REMEMBERING LIU XIAOBO Analyzing Censorship of the Death of Liu Xiaobo on Wechat and Weibo
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Confession, Redemption, and Death: Liu Xiaobo and the Protest Movement of 1989
Confession, Redemption, and Death: Liu Xiaobo and the Protest Movement of 1989 Geremie Barmé1 There should be room for my extremism; I certainly don’t demand of others that they be like me... I’m pessimistic about mankind in general, but my pessimism does not allow for escape. Even though I might be faced with nothing but a series of tragedies, I will still struggle, still show my opposition. This is why I like Nietzsche and dislike Schopenhauer. Liu Xiaobo, November 19882 I FROM 1988 to early 1989, it was a common sentiment in Beijing that China was in crisis. Economic reform was faltering due to the lack of a coherent program of change or a unified approach to reforms among Chinese leaders and ambitious plans to free prices resulted in widespread panic over inflation; the question of political succession to Deng Xiaoping had taken alarming precedence once more as it became clear that Zhao Ziyang was under attack; nepotism was rife within the Party and corporate economy; egregious corruption and inflation added to dissatisfaction with educational policies and the feeling of hopelessness among intellectuals and university students who had profited little from the reforms; and the general state of cultural malaise and social ills combined to create a sense of impending doom. On top of this, the government seemed unwilling or incapable of attempting to find any new solutions to these problems. It enlisted once more the aid of propaganda, empty slogans, and rhetoric to stave off the mounting crisis. University students in Beijing appeared to be particularly heavy casualties of the general malaise. -
Testimony of Phelim Kine, Asia Researcher, Human Rights Watch
Testimony of Phelim Kine, Asia Researcher, Human Rights Watch: Congressional Executive Commission on China Hearing on “Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and the Future of Political Reform in China” November 9, 2010 The Nobel Committee’s October 8, 2010 decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese writer and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo has put China’s human rights deficit squarely back on the international agenda. It does so at a time when rights and freedoms guaranteed by both China’s constitution and international law are under renewed attack by the Chinese government. Liu Xiaobo is an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, a 54-year-old former university professor imprisoned in 2009 on “subversion” charges for his involvement with Charter ‘08, a political manifesto calling for gradual political reforms in China. Liu was also jailed in 1989 for his role in the Tiananmen Square protests and again in 1996 for criticizing China’s policy toward Taiwan and the Dalai Lama. Human Rights Watch honored Liu Xiaobo with the 2010 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism for his fearless commitment to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in China. What does the average Chinese person know about Liu Xiaobo? What do those who know who Liu Xiaobo is think about him? To a large extent, the debate about Liu Xiaobo and his winning the Nobel Prize has occurred outside China due to strict censorship of state media and the internet. Inside China, Liu Xiaobo has been relatively unknown outside of literary and intellectual circles, dissidents, human rights defenders, and civil society activists. -
China Jails Dissident Liu Xiaobo for 11 Years
China jails dissident Liu Xiaobo for 11 years Fri, Dec 25 2009 By Chris Buckley BEIJING (Reuters) - China's most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Friday for 11 years for campaigning for political freedoms, with the stiff sentence on a subversion charge swiftly condemned by rights groups and Washington. Liu, who turns 54 on Monday, helped organize the "Charter 08" petition which called for sweeping political reforms, and before that was prominent in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square that were crushed by armed troops. He stood quietly in a Beijing courtroom as a judge found him guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" for his role in the petition and for online essays critical of the ruling Communist Party, defense lawyer Shang Baojun said. Liu was not allowed to respond in court to the sentence. "Xiaobo and I were very calm when the verdict was read. We were mentally prepared for it that he would get a long sentence," said Liu's wife, Liu Xia, who was allowed in to hear the verdict. She was barred from the trial on Wednesday. "Later we were allowed 10 minutes together, and he told me he would appeal, even if the chances of success are low," she said. Liu has been among the most combative critics of China's one-Party rule. His case attracted an outcry from Western government and rights activists at home and abroad. The unusually harsh sentence drew a fresh outcry that is likely to grow. China "sees Liu Xiaobo as a representative figure, and think they can scare the others into silence with such a harsh sentence," said dissident writer and Christian activist Yu Jie. -
European Development Days
