K. Anthony Appiah:
On Christmas Day a court in Beijing sentenced the distinguished writer and activist Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison and two years deprivation of political rights for exercising the right of free expression that he has both under international law and the Chinese Constitution.
Liu Xiaobo has been condemned to 11 years in prison for seven published sentences. These sentences consisted of just 224 Chinese characters. In their official verdict, the Beijing Court cited the exact passages from Liu’s writings that were judged to be subversive. Some of the passages are not full sentences, but mere phrases; others are simply the titles of articles that Liu had written. Two of the sentences come from Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democratic reforms in China, a manifesto he helped to write and which has been signed by hundreds of other brave Chinese men and women. The other five sentences come from articles Liu posted on the Internet.
Today we are going to read all seven sentences. We ask all of you gathered here—all of you who hear this appeal—to join us in our campaign. And to him, we say: Old friend, we will not forget you; we will not rest until you are free.
A.M. Homes:
From the 2006 article “The Many Aspects of CPC Dictatorship” (the “CPC” is the Communist Party of China):
“Thus, all of the tricks used by the Communist Party of China are stop-gap measures for the dictators to preserve the last phase of their power and will not be able to support for long this dictatorial edifice that is already showing countless cracks.”
Edward Albee:
According to the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court, one of Liu Xiaobo’s offending passages is from his 2006 article, “The Negative Effects of the Rise of Dictatorship on World Democratization.” In its verdict, however, the court did not actually quote any passages from this article.
Jessica Hagedorn:
From the 2005 article “The CPC’s Dictatorial Patriotism”:
“The official patriotism advocated by the CPC dictatorship is a fallacious system of ‘substituting the party for the country.’ The essence of this patriotism is to demand that the people love the dictatorship, the one-party rule, and the dictators. It usurps patriotism in order to inflict disasters on the nation and calamities on the people.
Victoria Redel:
From the 2007 article “Further Questions about Child Slavery in China’s Kilns”:
“Since the Communist Party of China took power, generations of CPC dictators have cared most about their own power and least about human life.”
Don DeLillo:
From the 2006 article “Can it be that the Chinese People Deserve Only ‘Party-Led Democracy’?”:
“For the emergence of a free China, placing hope in the ruler of a ‘New Deal’ is an idea far worse than placing hope in the continuous expansion of the ‘new force’ among the people.”
Honor Moore:
From Charter 08, the December 10, 2008 declaration calling for political reforms, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule in China, and from the Beijing Municipality First Intermediate People’s Court verdict against Liu Xiaobo:
“One-party monopolization of ruling privileges should be abolished.”
E.L. Doctorow:
From Charter 08:
“[We need] to establish China’s federal republic under the structure of democracy and constitutionalism.”
Such events as this have been necessary for as long as I can remember. PEN Members marched around the Czech embassy to protest the jailing of Vaclav Havel. Twenty years ago, we rose in judgment against the fatwa applied to Salman Rushdie. The attack is always directed to the creative mind, and when we take note as we do today, it always seems to be snowing. Liu Xiaobo’s country has a sorry record of artist intimidation. China supposes to lead the world into the future as superpower in the 21st century, but when it jails its people for their thought, it is mired in the past with the ghosts of emperors and dictators and kings, and along with military thugs and theocracies like Iran’s that rigs its elections and shoots down its people in the street. The civilization of China cannot lead when its revolutionary government simply changes the style of despotism, can’t move forward when its poets and writers and artists, its thinkers and intellectuals, are muzzled in silence. Under such conditions, the genius of a nation withers and dies. Liu Xiaobo writes in the interest of a just enlightenment. That is not to slander or subvert or overthrow. It is to ask for constitutional realization. It is to ask for a country true to itself. That is all that Liu Xiaobo has done, and that is why we call for his release.
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