o No.52 By Bear Lee

CNA Staff Writer

It is a dream of Liu Xiaobo, the prominent Chinese dissident who was sentenced to 11 years in jail Dec. 25, for a democratic system like the one in Taiwan to someday take shape in China.

Liu, who had been detained since December last year, was given the jail term — one of the harshest ever for any Chinese dissenter, on charges of “inciting subversion of state power, ” a vague and unique term that China uses to prosecute its dissidents.

In interviews with CNA before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Liu said he has been very interested in Taiwan’s recent democratic development and that it could serve as “an enlightenment or a model” for China.

“I’m very curious about what the younger generation of Taiwan has been thinking and doing, as this would be a key indicator of the direction in which Taiwan will move,” he said.

Liu, who has been jailed several times as a political prisoner since 1989, has never shown any sign of cynicism or resentment, unlike many other persecuted Chinese dissidents.

“I know what I have been doing and what kind of cost I have to pay for that,” he told CNA in his small home in Beijing.

On the contrary, he expressed a great deal of tolerance toward the policemen who arrested him under the instructions of the authorities.

“The men who nabbed me would probably be good fathers when they have their uniforms off at home,” Liu said.

Liu turned 54 three days after his latest sentence was handed down by a Beijing court, and he and his wife have decided not to have a child — the only one allowed under China’s one-child policy.

“We are not against having a child, but rather we dare not have one, as human rights have never been respected in China nowadays, so we have “a hundred reasons” not to have a child.”

Liu was arrested in December last year on the eve of the release of “Charter 08, ” a blueprint Liu co-authored with about 300 elite from across all spectrums of Chinese society that calls for an end to the Communist Party of China’s (CPC’s) dominance of the government, military and courts, protection of freedom of speech and religious beliefs and implementation of constitutional democracy in China.

“Charter 08″ is reported to have been seconded by more than 10,000 people so far, many of whom are leading intellectuals in China.

In 1989, Liu cut short a visiting scholar program at Columbia University in the United States and rushed back to Beijing to join the hunger strike staged at Tiananmen Square by students calling for political reform in China, a protest that led to the bloody military crackdown by the authorities, known as the Tiananmen Massacre.

He was then detained at Qincheng Prison near Beijing on charges of “anti-revolution” for his role in the incident.

After his release in January 1991, Liu refused to go into exile and instead chose to stay at home to promote China’s democratization. He was jailed again in May 1994 for over six months for his appeals for justice for the 1989 massacre.

In October 1996, Liu was dumped in a labor camp in Talian City in the northeastern Chinese province of Liaoning for three years after he advised a CPC congress session to launch a national anti- corruption drive and to usher in the rule of law.

His insistence on the universal value of human rights and democracy has earned him numerous awards from Human Rights Watch, Reporters without Borders and other international organizations.

His latest sentence triggered outcry from international human rights organizations and Western countries, with the United States pressing Beijing for his immediate release.

Taiwan joined the ranks of the international community Dec. 26, with President Ma Ying-jeou calling on China to demonstrate “the greatest possible tolerance” toward its dissidents.

Human Rights Watch said that since 2003, China has sentenced more than 35 people on charges of inciting subversion of state power to prison terms ranging from 1.5 to 11 years, with Liu being the most severely punished.

This shows that the Chinese government will not tolerate Chinese citizens participating in discussions about their own form of government, the group said.

More Info: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=175190&CtNode=39