Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) passed away earlier this month. Aside from sorrow and sadness, what inspiration and insights can Taiwanese draw from his death?
When Liu was forced to be absent from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read Liu’s “I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement,” which he wrote to a court during a trial in 2009. In the statement, Liu pointed to the fact that he was convicted for his statements.
Tragically, the great display of love and concern — professing to have no enemies and to harbor no hatred — was casting pearls before swine, as it was directed toward the inhuman Chinese Communist Party. In the eyes of the Chinese authorities, he was an enemy of the state and they hated him intensely.
Domestically, when a regime imprisons a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and incarcerates him to the end of his days, does that regime respect and advocate freedom and peace, or armed force, war and slavery?
Internationally, tensions are rising along the border between China and India, and there are frequent clashes between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea. When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited US President Donald Trump in early April, Xi allegedly told Trump to his face that the Korean Peninsula used to be a part of China.
On July 13, a group of Chinese H-6 bombers flew around Taiwan and then passed through the Miyako Strait airspace between Japan’s Miyako and Okinawa islands. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense was acting the bully when it said it was a routine training assignment and urged the parties involved not to make a fuss over it or read too much into it, adding that they should get used to such things.
Chinese fighter jets and warships have also repeatedly approached the waters near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and Chinese coast guard vessels recently entered Japanese territorial waters near northern Kyushu.
Is the world witnessing a peaceful and neighborly China, or a warlike troublemaker busy stirring up trouble?
Taiwanese are unable to freely choose the nation’s geographical position, but they are able to freely choose whether to be “close family” with its neighbor, as Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said in Shanghai; to be nodding acquaintances or to never have any contact with each other.
At a time when a Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been abused to death and when disputes between China and its neighboring states continue, we should take the time to calmly consider the recent remarks by some of the Democratic Progressive Party’s political stars:
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) has said that she is “at peace with China,” although it is not a peace-loving nation.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) has said that he is “China-friendly,” despite Beijing’s hostility against its neighbors.
Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) has said that he feels an “affinity toward China,” although China refuses to listen to sincere advice.
Will these attitudes offer a way out, or will they lead to enslavement?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired National Hsinchu University of Education associate professor.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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