Liu Xiaobo Died

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is the first Chinese to be awarded the Nobel Prize, the second to be awarded the prize while in jail, died today in captivity.

For me, Liu's passing marked the end of a 40-year period, during which the Chinese people expect the Communist leaders to give them freedom and democracy, eventually at some future time.

Twenty-eight years ago, when my generation was young, the Chinese people, mostly the young, took to the streets in China to push for the communist leaders to move in the direction of freedom and democracy. They were met by tanks and mahine guns. When I saw the mechine guns in southern China, I decided to become an American. Friends said that I was a slow learner, although I thought that I was merely keeping options open for as long as possible.

With his death, people have come to the realization that the freedom and democracy would never come, under the Communists. In fact, the freedom that Hong Kong has enjoyed for decades is being taken away, as well as democracy that was granted to Hong Kong people by the last British governor Chris Patten. In Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-Wen is so careful these days not to offend China that she is sending Chinese dissidents escaped to Taiwan back to China to be punished. In China, it is silence today, just like tomorrow, the day after tomorrow ...

The light is out. The hope is dead.

I am thinking of the poem by Bei Dao written in 1976, another desperate time in the Chinese history:

Despicable is the license of the despicable;
Noble is the epitaph of the noble.

The despicables got their wish today. It is reported that Liu Xiaobo's family is being urged to spread his ashes over the sea, so there could be no epitaph.

7/15/2017 Update: According to Liu Xiaoguang, Liu Xiaobo's eldest brother, Liu's ashes were spread into the sea. The elder Liu said that it is the demonstration of the socialist superority.

By Pujie Zheng

Pujie Zheng is an attorney in Los Angeles.

First published on July 13, 2017

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