I harbour no enmity-my last statement (1)

Liu Xiaobo (23 December 2009)

http://news.mingpao.com/20100210/emc1.htm

My trajectory of life, which began more than half a century ago, took a major turn in June, 1989.

I took the first post-Cultural Revolution matriculation exam, got admitted to university and graduated in 1977. I subsequently earned my master's and doctorate.

My studies were plain sailing. After I had finished my studies, I taught at Beijing Normal University, my alma mater.

I was popular with my students on my rostrum. I was also a public intellectual.

In the 1980s, I published some works that made a stir. I was often invited to make speeches in other places. I was often invited to American and European universities as a visiting scholar.

I demanded that I live an honest, responsible and dignified person and writer. I returned from the US to take part in the 1989 movement.

Subsequently, I was put behind bars for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement"; I lost my rostrum, which I deeply loved; and I was prohibited from making any speeches or publishing any articles on the mainland.

Just because I had expressed dissent and taken part in the peaceful pro-democracy movement, I, a teacher, lost my rostrum, a writer, lost my right to publish, a public intellectual, was prohibited from speaking to the public.

That is sad to me and to China, whose gaige kaifang (reform and opening-up) began three decades ago.

"That is sad to me and to China"

In retrospect, the most dramatic experiences I have had since June 4 have to do with the court. I have had two opportunities to speak openly.

I spoke openly here, in the Beijing Municipal Intermediate Court, in January 1991, as I do now. I was then charged with different crimes.

However, all the charges that have been laid against me are essentially the same-of expressing my views.

Twenty years has passed, but the innocents killed in June 4 would not rest in their graves.

Since I came out of Qincheng Prison in 1991, I, whom my obsession with June 4 has led to the road of dissent, have been barred from exercising my right to speak to the public in my motherland.

I can only express my views in non-mainland publications. Because I have done so, I have long been watched.

I lived at home under surveillance (May 1995-January 1996) and was re-educated through labour(October 1996-October 1999).

Now the regime's enmity has put me in the dock. However, I want to tell the regime, which has deprived me of my liberty, that I adhere to the belief I expressed in my June 2 hunger strike declaration two decades ago-that I regard none as my enemy and I bear no hatred.

There are police officers who have arrested me, procurators who have prosecuted me and judges who have convicted me. I regard none of them as my enemy.

There is no way I can accept that they have done right to watch me, arrest me or sentence me, but I respect their professions and their integrity.

Procurators Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing now represent the prosecution at this trial.

I regard neither of them as my enemy.When you questioned me on December 3, I sensed your respect and sincerity.

Hopes to dissolve hatred with love

Here is my reason. Hatred eats into wisdom and conscience, and enmity poisons a people's spirit, provokes cruel life-and-death struggles, destroys a society's tolerance and humanity, and hinders a nation's progress towards freedom and democracy.

I therefore hope I can look beyond what has befallen me at my country's progress and social changes, respond to the regime's enmity with the uttermost goodwill, and dissolve hatred with love.

As everybody knows, it is gaige kaifang that has brought about progress and social changes in our country.

In my view, gaige kaifang began when the government dumped the policy of "regarding class struggle as the key link" (which it adopted in the Mao era) and began to devote its effort to developing the economy and fostering social harmony.

The process of discarding the struggle philosophy is one of lessening enmity, dissolving hatred and purging humanity of "wolf's milk".

It is this process that has brought about loose conditions at home and abroad for pursuing gaige kaifang and soft and humane soil that allows interpersonal love to be restored and various interests and values to co-exist in peace.

That is humane incentive for our people to regain love and bring their creativity into play.

One may say that, if the government had not ceased "fighting imperialism and revisionism" abroad or "pursuing class struggle" at home, China's gaige kaifang would not have persisted.

China owes to the lessening of enmity its market economy, cultural diversity and law and order.

Even in the realm of politics, where progress has been slowest, the lessening of enmity has enabled the regime to become more and more tolerant of social diversity, persecute dissidents much less vigorously, and say the 1989 movement was in nature not "turmoil", but "a political disturbance".

The lessening of enmity has enabled the regime to accept the universality of human rights.

In 1998, the Chinese government made a pledge to the world by signing two major United Nations human rights international covenants.

