Opinion | Why Liu Xiaobo is the role model that a modern China sorely needs

Cary Huang says in life the rights activist gave up his liberty for the freedom of his people, and in death he has become a symbol for all Chinese aspiring for a freer, fairer, kinder nation

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Mourners place offerings at a memorial for Liu Xiaobo outside the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong on July 15. Liu died of liver cancer on July 13. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 12:28pm, 18 Jul 2017Updated: 8:21am, 19 Jul 2017

In life, he sacrificed personal liberty for the freedom of the people in the world’s most populous nation. That made him a thorn in the side of the communist leadership.

In death, he has become physically free but cannot rest in spirit, as his passing only amplifies his role as a symbol of the Chinese people’s struggle for human rights, freedom and democracy, making him an even bigger headache for an authoritarian government.

Liu Xiaobo ( 劉曉波 ), China’s most famous dissident and political prisoner, will almost certainly be given a prominent place in modern Chinese history, for he might outshine any of his colleagues and predecessors in this endeavour in recent memory, or in the last century – since the May Fourth Movement of 1911.

Liu’s “crime” was the publication of a charter calling for political reform; what he did was nothing more than call for the government to honour the principles embodied in China’s own constitution and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As he claimed to “have no hatred and no enemies”, his action might have just echoed remarks made by some reformist communist leaders, such as former premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) who made at least six public calls for democratic reform before his retirement in 2013. While China’s leaders shied from admitting their mistake in convicting Liu, the fact that they decided to give him the best possible medical treatment, the kind only available to very senior leaders, suggested that they were sensitive to global sentiment and opinion.

Liu Xia (fourth from left), wife of the late Liu Xiaobo, with her brother Liu Hui (third from left) and Liu Xiaobo’s brothers, standing by his casket at a funeral parlour in Shenyang, Liaoning, on July 15. Photo: EPA/Shenyang Municipal Information Office

‘I have no enemies’: Why Liu Xiaobo’s passing is a sad story for China and its people

Academic theorists are convinced that democratic reform will be crucial for China to progress from being an emerging economy to an advanced one. Historical facts also suggest that almost all the richest nations, such as the 35 in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, or the self-ruled Chinese territory of Taiwan, are free democracies with rule of law to protect human rights and individual liberty.

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