China: Democratic Voice Liu Xiaobo Dies in Custody

The death of Chinese dissident and public intellectual Liu Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, lays bare the Chinese government’s ruthlessness toward peaceful proponents of human rights and democracy, Human Rights Watch said today. On July 13, 2017, Liu died from complications of liver cancer in a Shenyang hospital in Liaoning Province while being guarded by state security.

“Even as Liu Xiaobo’s illness worsened, the Chinese government continued to isolate him and his family, and denied him freely choosing his medical treatment,” said Sophie Richardson, China director. “The Chinese government’s arrogance, cruelty, and callousness are shocking – but Liu’s struggle for a rights-respecting, democratic China will live on.”

China: Democratic Voice Liu Xiaobo Dies in Custody

Ah, to live in a developed and democratic country with all the attached civil liberties and protections. Compare that to China.

While many people on these Boards rant and rave against the hard life they have as they sit on their comfy armchairs, but do so free from fear of persecution, they should spare a thought for those who fight autocracy and tyranny, such as Liu Xiaobo. We can be sure not many Chinese will ever hear of this champion of democracy due to the all pervading censorship and control of the Chinese dictatorship.

More recently jailed for co-authoring Charter 8, which challenged one-party Chinese dictatorship, he has lived a (shortened) life championing peaceful, non violent protest in China.

Raise our cups to toast a principled campaigner and let's boycott Chinese goods for at least one day, eh?

- Liu Xiaobo on Wiki
- Charter 8 on Wiki
- HRW on China
- The Guardian
- The BBC

a reply to: paraphi

So... conspiracy?

a reply to: paraphi

And why are relying on the Chi Coms, the same country that silenced Pro Democracy activists to rein on North Korea?

a reply to: paraphi

If baffles me...

If you lived next door to a convicted killer, dog abuser, drug dealer, rapist.. or any violent person, as a person in the US, generally speaking of course, you wouldn't have anything to do with that person. You wouldn't ask them for a cup of sugar. You wouldn't invite them over for dinner. You wouldn't have a BBQ with them in your back yard.

Instead, you would watch them ouf of your window. You'd put cameras on your house to keep an eye on them because you feel at some point that this person just might attack you.

You get the idea.


So why, as a country, if all of (or majority of) it's people would act against a person with those traits, would we trade and interact with them as though they are our allies and partners?

I never understood these trade agreements and alliances.

If it were me... I'd say put away all of your crimes against humanity before we would have anything to do with you, and we should be treated likewise.

Died in custody. Conspiracy of silence by the Chinese State. Human rights.

a reply to: StallionDuck

They have dead cheap noodles and Peking Duck, and we can do chi dance in their parks.

Then again, they've planted 30,000 spies in US, all through DNC and Obama organisation ... They've back-door'ed all the chips and code, what ever are used to ship on Uncle Sam's orders... They grow islands mid of Pacific Ocean... Plant military bases in Africa... And they pretty much ignore human rights, and workers' rights, making it a wonderland for psychopaths and globalists.

What a wonderful world.

I don't know anything about Liu Xiaobo. But if he has a Nobel Peace Prize that's one strike against him.

a reply to: paraphi

If you are on low income but paying for medical care, you are not free of persecution. If you are working fifteen hour shifts but earning too little to pay the rent, leave alone save money, you are not free of persecution. If you are a veteran who went to war and finds himself unable to access veterans services, or get the help you need from the government, to deal with the PTSD they sent you off to get, then you are not free from persecution. If you are looking at the United States of America, or any overtly capitalist society, and thinking "Damn, its nice to live in a nation where people have a right not to be persecuted by the state", then you are being persecuted, because you have had your critical reasoning done a significant damage, probably deliberately, by the system you live in.

All of that being said, you are absolutely right to applaud Liu Xiaobo, and the life he lived, and to condemn its foreshortening by the state he protested against.