2006 European Development Days 8 years of policy debates from the European Consensus to the post-2015 agenda /1 3 European Development Days 2006-2013 Eight years of policy debates from the European Consensus to the post-2015 agenda Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed. More information on the European Union is available on the Internet (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2014 Paper version ISBN 978-92-79-38970-2 doi: 10.2841/47722 PDF ISBN 978-92-79-38969-6 doi: 10.2841/47692 © European Union, 2014 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium Printed on elemental chlorine-free bleached paper (ECF) European Development Days 2006-2013 Eight years of policy debates from the European Consensus to the post-2015 agenda Forward by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. This book has been published by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid in August 2014. European Commission FOREWORD by JOSÉ MANUEL BARROSO President of the European Commission I have always passionately believed in a Europe that I fought hard to preserve our high aid levels in our is open; a Europe that is committed to the values of multi-annual budget 2014-2020. In addition, my freedom, development and global solidarity. These Commission has stepped up special measures for the values have been central to the European project poorest, like the EUR 1 billion Food Facility or our ever since its inception and continue to inspire our strong support for the United Nation's Sustainable Union today. -
China Policy Institute Policy Paper 2012: No.3 a Convergence Of
China Policy Institute Policy Paper 2012: No.3 A convergence of China’s political reform agendas Andreas Fulda Significance A ten-year plan for social and political reform touted by Chinese establishment intellectual Yu Jianrong is gaining traction both within and outside China’s party-state. Yu’s plan is the most notable reform agenda to emerge since the Charter 08. It signifies a willingness among party-state officials to engage in open-ended discussions about democracy and human rights in China. What we need to know While the issue of political reform has been notably absent from official proclamations during the first days of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th Party Congress, China’s political future is being widely debated both in Chinese establishment and non-establishment circles alike. Although both reform camps agree on the need for political change they differ in their specific reform recommendations: while establishment figures call for a gradual evolution of China’s political system, anti-establishment intellectuals call for a complete overhaul of the Chinese body politic along liberal democratic lines. Despite such differences a convergence of China’s political reform agendas can be observed. One of China’s most renowned establishment intellectuals Yu Jianrong has touted a ten-year plan for social and political reform which strikingly resembles parts of China’s Charter 08. China’s Charter 08 was inspired by the Charter 77, a petition promulgated by anti-Soviet dissidents in Czechoslovakia, and calls for an end to one-party rule and the protection of human rights. It has been signed by more than two thousand citizens within China and supported by more than ten thousand signatories abroad. -
Liu Xiaobo BT 20 3
Liu Xiaobo 1955- Chinese Writer and Human Rights Activist Winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize BIRTH Liu Xiaobo was born on December 28, 1955, in Changchun, China, a large, industrial city in the northeastern part of the country and the capital of Jilin province. His parents were intellectuals, and his father was employed as a university professor. He has an older brother, Liu Xiaoguang, and a younger brother, Liu Xiaoxuan, who heads the engineering college at the Guangdong University of Technology. YOUTH Little information is available about Liu’s early life. After middle school, he followed his parents to a rural area in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China, where they lived from 1969 to 1973 during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution—a social movement initiated by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong to align the areas of education, art, and literature with communist ideology. As was typical of the educated youth of his generation, he was sent to the countryside at age 19 and spent two years laboring in a people’s commune in his home province of Jilin. Referencing this time in Liu’s life, his close friend Yang Jianli, now in exile, told the Guardian: “Some took it as suffering and thought they should reward themselves when they had power and money later. Liu Xiaobo took it as experience that helped him understand the real suffering of the Chinese people at the hands of the Chinese government.” In 1976 Liu got a job as a construction worker in his hometown of Changchun, the automotive hub of China. -
China's Fear of Contagion
