On the night of Nov. 24, a fire broke out in Urumqi in China’s Xinjiang region. It could have been a minor incident, as the blaze was caused by a malfunctioning circuit board, but it burned for three hours before being put out.
With escape routes completely obstructed, people and babies screamed in pain and cried for help. They lost their lives. These Xinjiang residents had spent the previous few months in the building, unable to go out. Forced to stay inside for more than 100 days, they could neither use their cars nor pass beyond the iron railings of the building. When the blaze started, fire trucks could not easily access the building and emergency doors could not be opened.
Reports on TV covered up the truth, unabashedly telling the public: “The routes were not blocked; the residents just did not run.”
Circumstances have become even more absurd, with Xinjiang residents now able to purchase extinguishers via WeChat after four months of lockdown when they could only use the app to buy vegetables, fruit and medicine.
My country and my hometown have become unrecognizable. The land that raised me has deteriorated. The estrangement Chinese expats all over the world, including myself, feel has heightened. Our senses are fragmented and our bodies have separated from our minds. No words can describe the pain and misery in our hearts.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the main problem. Regrettably, overthrowing the CCP would not give rise to a new China. Instead, due to the poor dispositions of Chinese, it would be even more catastrophic without the CCP’s supervision. The problem is that the party has made an incorrect assumption. When China was established, the CCP believed that it could be transformed immediately from a slave and feudal society to a socialist, communist nation. Without capital accumulation to buffer social transformations, the result is a Frankenstein’s monster of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Nothing has changed after the “voices from Shanghai” lockdown in April. The controversy over the Urumqi fire will be quelled soon and the feigned peace will be an anesthetic for Chinese, who will forget about the suffering and hardship of the past few months.
How can China be fundamentally changed?
The key is education. An anesthetic relieves pain, perhaps even making people relaxed and satisfied. Only through education reform can real changes be achieved. Education is a treatment that would remove the tumors once and for all.
Not until Chinese realize that they are the country’s owners can the problem be solved. Chinese must understand that democracy and freedom are natural rights, and taxation is not to be used by the government as shackles.
The less enlightened people are, the more disasters there will be.
In a short while, the grief and anger that is so clear today will be gone, and a similar situation will certainly be repeated.
China’s future will not improve without education. Its people must guard against foolishness. Education must be improved, with which the people must be enlightened. Without educational reform, the light of dawn will not arrive.
Bai Zhao is a Chinese freelance artist living in London.
Translated by Liu Yi-hung
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