Liu Xiaobo Dies

Liu Xiaobo (28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese literary critic, writer, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and the end of communist single-party rule. He was incarcerated as a political prisoner in Jinzhou, Liaoning. On 26 June 2017, he was granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and died on 13 July 2017 at the hospital.

Liu rose to fame in the literary circle with his literary critiques and became a visiting scholar at several overseas universities. He returned home to support the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and was imprisoned for the first time from 1989 to 1991 and again from 1995 to 1996 and from 1996 to 1999 for his involvement in democracy and human rights movement. He served as the President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, from 2003 to 2007. He was also the president of Minzhu Zhongguo (Democratic China) magazine since the mid-1990s. On 8 December 2008, Liu was detained due to his participation with the Charter 08 manifesto. He was formally arrested on 23 June 2009 on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power".  He was tried on the same charges on 23 December 2009, and sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights on 25 December 2009.

During his fourth prison term, Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." He was the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). Liu was also the second person to have been denied the right to have a representative collect the Nobel Prize for him and died in custody. (The first being Carl von Ossietzky who died in a Nazi concentration camp.)

Thoughts and Political Views

Evolving from his aesthetic notion of "Individual Subjectivity" as opposed to Li Zehou's theory of aesthetic subjectivity which combined Marxist materialism and Kantian idealism, he upheld the notion of "aesthetic freedom" which was based on the individualistic conception of freedom and aesthetics. He also strongly criticized the traditional attitude of Chinese intellectuals of searching for rationalism and harmony as "slave mentality" as it was criticized by radical left-wing literary critic Lu Xun during the New Cultural Movement. He also echoed the New Cultural Movement's call for wholesale westernization and rejection of the Chinese traditional culture. In an interview, he said "modernization means wholesale westernization, choosing a human life is choosing Western way of life. Difference between Western and Chinese governing system is humane vs. in-humane, there's no middle ground... Westernization is not a choice of a nation, but a choice for the human race." In 2002, he reflected his Mao-style radical aesthetic and political views at the time:

"I realized my entire youth and early writings had all been nurtured in hatred, violence and arrogance, or lies, cynicism and sarcasm. I knew at the time that Mao-style thinking and Cultural Revolution-style language had become ingrained in me, and I had become my own gaol [...]. It may take me a lifetime to get rid of the poison."

In a 1988 interview with Hong Kong's Liberation Monthly (now known as Open Magazine), Liu was asked what it would take for China to realize a true historical transformation. He replied:

"[It would take] 300 years of colonialism. In 100 years of colonialism, Hong Kong has changed to what we see today. With China being so big, of course it would require 300 years as a colony for it to be able to transform into how Hong Kong is today. I have my doubts as to whether 300 years would be enough."

Liu admitted in 2006 that the response was extemporaneous, although he did not intend to take it back, as it represented "an extreme expression of his long-held belief." The quote was nonetheless used against him. He has commented, "Even today [in 2006], radical patriotic 'angry youth' still frequently use these words to paint me with 'treason'."

He was also a strong critic of Chinese nationalism, believing that the "abnormal nationalism" existed in China over the last century had turned from a defensive style of the "mixed feelings of inferiority, envy, complaint, and blame to an aggressive "patriotism" of "blind self-confidence, empty boasts, and pent-up hatred". The "ultra-nationalism", being deployed by the Chinese Communist Party since the Tiananmen protests, has also become "a euphemism for worship of violence in service of autocratic goals."

In his letter to his friend Liao Yiwu in 2000, he expressed his thought on the prospect of the democracy movement in China:

"Compared to others under the Communist black curtain, we cannot call ourselves real men. Through the great tragedies of all these years, we still don’t have a righteous giant like [Václav] Havel. In order for everyone to have the right to be selfish, there has to be a righteous giant who will sacrifice selflessly. In order to obtain "passive freedoms" (freedom from the arbitrary oppression by those in power), there has to be a will for active resistance. In history, nothing is fated. The appearance of a martyr will completely change a nation’s soul and raise the spiritual quality of the people. But Gandhi was by chance, Havel was by chance; two thousand years ago, a peasant’s boy born in the manger was even more by chance. Human progress relies on the chance birth of these individuals. One cannot count on the collective conscience of the masses but only on the great individual conscience to consolidate the weak masses. In particular, our nation needs this righteous giant; the appeal of a role model is infinite; a symbol can rouse an abundance of moral resources. For example, Fang Lizhi’s ability to walk out of the U.S. Embassy, or Zhao Ziyang’s ability to actively resist after stepping down, or so-and-so refusing to go abroad. A very important reason for the silence and amnesia after June Fourth is that we did not have a righteous giant who stepped forward."

In 2009 when he was tried for "inciting subversion of state power" due to his participation with the Charter 08 manifesto which demanded freedom of expression, human rights and democratic elections, he wrote an essay known as "I Have No Enemies", stating that "the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy", and declared he had no enemies, and no hatred.

On international affairs, he supported U.S. President George W. Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, 2003 invasion of Iraq and his re-election. However, he also criticized the Iraq prison abuse scandals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Xiaobo