A dissident writer dubbed the “Chinese Solzhenitsyn” yesterday said that his homeland is a “threat for the whole world.”
Liao Yiwu (廖亦武), who was jailed for writing a poem called Massacre about the Tiananmen Square protests, told reporters that it would be better for humanity if the economic superpower “splits up.”
“My dream is that China splits up into 10 or so countries, because China as it is today is a threat for the whole world,” he said as his latest book, Bullets and Opium, was published in France.
The book, which has been banned in China, recounts the stories of dozens of victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in which troops killed thousands of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in 1989.
The massacre, which is also known as the “June Fourth Incident,” is a major taboo in China.
“Returning to China is not a big concern for me. I would like to go back to my native Sichuan [Province] — when it’s independent. Then I would be delighted to return,” said Liao, who has been living in exile in Berlin since 2011.
Liao, a poet and musician who also reported on the lives of the Chinese poor, was tortured in prison, according to human rights groups, and harassed by the police on his release.
He told reporters that he was “very pessimistic” about his country under the increasing authoritarian rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“Thirty years ago we thought we might develop towards democracy. Today it is all about making money,” Liao said.
“Every one of the Western countries which criticized China after the massacre fight with each other now to do business with the executioners, even as they continue to arrest and kill people,” he added.
He poured scorn on the fact that Xi’s daughter studied at Harvard along with the children of other Chinese Communist Party leaders.
“Even the leaders’ mistresses are getting grants to study” at the US university, Liao said.
“Those who have scruples are marginalized, while those who make money without criticizing the party can do what they want,” the 60-year-old said.
However, Liao insisted that the massacre is the major turning point in recent Chinese history.
“For me, as for all Chinese people, it was a cataclysmic moment,” he said.
“You cannot mention the massacre in China, it’s taboo. My struggle is to make the truth of what happened known to as many people as I can,” he added.
The writer said that three decades on, “we still don’t know the exact number of victims.”
Human rights groups have said that between 2,600 and 3,000 people died after 200,000 soldiers were brought in to encircle the Chinese capital.
British diplomatic cables declassified in 2017 put initial estimates of the death toll at about 10,000.
“The Mothers of Tiananmen group have published 202 names, but we know there was a lot more than that,” Liao said.
As for a young man who stood in front of a tank, becoming a symbol of the peaceful protest, “we still don’t know his name or his fate,” he said.
“The name Wang Weilin (王維林) given to him by Western journalists was invented. We know nothing about him, even though he is the symbol of the millions of people who opposed the tyranny of June 4,” the writer said.
Liao’s book Testimonials about his time in prison has been compared with Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago and was praised by Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to