Blogger Ran Yunfei posted the following today on his blog:
Congratulations to the Freedom Fighter Liu Xiaobo
Today, I am still excited. I can’t calm myself down so I can write something that is profound or provides a full analysis. I’ll only be able to do that after a few days have gone by. Now I’ll just make a few points to express my congratulations on Liu Xiaobo getting the prize.
1. Liu Xiaobo winning the prize is praise from the freedom-loving countries and people of the world for the Chinese who are fighting for freedom and a blessing for the Chinese people who have not yet won their freedom. I would be happy for any Chinese who promoted
democratic progress who won the Nobel Peace Prize. While I congratulate Liu Xiaobo, I also want to remember China’s prisoners of conscience who have made great sacrifices yet have won this special honor. Everyone, no matter where they live, or whether they are young
or old, should fight for human dignity and for human freedom. This is what the award of the prize to Liu Xiaobo says to us.2. In the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, only two people have won the prize while in jail. They were the German anti-war activist Carl von Ossietzky imprisoned by Nazi Germany and China’s Liu Xiaobo. We call for the unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo. If he is not released
immediately, the Nobel Prize Committee should be allowed to go to his jail to present him the prize. This is because Nazi Germany and
Hitler in their confusion allowed a prize committee members to go to Carl von Ossietzky in jail to present him the prize. The Chinese government cannot permit itself to be even worse than the Nazis!3. The PRC Foreign Ministry said that the award of the prize to a criminal like Liu Xiaobo is a blasphemy against the Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. Congressman Smith, a long-time observer of China, said that this is complete nonsense. In an era in which the Internet is gradually making information available to everyone, trying to hide from any Chinese the news that Liu Xiaobo has won the Nobel Peace Prize is hopelessly stupid behavior — the more one tries to hide it, the more obvious it becomes.
4. Just as Wen Jiabao said, democracy and freedom are irresistable. I sincerely hope that the government will go with the flow, turn away from oppression, and become a force for progress and effectively promote democratic reforms and social progress. Only freedom can bring peace and blessings to all men. If not, under the current messed up system everyone with no exceptions is under all sorts of constraints. If the message of Liu Xiaobo, an advocate of non-violence, is missed, it can only lead to more violent opposition and disasters and more lost opportunities. This is the lesson of the fall of the Manchu Qing government and of the fall of the Republic of China government.
October 9, 2010 at 9:53 PM in Chengdu