China’s Fear of Contagion China’s Fear of M.E. Sarotte Contagion Tiananmen Square and the Power of the European Example For the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), erasing the memory of the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre remains a full-time job. The party aggressively monitors and restricts media and internet commentary about the event. As Sinologist Jean-Philippe Béja has put it, during the last two decades it has not been possible “even so much as to mention the conjoined Chinese characters for 6 and 4” in web searches, so dissident postings refer instead to the imagi- nary date of May 35.1 Party censors make it “inconceivable for scholars to ac- cess Chinese archival sources” on Tiananmen, according to historian Chen Jian, and do not permit schoolchildren to study the topic; 1989 remains a “‘for- bidden zone’ in the press, scholarship, and classroom teaching.”2 The party still detains some of those who took part in the protest and does not allow oth- ers to leave the country.3 And every June 4, the CCP seeks to prevent any form of remembrance with detentions and a show of force by the pervasive Chinese security apparatus. The result, according to expert Perry Link, is that in to- M.E. Sarotte, the author of 1989: The Struggle to Create Post–Cold War Europe, is Professor of History and of International Relations at the University of Southern California. The author wishes to thank Harvard University’s Center for European Studies, the Humboldt Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the University of Southern California for ªnancial and institutional support; Joseph Torigian for invaluable criticism, research assistance, and Chinese translation; Qian Qichen for a conversation on PRC-U.S. -
THE POWER of the POWERLESS in CHINA Panel Discussion
THE POWER OF THE POWERLESS IN CHINA Panel Discussion Wednesday, September 26, 5 p.m. Since 2016, The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation recognizes writers who share Havel’s passionate commitment to human rights and have suffered unjust persecution for their beliefs. The award for a Courageous Writer at Risk is given each year to a writer of a distinguished work of fiction, literary nonfiction, biography/memoir, drama, or poetry, who is courageous in dissent and has been punished for challenging an oppressive regime. The winner of the 2018 Disturbing the Peace, Award for a Courageous Writer at Risk is Chinese author, reporter, musician and poet – Liao Yiwu (aka Lao Wei). As a vocal critic of China’s Communist regime, he spent four years in prison after publicly reciting his poem “Massacre” in memory of the victims of the Tiananmen Square military on June 4, 1989. He currently lives in Germany, under asylum but will be attending the award ceremony at The Bohemian National Hall in New York on September 27, 2018. In his books The Corpse Walker and God is Red, Liao Yiwu recounts the stunning life stories of ordinary men and women who live at the margins of Chinese society – Christian believers as well as oddballs and outcasts who have been battered by life and state repression yet who have managed to retain their irrepressible personality, invincible spirit, and innate human dignity. These stories raise the inevitable question that Vaclav Havel persistently posed as an underground playwright: Can a totalitarian state prevail against the human spirit it tries so hard to stifle? Liao Yiwu will be joined in this discussion by Liu Xia, an artist herself and the widow of Nobel Laureate and Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo; and by Professor Andrew Nathan, a leading China specialist and human rights advocate. -
The Effect of Domestic Politics on Foreign Policy Decision Making Written by Zaara Zain Hussain
The effect of domestic politics on foreign policy decision making Written by Zaara Zain Hussain This PDF is auto-generated for reference only. As such, it may contain some conversion errors and/or missing information. For all formal use please refer to the official version on the website, as linked below. The effect of domestic politics on foreign policy decision making https://www.e-ir.info/2011/02/07/the-effect-of-domestic-politics-on-foreign-policy-decision-making/ ZAARA ZAIN HUSSAIN, FEB 7 2011 Foreign Policy includes all interactions of individual nation – states with other states. In the wake of globalization, in the 21st century it is particularly important, owing to the interdependence of states. With the advent of international society and globalization implications of foreign policy for each nation-state are far greater. The study of Foreign Policy therefore has become ever more critical and important. The study of Foreign Policy is not limited to any particular school of social science but is a relevant subject for all. In International Relations this study is particularly important as foreign policies form the base for international interactions between individual states. In the 21st century, decisions by one state affect more than just the participating countries. Scholars as well as well policy analysts and even the general public, have a greater desire to understand foreign policy decisions and what motivates the head of government in his foreign policy decision making. Scholarly research on leadership and foreign policy decision making show a far more sophisticated and complex view of the issue than most of the simplistic views seen in the popular press. -
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and the Future of Political Reform in China
