Beijing should let citizens read Charter 08
The empty chair at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo was a poignant reminder of the injustice and persecution that Liu Xiaobo and other human rights activists have suffered, and will continue to suffer, at the hands of a paranoid and repressive regime. This regime is more concerned with holding onto absolute power and saving face than with justice and common decency.
The Chinese government has sentenced Liu to 11 years in prison (for the crime of speaking), has illegally held his wife hostage, and forcibly prevented human rights activists on the mainland from attending the ceremony.
It also pressured foreign countries to boycott the ceremony and imposed massive censorship of all discussions on and references to Liu and his ideas other than its own strident propaganda). These actions by the central government only serve to reinforce Liu's contention (in Charter 08) that 'China has many laws but no rule of law; it has a constitution but no constitutional governance'.
Not even Liu's critics can seriously deny that fact, other than to come out with the trite excuse that China has to feed its population first before worrying about human rights.
This is supposed to excuse all manner of injustice, corruption and human rights abuses, of the kind that have become all too familiar. But now that the people are clothed and fed, does anyone seriously expect a totalitarian regime, which has become so accustomed to having its own way, to willingly give up its dictatorial powers and subject itself to the will and criticism of the people? If Liu was indeed the pernicious 'criminal' that the government made him out to be, why doesn't it expose the true extent of his evil by letting the public read his Charter 08, or debate his proposal openly with him?
Liu's unjust imprisonment, and the farcical Confucius Peace Prize, have drawn international comparisons with Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. This is hardly fair to China, but the government has only itself to blame.
