By Emily Lau



One of Hong Kong’s most outspoken and popular politicians, Emily Lau represents the Democratic Party.

HONG KONG -- On New Year’s Day, 30,000 people marched through the streets here to demand direct elections starting in 2012. The protesters also expressed anger that China had jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo for 11 years for “inciting subversion of state power”. Many people consider the two issues intertwined.

Democracy and human rights are universal values that many people cherish. While struggling for democracy in Hong Kong, we’re deeply alarmed to see a respected intellectual jailed after exercising freedom of expression. Beijing’s gross human-rights violations may happen here too in the future so we must stay vigilant.

Sentencing Liu on Christmas Day was seen as a crude attempt to bury the news amid holiday celebrations. Such tactics aren’t peculiar to China, but Beijing officials also warned that international criticism would interfere in its internal affairs. They knew the jailing would cause global concern and unease.

Western diplomats were barred from the courtroom as Liu was tried and sentenced. To many, this indicates not confidence and strength, but insecurity and vulnerability.

No ordinary dissident, Liu taught at the Beijing Normal University and had spent 20 months in jail for joining the 1989 student-led protests on Tiananmen Square. He was a main author of Charter 08, a human-rights manifesto modeled on the Charter 77 document that inspired Soviet-bloc Eastern Europe.

Charter 08 calls for sweeping changes to China’s political order, like allowing free expression, political activity and religious practice. It proposes drastic reforms that would dismantle one-party rule, allow public supervision of government officials and democratic elections at all levels, and free the military and judiciary from Communist Party control.

Police detained Liu just before Charter 08 was released in December 2008 and held him for six months before charges were lodged. Later Charter 08 was signed by more than 10,000 people, including many from Hong Kong.

Human rights groups say Liu’s sentence is the longest since the crime of inciting subversion was established in 1997. It means Beijing will take an increasingly hard line against activists. The verdict warns intellectuals, activists and human-rights defenders that the state will severely punish those deemed a threat to its monopoly on power. It shows the government’s determination to thwart any reforms and use the courts to silence critics. This bodes badly for all of China, including Hong Kong.

The world closely watches Liu’s situation because Charter 08 refuted the Party’s central argument that a slow reform pace is preferable and supported by the Chinese people. Mainland officials tell their Western counterparts that they already work toward many of the charter’s principles, but in a “steady” and “orderly” fashion. They claim China remains at an early stage of development and the time isn’t right to implement such changes.

When Charter 08 was released, the Chinese government watched warily as copies spread to Internet sites within the country, and English-language translations reached overseas audiences. The charter links fair and sustainable economic progress with civil, judicial and political reforms. It insists these reforms are needed now, not at some indeterminate future time. Critically, the document was written and endorsed by leading Chinese intellectuals and citizens. It wasn’t pushed onto China by Western intellectuals.

Four days before Liu was sentenced, the state-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released its annual Social Blue Book that highlighted worsening social unrest due to inequality and corruption. The report calls into question the success of Beijing’s perpetual plan to build a “harmonious society”. Its Ministry of Public Security reported 87,000 instances of “mass unrest” in 2005 and estimated 100,000 in 2007. There’s also widespread, growing and profound public dissatisfaction with government officials.

Commentators say Liu’s heavy sentence results partly from a power struggle raging in the Communist Party. Given the tense atmosphere, the authorities want to send unambiguous signals that they’ll crush dissent.

Despite China’s opaque politics, the rivalry of two powerful party secretaries, Bo Xilai of Chongqing and Wang Yang of Guangdong, subtly unfolds in the state media and in boisterous closed-door discussions. Analysts see the rivalry as a proxy fight between factions seeking political advantages before the 18th Communist Party Congress in 2012 when the party would elect its fifth-generation leadership.

Sixty-year-old Bo, a son of influential Party elder Bo Yibo, is considered part of a loosely connected faction of “princelings” (children of Communist veterans and past officials) working with the “Shanghai gang” led by past president Jiang Zemin. Wang, age 55, is seen as an ally of President Hu Jintao due to a past in the Communist Youth League, which forms Hu’s power base.

As the power struggle intensifies, other dissidents and activists may be jailed. But more people will sign Charter 08 to tell the leaders that China should join the civilized world by respecting basic human rights. In such turbulent times, Liu’s heroic sacrifice won’t be in vain.

Democratic legislator Fred Li plans to move a motion debate in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to demand the release of Liu and other dissidents. He will urge Beijing to accept Charter 08 as a manifestation of common values in civilized societies. Li’s motion may be voted down by pro-Beijing legislators, but it has wide community support.

The struggle for democracy and human rights in China will continue.

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