27 December 2009
How to Support Liu’s Crusade
The U.S. Government and its liberal democratic allies are not the correct institutions to take on the undemocratic ways of the Chinese government. The Chinese people seem to be satisfied, on the whole, with the autocratic rule of the Communist party in Beijing, as long as they are given the opportunity to earn a living and even become rich. Liu Xiaobo has a different idea—one that he is certainly entitled to under the West’s concept of human rights. However, that idea of free expression of political views is certainly not commonly held by Liu’s compatriots.
Liu’s campaign has gotten him into deep trouble with the Chinese government whose suppression of dissent is Liu’s target. Although foreign governments like the U.S. and other liberal democracies are often the tools their citizens wish to use to spread the acceptance of their political values, this is a very high stakes game in current economic conditions. It is a game that should properly be undertaken by private non-governmental organizations and individuals rather than by their official agencies on whom promoting the economic welfare of their nations depends.
Direct governmental pressure on the Chinese Communist regime will only cause it to dig in harder, mainly at the expense of its own populace. Changing the willingness of the Chinese people to demand better human rights treatment from their own government is a private matter. Apparently, Liu’s strategy has been to risk personal imprisonment in order to embarrass likely sympathizers abroad into taking action to help him enlighten, as it were, a number of Chinese citizens sufficient to weaken the tacit acquiescence on which Communist rule rests.
There certainly are potential sources of support for that effort that have as much power, monetary and technological, as most governments to strengthen the hands of Liu, his wife, and their cohorts to convince a majority of their countrymen that life in a free society would be better for them all.
The U.S. Government and its liberal democratic allies are not the correct institutions to take on the undemocratic ways of the Chinese government. The Chinese people seem to be satisfied, on the whole, with the autocratic rule of the Communist party in Beijing, as long as they are given the opportunity to earn a living and even become rich. Liu Xiaobo has a different idea—one that he is certainly entitled to under the West’s concept of human rights. However, that idea of free expression of political views is certainly not commonly held by Liu’s compatriots.
Liu’s campaign has gotten him into deep trouble with the Chinese government whose suppression of dissent is Liu’s target. Although foreign governments like the U.S. and other liberal democracies are often the tools their citizens wish to use to spread the acceptance of their political values, this is a very high stakes game in current economic conditions. It is a game that should properly be undertaken by private non-governmental organizations and individuals rather than by their official agencies on whom promoting the economic welfare of their nations depends.
Direct governmental pressure on the Chinese Communist regime will only cause it to dig in harder, mainly at the expense of its own populace. Changing the willingness of the Chinese people to demand better human rights treatment from their own government is a private matter. Apparently, Liu’s strategy has been to risk personal imprisonment in order to embarrass likely sympathizers abroad into taking action to help him enlighten, as it were, a number of Chinese citizens sufficient to weaken the tacit acquiescence on which Communist rule rests.
There certainly are potential sources of support for that effort that have as much power, monetary and technological, as most governments to strengthen the hands of Liu, his wife, and their cohorts to convince a majority of their countrymen that life in a free society would be better for them all.
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