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE LIU XIAOBO AND THE FUTURE OF POLITICAL REFORM IN CHINA HEARING BEFORE THE CONGRESSIONAL–EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION NOVEMBER 9, 2010 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.cecc.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 62–290 PDF WASHINGTON : 2012 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Mar 15 2010 14:11 Jan 18, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 U:\DOCS\9NOV10.TXT DIEDRE CONGRESSIONAL–EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS Senate House BYRON DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman SANDER LEVIN, Michigan, Cochairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana MARCY KAPTUR, Ohio CARL LEVIN, Michigan MICHAEL M. HONDA, California DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California TIMOTHY J. WALZ, Minnesota SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DAVID WU, Oregon SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey BOB CORKER, Tennessee EDWARD R. ROYCE, California JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois GEORGE LeMIEUX, Florida JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS Department of State, To Be Appointed Department of Labor, To Be Appointed Department of Commerce, To Be Appointed At-Large, To Be Appointed At-Large, To Be Appointed CHARLOTTE OLDHAM-MOORE, Staff Director DOUGLAS GROB, Cochairman’s Senior Staff Member (II) VerDate Mar 15 2010 14:11 Jan 18, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 U:\DOCS\9NOV10.TXT DIEDRE C O N T E N T S Page Opening statement of Hon. -
Annual Report 2011 Web2
1 2011 Annual Report of the COMMITTEE OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS During 2010, the Committee of Concerned Scientists continued to advocate on behalf of scientists, academics, and their organizations. We wrote in concern for over 35 individuals or organizations, located in 15 countries. We generally addressed our letters to the heads of state, as well as to the ministries or local authorities with jurisdiction over the case when we were able to identify them. We contacted the ambassador of the country involved, as well as the US embassy or the US State Department where we could hope for their assistance. The following summaries will give you an idea of the grave risks our colleagues are running in exercising their human rights, as well as of the rare victories we achieved on their behalf. Even as we write, some of the countries involved in our efforts are reverberating with unprecedented demands by their own populations for greater respect for their human rights. BAHRAIN Professor Abdul Jalil Al-Sigace, who taught mechanical engineering at the University of Bahrain, was arrested upon his return from the United Kingdom, where he had addressed the House of Lords concerning human rights in Bahrain. Al-Sigace also directed the Human Rights Bureau of the Haq Movement for Civil Liberties and Democracy, an opposition Bahraini political movement. We wrote to protest his arrest at the airport on August 13, 2010 and detention without charges, as well as his inability to get medical treatment. Dr. Al-Singace suffers from polomyelitis. According to Amnesty International, he was eventually charged with sedition and he faces the death penalty for expressing his views, in violation of Article 19 of the UN International Convention on civil and political rights, to which Bahrain is a party. -
Testimony of Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair, Writers in Prison Committee, PEN International
Testimony of Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair, Writers in Prison Committee, PEN International Congressional-Executive Commission on China Hearing on “One Year After the Nobel Peace Prize Award to Liu Xiaobo: Conditions for Political Prisoners and Prospects for Political Reform” December 6, 2011 Chairman Smith, Co-Chairman Brown, Members of the Commission: My name is Marian Botsford Fraser, and I am the Chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International. Founded in 1921 and headquartered in London, PEN is the world’s oldest human rights and literary organization. Our programs to celebrate literature and promote freedom of expression are carried out by 144 centers in more than 100 countries, including PEN American Center in New York and PEN USA in Los Angeles, and our global membership includes many of the United States’ most distinguished writers. PEN International is a non-political organization and holds consultative status at the United Nations. I am proud to chair the flagship program of PEN International, the Writers in Prison Committee, which in 2011 celebrated its 50th year of advocacy for persecuted writers and freedom of expression around the world. We work especially closely with our colleagues who are engaged in on-the-ground campaigning in countries where creative freedom and free expression are at risk. Among them are the members of Independent Chinese PEN Center, which just this year celebrated its own 10th anniversary and is one of the only NGOs still tolerated, though severely restricted, in China today. Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is a former president of that center, and securing his release from prison is one of PEN’s highest priorities.