The Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” The true reason for the sentence was that he was one of the originators of Charter 08, which advocates the need for constitutional amendments, an independent judiciary, human rights guarantees, the nationalization of the military, and the freedom of assembly and association in China. These are the very demands made by the dangwai activists in connection with the Kaohsiung Incident 30 years ago. These demands have been met here in Taiwan, but China still has a long way to go.
The Kaohsiung Incident included street demonstrations, but Liu and the other signatories to Charter 08 merely expressed their opinion in writing as scholars wanting to serve their country. Despite this, Liu was kept incommunicado after his arrest, his trial was held behind closed doors and he was given a heavy sentence. Many other signatories have also been persecuted by Beijing, which shows that China’s totalitarian ruling clique deals with dissidents even more harshly than the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government of 30 years ago.
The Liu case echoes the Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) incident in Taiwan. Liu was clearly given the heavy prison sentence because Charter 08 expresses the thoughts of both China’s intellectuals and the people.
The Liu case must make Taiwanese see clearly the innate totalitarian nature of the Chinese government and make them think hard about Taiwan’s future. If we hope to protect our hard-won democracy, freedom, human rights and rule of law, we must unite to protect our own country from being swallowed up by China. We should begin by opposing China’s economic and cultural annexation of Taiwan.
The pro-China government under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is not likely to easily give up on its appeasement policies that completely disregard the sovereignty issue. That is why we must all resolve to monitor Ma and stop the government from signing an unequal treaty with China that disregards Taiwan’s sovereignty and ensure that the complete contents of any agreement the government wants to sign with China is made public before being discussed in the legislature and decided in a referendum.
Whether Taiwan’s future is annexation by China or independence, it should be decided by the Taiwanese as a whole, but as Taiwan’s sovereignty gradually withers away, the public will finally lose the chance to make the decision, and the world will lose the only true democracy in the Chinese-speaking world. We can no longer procrastinate. I hope the legislators who were brave enough to oppose the government over the US beef agreement — especially the pan-blues — will continue to monitor and counterbalance the government.
The sentencing of Liu drew protests from many democracies and human rights organizations, but our government and opposition have remained silent. If they think this is an internal Chinese issue that has nothing to do with Taiwan’s democracy, they are sadly mistaken. Elections may be important, but so is speaking up for people like Liu.
The future of Taiwan’s democracy is intimately connected to China. I hope that the NGOs that believe in democracy and freedom will join the ranks of those condemning the Liu case and protest against China’s suppression of democracy and human rights, and demand that Beijing conform to international human rights treaties by releasing Liu lest they expose “one country, two systems” for the lie it is.
I hope the big media outlets will quickly produce special reports on the case to expose the true character of the Chinese government.
Andrew Cheng is a researcher in the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
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