Chinese must stand up
On Feb. 7, the original whistleblower of the COVID-19 outbreak, Chinese ophthalmologist Li Wenliang (李文亮), succumbed to the virus. Li’s death sparked an unprecedented backlash against Chinese authorities’ handling of the epidemic.
Xu Zhangrun (許章潤), a professor at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, and many other liberal-minded Chinese academics, have signed a petition and penned an open letter to demand that the day of Li’s passing be designated a “national day of free speech” and that “the right to free speech starts from today.”
Ever since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established its People’s Republic of China dictatorship in 1949, Chinese have been denied freedom of speech to a degree not experienced for 1,700 years.
China’s only emperor to have risen to the imperial throne from the bonds of slavery, Shi Le (石勒, 274 to 333), wanted to build a new palace, but was repeatedly advised against doing so by one if his ministers.
Exploding in anger, Shi asked what sort of an emperor he would be if he did not chop the minister’s head off.
Another minister replied by asking whether Shi, instead of listening to the advice of loyal ministers, intended to rule like one of the despotic kings of the Shang Dynasty, and said that the minister’s advice was good and that there was no need to remove anyone’s head for speaking frankly to their emperor.
Shi let out a sigh and said a benevolent emperor should not tyrannize his subjects in this way and that he appreciated loyalty.
Tyrannical emperors ruled as despots because they were not prepared to accept any criticism from their ministers.
Although a far cry from the barbarism of the 4th century, in today’s China, Li was punished for following his professional instinct and sounding the alarm over the new virus.
Today’s leader rejects advice that runs contrary to what he wants to hear.
The Chinese idiom “cover one’s ears and steal the bell” springs to mind. While the virus tore through the population of Wuhan, the CCP buried its head in the sand, wasting vital time that could have been used to contain the spread of the virus.
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said Li’s death has caused many Chinese to draw a direct causal link between the lack of freedom of speech and the dangerous epidemic, and that the spread of the epidemic was a result of the CCP using its power to silence the doctor.
US magazine Foreign Policy dubbed Li “Wuhan’s first martyr” and said that the news and analysis of Li’s death on the Internet, including the statement he was forced to sign, were quickly removed.
This shows the difficult choice facing the CCP: Should it embrace Li, a victim of decisions made by party officials, or continue to erase his name and photographs whenever they appear online and try to obliterate the memory of another potential martyr?
It is time that Chinese wake up. In the past, the CCP has stoked populist and nationalist sentiment and bullied and terrorized users of the WeChat messaging app. The COVID-19 outbreak has unmasked the calamitous nature of the CCP’s dictatorship for all to see.
The party has inadvertently spawned an actual “yellow peril” as the virus spreads uncontrollably throughout the world, yet the biggest sufferers are Chinese.
If they do not fight for their right to live healthy, secure lives, it matters not a jot how rich and powerful the country becomes, it will only be to the benefit of the privileged few within the party, while 1.4 billion Chinese will be no better off.
Huang Shou-bo
Changhua
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