On the seventh day following the death of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), many Chinese put an empty chair on a beach to commemorate the democracy advocate who was tortured to death by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On the same day, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) said at a regular news conference that according to the ministry’s understanding, only nine countries had truly spoken up in support of Liu, adding that this did not even make up one-10th of the 193 members of the UN.
Therefore, he concluded, “countries supporting Liu did not represent the majority of the international community.”
The CCP has received worldwide attention for the way it had slowly tortured the Nobel Peace Prize laureate to death, and it has continued to illegally keep Liu’s widow, Liu Xia (劉霞), under house arrest.
By doing so, the party has set yet another world record: This is the government of a country that calls itself a “rising great power,” yet it has proven itself to be more heartless than even Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and the South African apartheid regime.
Having killed Liu, the CCP continued to wave its bloody hands around for all to see, warning the world to stay away from what it says is its interior affairs and its own citizens and saying: “If we want to lock them up, we will lock them up and if we want to kill them, we will — it is none of your business.”
The ministry appears to have good reason not to worry about questions from international reporters about Liu Xiaobo’s death, and it is true that an embarrassingly low number of governments — it does not even reach into the double digits — have spoken up in support of him.
Even though President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has voiced support for Liu Xiaobo many times, China does not view Taiwan as an independent nation and would not include it in its calculations.
If Taiwan were included, the total number of nations having spoken up for Liu would be 10, and although 10 is still not very much, it is at least a two-digit number.
However, a look at the statements by the leaders or spokespersons of the 10 governments that have spoken up shows that they were only briefly mourning Liu Xiaobo’s death and remembering him for having fought “alone for decades.”
When mentioning the Chinese government, they gently expressed regrets over the CCP’s approach on the matter and weakly expressed hopes that China will democratize.
Not one government or leader of a major country was willing to direct strong criticism against the CCP for having committed an inexcusable crime against humanity.
In fact, for such a crime, the head of the CCP should be tried at the International Criminal Court.
In the past, a great many countries spoke up in condemnation of the South African apartheid regime and supported sanctions against it.
Where has all that courage gone?
Have they all decided to keep their mouths shut just because China buys their planes, beef and luxury goods?
A Chinese Internet user angrily said that three things can be concluded from Liu Xiaobo’s death:
First, never underestimate the brutality of the CCP; second, never be surprised at how indifferent people can be; and third, never overestimate how much help Western democracies are willing to provide to solve human rights issues in other countries.
In today’s world, appeasement has replaced humanitarianism. Western democracies are making the same mistake that they did when they stood by as Nazi Germany grew stronger, a mistake that led to World War II.
At the beginning of World War II, France and Britain met with disastrous defeat at Dunkirk.
That loss was not the result of tactical mistakes on the battlefield; it began with the Munich Agreement and the media’s indulgence and glorification of Hitler and the indifference among politicians to the treatment of Jews.
In a way, France and the other western European nations brought destruction upon themselves by letting their foreign policy be ruled by selfishness and self-interest.
Sadly, history always repeats itself; the same tragedies recur in different eras, following the same script.
Today’s CCP is the Nazi Party of the 1930s and 1940s, and the murder of Liu Xiaobo has been ignored by the rest of the world in the same way that the treatment of the Jewish people was ignored then.
Evil never stops; it only sharpens its knives and moves on to the next victim.
In the Chinese situation, priority must be to free Liu Xia. Whether that will be possible will depend on how much effort Western democracies are willing to put into the undertaking.
If Western leaders issued a joint statement demanding that Liu Xia be freed or they would cease all high-level exchanges with China, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would be certain to compromise.
Would the politically and economically powerful US, EU and Japan be willing to do that?
Yu Jie is an exiled Chinese dissident writer.
Translated by Tu Yu-an
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