China’s Lonely Heretic

The Australian profiles imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo:

Liu’s last interview before his arrest was with The Australian. “No matter how rich a society is, as long as it is ruled by a privileged class (that) gains its wealth from an unbalanced and opaque system, there will be strong discontent,” he said.

“And any defence of this group’s economic interests will evolve into a defence of its political rights.”

His determination to remain in China and to communicate through whatever channels remain open – from now on, probably none – as well as his good-humoured decency have made him an inspiration to other independent-minded spirits in the country.

[...] Fan Yafeng, a researcher at the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says: “Liu is a great example of a Chinese intellectual whose imprisonment, his purgatory, has given him added strength and underlined his status. Our intellectuals have had our backbones bent but Liu pulls us upright again.”