Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) died of cancer after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) denied him access to better treatment. After Liu passed away, the Chinese government forced his family to scatter his ashes into the sea, lest his mourners congregate and seek to overthrow the government.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who had previously boasted about his party’s confidence in its “chosen path,” “political system,” “guiding theories” and culture — has turned out to be extremely scared of Liu even after the dissident’s passing. This shows that the Chinese government is not as strong as it appears.
Forcing Liu’s family to scatter his ashes into the sea has achieved the opposite of what Beijing wanted, as the sea has now been associated with Liu.
“Liu Xiaobo is wherever the sea is,” a friend of Liu has said.
That is not all. When former Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (周恩來) passed away in 1976, it was said he requested in his will that his ashes be scattered into the sea. According to tradition, Chinese political leaders should be buried at Beijing’s Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery. Zhou’s request sparked a debate, with many people saying he made the request to prevent Mao Zedong (毛澤東) from mutilating his body.
During the Cultural Revolution, the bodies of many people who were deemed traitors were mutilated, and before Zhou passed away, Mao’s supporters had insinuated that he was a traitor, citing a rumor that he had resigned from the CCP.
However, the lack of a proper burial for Zhou led to a public outcry, which in turn triggered the Tiananmen Incident that took place in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square three months later. It was an unprecedented protest against the Chinese government and a heavy blow to Mao, whose health significantly deteriorated after the incident.
Zhou was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 1972 and advised to undergo immediate surgery. However, Mao opposed the idea and Zhou died four years later. Denying patients treatment is basically murder — and the CCP is used to doing it to get what it wants.
Mao was a political bully who had no compunction about killing his political rivals — even when they were his compatriots. This was why it was Zhou, not Mao, who was worshiped like a saint among the old CCP guard.
Xi has revived worship for Mao, because he wants to be the new Mao. Ironically, by doing so, he has inadvertently turned Liu into another Zhou. It just shows how insane the CCP’s higher echelons are.
Of course, Liu and Zhou were very different people. While the former was a hero of the people, the other was a hypocritical accomplice of a monster.
When Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) passed away, his ashes were also scattered into the sea for fear that he would have to pay for the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Mutilation of corpses is part of an unusual revenge culture that cannot be found anywhere else but China. The practice, which originated during the Spring and Autumn period, terrifies even the nation’s most powerful leaders. The Chinese term bian shi (鞭屍) — whipping a corpse — can also be used to mean that a person is criticized after passing away, but even if a person is perceived negatively by posterity, why use the phrase “whipping a corpse”?
Even more ridiculous is the practice of digging up the corpses of someone’s ancestors as a way to punish their family — which is perhaps related to the Chinese obsession with ancestor worship.
However, these are apparently among the aspects of Chinese culture that Xi loves the most. After he became the nation’s most powerful man, he built a 40,000m2 park in memory of his father, Xi Zhongxun (習仲勳). The park includes Xi Zhongxun’s tomb, his former residence and a museum dedicated to him.
Having made his father look like the father of an emperor, the next step for Xi Jinping is to make himself an emperor. He once said that he has a “Chinese dream,” but it really means that he dreams of becoming an emperor.
As Xi Jinping prepares himself to become a modern-day emperor, in his eyes Liu is but an insignificant sacrifice that had to be made.
However, with increasing pressure both from home and abroad, it has become increasingly difficult for China to continue its censorship.
Soon, Liu’s sacrifice will trigger a wave of resistance, and the backward aspects of Chinese culture will be replaced and the government will be forced to recognize the universal values of human rights.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Yu-an Tu
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