For whom does the death knell toll?

This is a sad moment: at 5:35 pm on July 13, 2017, Liu Xiaobo died in Shenyang, China due to delayed treatment of liver cancer. The whole world watched helplessly as a Nobel Peace Prize winner died at the hands of the CCP's tyranny. It was only after Liu Xiaobo's death that Western leaders mentioned Liu Xiaobo's name and paid tribute in public speeches, but they did not seriously condemn the Chinese government for imprisoning the Nobel Peace Prize winner to death. In China, due to years of repression by the authorities, only a small group of people mourns Liu Xiaobo, while the majority are unconcerned or silent. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, Liu Xiaobo's career is just a small bubble outside the mainstream Chinese society.

No, no, that's not the case at all. Let us not forget that 28 years ago, a peaceful democratic movement of unprecedented scale broke out in China. On the day Liu Xiaobo flew back to Beijing from New York, the April 27 parade broke out, and the ten-mile Chang'an Street became a sea of crowds and flags, with no end in sight. The 1989 pro-democracy movement has strongly demonstrated that in China, freedom and democracy is not just the pursuit of a few dissidents, but the common aspiration of thousands of people, first and foremost the aspiration of an entire generation of young people. The CCP hardliners headed by Deng Xiaoping used brutal methods to suppress the democracy movement beyond the imagination of the world, which led to an unprecedented split in the CCP ruling group and provoked unanimous condemnation from the international community. In this year, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe underwent great changes, the international communist camp collapsed, the United States became the only superpower in the world, and the liberal democratic forces achieved the most glorious victory in history. At that time, it was widely believed that the collapse of the CCP’s autocratic regime was just around the corner.

However, 28 years later, the CCP's autocratic regime has not collapsed; it has stood still and has become stronger than before, especially with the continued rapid economic development beyond the expectations of ordinary people. Also beyond the expectations of many, the CCP regime did not initiate political reforms at the same time as deepening economic reforms, it did not even become softer and more tolerant because of its great economic success, but became more tyrannical and domineering. In international affairs, it is no longer keeping a low profile, but becoming more high-profile and aggressive; at the same time, democracies, including the United States, are encountering all kinds of troubles. In less than three decades, we have witnessed an astonishing reversal of the entire world that is extremely rare in human history, with the rise of an authoritarian China posing the most serious challenge to universal values to date.

Liu Xiaobo wrote ten years ago: "My worry is that in the face of China, the world's largest dictatorship, today's Westerners may make another big mistake." Liu Xiaobo advised the international community: "The fact that the international mainstream society must pay close attention to Yes: the game between the dictatorial CCP and the free world today is completely different from the traditional totalitarian Soviet Communist Party. The CCP no longer sticks to ideology and its military confrontation, but instead devotes itself to developing the economy and making friends who abandon ideology. It not only carries out market-oriented reforms in the economy and strives to integrate into globalization, but also adheres to the dictatorial system politically, and does its best to prevent the peaceful evolution of the West. See you, the CCP regime with its bulging wallet is conducting money diplomacy around the world, and it has become other The blood transfusion machine of the dictatorship, it uses economic and trade interests to divide the Western alliance, and it uses the big market to lure and coerce big Western capital. In the face of a dictatorial power with a rapidly increasing economic strength, if its dictatorship rises without external support Strong restrictions and continued appeasement against China's dictatorial rise will repeat the mistakes of history. As a result, it will not only be a disaster for the Chinese, but also the globalization process of freedom and democracy. Therefore, it is necessary to curb the rise of dictatorship to the world. The negative effects of civilization, the free world must help the world's largest dictatorship to transform into a liberal democracy as soon as possible."

From his dominance in Tiananmen Square to his lonely death in the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, Liu Xiaobo's fate not only reflects the plight of China's democracy, but also an alarm to the world. 28 years ago, who could have imagined that the world would become like this today. If this trend continues, the world in 28 years will be unimaginable. For whom does the death knell toll? I hope Liu Xiaobo's death can be the beginning of a turnaround.

July 14, 2017.