William Yang Profile picture
Senior analyst, Northeast Asia for @crisisgroup. Former foreign correspondent covering #China, #Taiwan and the Indo Pacific. e-mail: wyang@crisisgroup.org

Jul 13, 2020, 14 tweets

Latest for @dw_chinese - On the third anniversary of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner #LiuXiaobo's death, I talked to @tengbiao and @liaoyiwu1 about Liu's legacy as well as how China has changed since he passed away three years ago.

medium.com/@williamyang_3…

"Liu contributed a lot to China’s democratic movement as he participated in many kinds of protests over two decades. The revelation of 'Charter 08' also pushed China’s democratic movement to a new level."

“When he came out of jail for the third time, Liu thought Chinese people have lost their civility. He thought China needed someone like the former Czech President Václav Havel to help people reclaim their civility.

He used his imprisonment and martyrdom to help Chinese people achieve that goal. In my eyes, he is China’s Gandhi or Martin Luther King.”

“Xi Jinping has arrested more people and lowered the threshold for making arrests. Many political prisoners have been given heavier prison sentences and some have even died in the prison. As for others, they lost their lives soon after being released."

"It is obvious that Beijing has intensified the crackdown on dissidents but it also reflects the Chinese government’s growing sense of crisis. They think the growing momentum in China’s civil society is now forming a serious threat to the country’s political system."

"Western countries would still treat China like a normal trading partner if Beijing had not imposed the national security law on Hong Kong. What lies behind the trade deal with China is an ideological infiltration launched by Beijing."

"I never thought Merkel would go the opposite way after Liu Xia was freed. She remained relatively quiet on Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on #HK, and Germany’s Minister of Economy and Energy even said that ‘Germany would not be world’s headteacher of morality.

"“Western governments also need to prioritize common values like human rights and democratization. So far, they have not prioritized human rights during any negotiation with Beijing," said @tengbiao.

"As Beijing officially imposed the national security law on Hong Kong, Teng and Laio both think that Hong Kong protesters can gain some inspiration from the works Liu Xiaobo has published or his way to resist against the Chinese government."

"Liu has conducted very in-depth analysis about China’s authoritarian regime through years of academic research and resistance in reality. Additionally, he spent decades going in and out of prison in China, which is the type of resistance that #HK protesters are fulfilling now.”

"@joshuawongcf many Hong Kong people are already doing it, so if they keep protesting, the Chinese Communist Party will collapse one day," said @liaoyiwu1.

“From the words published by Liu, he would be on the side of resisting against the authoritarian regime if he were still alive,” Teng said. “He would not oppose to Hong Kong people’s protests.”

Mandarin version of the article:

dw.com/zh/%E5%88%98%E…

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