobo’s death was one of the most important events of the human spirit in world history after 1989.
After the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, when the bloodstains of CCP’s victims were not yet dry, all the democracies in the West, one after the next, tossed the CCP an olive branch; they couldn’t wait to welcome the dictators and executioners with flowers and a red carpet. Trade and human rights were severed; the CCP was allowed to enter the World Trade Organization, allowed to host the Olympic Games and the World Expo, and it was elected again and again to the UN Human Rights Council. As the second largest economy in the world, China plays an increasingly unreasonable and provocative role internationally; it even wants to replace the United States and the West as the global leader on some important issues.
The West is meek with respect to the CCP, and doesn’t dare to promote the democratization of China; it’s not even willing to sternly criticize the Chinese government on human rights issues. Scholars, research institutes, the media, publishing companies, and commercial organizations have all adopted self-censorship in order to maintain their relations with China or to enter the Chinese market. Some companies have even cooperated with the CCP to do evil: helping the CCP to develop censorship software or giving customer information to the CCP’s national security apparatus. The long-term appeasement policy of the West toward the CCP’s autocratic regime has already caused some evil consequences, and has brought about damage and threatens the value of Western liberal democracy. There are many examples at hand: cross-border kidnapping of activists, Confucius Institutes that threaten academic freedom, cyber-attacks, infiltration of free media, international bribery, attempting to control democratic elections, helping pro-CCP politicians enter Western politics, purchasing movie theater chains, promoting the concept of “human rights with Chinese characteristics,” preventing overseas Tibetans’ freedom of speech and right from demonstrating, monitoring the speech of Chinese students studying abroad by the Chinese students and scholars associations, and so on. However, very few observers and politicians in the West have given sufficient attention to the seriousness of this issue.
China is the largest autocracy in the world, and Liu Xiaobo was the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s clear that he has become an important symbol. For such a saint-like victim, a hero who promoted the cause of human freedom and democracy –although the international community gave him substantial attention and support — it was far from enough. The CCP turned a deaf ear to the calls of support and concern, and even scoffed at them, and intensified the long-term strict house arrest of Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia. The international community looked on helplessly as Liu Xiaobo received a heavy sentence and then imprisoned, and subjected to liver cancer, and was unable to obtain freedom until the moment of his death. People usually compare Liu Xiaobo to Carl von Ossietzky, a German journalist and writer who won the Nobel Peace Prize while he was in a Nazi concentration camp. However, Ossietzky died in a hospital a year and a half after being formally released; Liu Xiaobo remained in strict police custody until his death. To date, he is the only Nobel laureate to have died in captivity. Even after Liu Xiaobo died, his ashes were forcibly cast into the sea; he died without a burial place. Even after he died, the CCP authorities continue to subject his widow Liu Xia to house arrest and disappearance.
Liu Xiaobo’s death was a global live-stream of “Murder Foretold.” Western democracies did not have a strong desire to help Liu Xiaobo obtain freedom. Just as Liu Xiaobo passed away, Western leaders were drinking with CCP leaders and signing one deal after another, and even though they orally expressed some demands, they lacked practical ways to pressure the CCP. Amid the arrogance and dominance of the CCP, people around the world had no choice but to watch Liu Xiaobo be sadistically killed, and watch Liu Xia be disappeared, and watch even more prisoners of conscience arrested, imprisoned and tortured.
The death of Liu Xiaobo is also a huge symbol of suffering, symbolizing the rising CCP’s autocratic regime’s enormous ridicule of humanity’s justice and conscience, and the evil consequences of the West’s appeasement policy toward China and the even greater threat to the future. In this sense, people will gradually realize that Liu Xiaobo’s death is a shocking event in the history of the human spirit since the end of the Cold War.
(The article was first published in The Journey of Liu Xiaobo: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate, Potomac Books, 2020)
NO FIGHTS，NO RIGHTS！ 