That marks China's acceptance of the universally-accepted human rights standards. In 2004, the National People's Congress adopted an amendment to the constitution that provides that "the state respects and protects human rights".

That shows it is now one of the cardinal principles of Chinese justice to protect human rights. Furthermore, the incumbent administration has said it puts the people first and strives to bring about social harmony.

That shows the Communist Party of China now subscribes to ideas of government that are more progressive.

I have felt such macroscopic progress in what I have experienced since I was recently arrested.

[ 本帖最後由 小奈由季 於 2010-2-10 14:46 編輯 ]

Humane management

I insist that I am innocent and that it is unconstitutional to lay any charges against me. Since I lost my liberty more than a year ago, I have been kept in two places and met four investigating police officers, three procurators and two judges.

None of them have exuded any disrespect, exceeded any time limits or tried in any way to force me to confess.

Affable and amenable to reason, they have often exuded goodwill. On June 23, I was transferred from my apartment (where I had lived under surveillance) to Beijing No 1 Detention House (beikan).

Over the past six months, I have witnessed better management there.

In 1996, I was kept in old beikan, in Banbuqiao. Beikan has now much better hardware (facilities) and software (management) than it did more than ten years ago.

It has pioneered humane management. Its soft management based on its respect for its inmates' rights and dignity is perceived in everything its wardens do and say.

It is perceived in its "heart-warming broadcasts", its Repentance magazine, its pre-meal music, its bedtime music and its getting-up music.

Its management warms its inmates' hearts, allows them to feel dignified and encourages them to maintain cell order and fight prison bullies.

It brings about humane conditions and greatly improves defendants' mindsets. I have had close contact with Liu Zheng, the warden in charge of my cell.

His respect and concern for the inmates can be felt in everything he says and everything he does in looking after his cells.

I should perhaps count it my good fortune to have come to know at beikan the sincere, honest, responsible and kind-hearted Warden Liu.

It is on the basis of what I strongly believe in and what I have experienced that I am certain that China's political progress will persist.

I optimistically look forward to the birth of a free China, for no force can dull the innate craving for freedom. China will one day be a country where the law rules and where human rights come first.

I hope such progress will be seen at this trial. I hope the collegiate bench will hand down a just ruling - one that will stand the test of history.

Wife's selfless love

If I am asked what the luckiest thing is that has befallen me over the past two decades, I will say it is that I have got the selfless love of Liu Xia, my wife.

My wife has not been able to come here to sit in at my trial. But I must tell you, "My dear, I am certain that you will love me as you've always done.

Over the years, I have lived without liberty, and the love between us has been pregnant with bitterness imposed by external circumstances.

However, I savour the memory of every moment of it. While I do time in a physical prison, you wait in an invisible prison of the mind.

Your love, like the sun, which reaches me from beyond the high walls through the windows with iron grating, caresses every square inch of my skin, warms every cell of my body, keeps my heart calm, free and clear, and makes every minute of my custody meaningful.

My love for you (very apologetic) is at times so heavy as to stagger me. I am an insensate stone exposed to violent storms in a wilderness, so cold that none dares to touch me.

But my love, hard and sharp, stops at no obstacles. Were I powdered, I would in powder form embrace you.

"My dear, armed with your love, I will freely face my imminent trial with no regrets about my choice. I optimistically look forward to tomorrow.

I look forward to the day when my country is a land where people may freely express their views, where every national's views are equally kindly received;

where various values, faiths and politics and various kinds of thought compete with one another and co-exist with one another in peace, where minority views are protected as majority views are, where views differing from those in power's are fully respected and protected;

where all political views are displayed in the sun for the people's choice, where every citizen may express his politics without fear, where none will ever suffer political persecution for expressing any dissent. I hope I will be the last of the many many Chinese that have been imprisoned or killed for their writings.

I hope that, from now on, none will ever be condemned for expressing their views."

The freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the root of humanity, and the mother of truth. To smother the freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, suffocate humanity and suppress truth.

I have only done a social duty I have as a Chinese citizen. I have only exercised the right to free speech, to which I am entitled under the constitution.

I have done nothing unlawful. Though charges have been laid against me, I will utter no words of complaint.

I thank you all.

*Please copy this statement if you think it is meaningful !