Tyranny will become more relentless if no one speaks out, says freed academic Gao Zhan

Keeping silent in times of repression only encourages tyranny, US-based Chinese academic Gao Zhan was reported as saying yesterday.

Ms Gao, who was released last month from China after five-months of detention and a conviction for 'spying' for Taiwan, wrote in the Washington Post yesterday that fear of retribution was not an excuse to keep silent.

'The more we fear threats of retribution from [tyrants], the more relentless and ferocious the tyranny becomes,' she wrote. 'Can we stop being fearful? Yes, but not without taking individual responsibility in standing up - and speaking out - in the face of evil.

'It is the Chinese Government's conduct that people fear the most . . . After all, it is the Chinese political and ideological system's lack of respect for each individual life that has deeply ingrained this fear in the minds of the Chinese people.'

Ms Gao was among half-a-dozen Chinese-American scholars who were detained in China in recent years. While her husband, Xue Donghua, and the family of Hong Kong-based professor Li Shaomin organised public campaigns to fight for their release, others have largely kept a low-profile to avoid offending the Chinese authorities.

'We have heard nothing from another former detainee, Qin Guangguang . . . nor have we heard from Taiwan - the supposed behind-the-scene boss of the alleged spies - which has never stood up either to claim responsibility, if what was alleged was indeed true, or to deny patronage of these pitiful spies,' Ms Gao wrote.

Qin Guangguang, a scholar who was released at around the same time as Ms Gao, has avoided the media and not made any public comments about his ordeal in China.