The ESWN blog has partially translated an interview with activist Guo Feixiong (郭飛熊) after his release for his involvement in the Taishi elections. The interviewer, journalist Xiaoshu, says:
Although the Taishi village incident was serious enough to attract the attention of the world, there was not a lot of casualties and you and the other villagers have been freed. The authorities who were connected to this incident did not draw too much popular resentment, so that they have a way out for the future. That is to say, it is possible to say that they were okay with respect to what they did and history will not be too harsh on them. But Shanwei is different. History has set a place for them. And for those people who go into the historical record, they will pay the price sooner or later.
“From this viewpoint, a smart person in power should realistically look at the implications from the Taishi village and Shanwei incidents. If they put themselves in those situations, Taishi village may not be the best method of handling and there may a future cost. But compared to Shanwei, the cost is much smaller. Thus, they would rather take Taishi village than Shanwei.
“Therefore, the involvement of intellectuals in rights cases is not a bad thing for the authorities. If there were no more game play over interests in China, then there is no need for intellectuals. But is that conceivable? Do the authorities still believe that they live in an age in which they issue an order and everybody obeys? The authorities are obviously not getting everything that they want so easily.
The original Chinese is here.
