World
Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor
C4
‘White Terror’ recalled in Taiwan
SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2017
China censors scrub tributes to Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo B
EIJING―China’s censors raced Friday to scrub social media networks of candles, RIP and other tributes to Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo as they sought to silence the discussion on the prominent dissident’s death.
The 61-year-old democracy activist died Thursday from liver cancer while under heavy police guard at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang―but most Chinese remain clueless about his death or even who he was. A search for news of his death on Chinese search engine Baidu turned up no results and China’s Twitter-like Weibo blocked the use of his name and initials “LXB”. Even the most obscure homages to Liu on Weibo were removed. One user who posted “RIP” was advised it had been deleted “because it violated relevant laws and regulations”―even though the post did not mention the activist by name. RIP is now among the search terms blocked on Chinese social media networks. Grieving users who had posted candle emojis on Weibo saw them erased. When accessing Weibo on a personal computer the symbol is no longer among the emoticon options. On the Weibo mobile app, however, the candle was still available but attempts to post it were blocked and triggered a message saying “content is illegal!”. The Chinese word for “candle” is also barred. China tightly controls the internet through a censorship system known as the “Great Firewall” and closely monitors social media networks for sensitive content. Social media sites have been cleaned of comments praising the dissident. “He is the brave one for this time. The history will remember him whether alive or dead,” one user said in a Weibo post that was later deleted. Another said: “You, who was just freed, made the world different; we, those who are still in prison, salute you.” Even a Chinese language article about German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, the last Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody, that had been circulating on the mobile messaging app WeChat can no longer be accessed. A search for the most commonly used Chinese translation of Ossietzky’s name also returned no results on Weibo but it was not blocked on Baidu. The circumstances recalled the situation in 2010 when Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while serving an 11-year sentence for “subversion”―online searches for his name and references to his award, including the empty chair that represented him at the Oslo ceremony, were blocked. Not all online posts were sympathetic to Liu, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government. The state-run Global Times daily posted on its Weibo account: “The deceased has gone and people are playing a magnificent show pretending to be sad. We are a group of onlookers eating watermelon for one night.” The post has been removed but screen shots of it have been widely shared. As international media descended on the hospital that had been treating Liu for more than a month, most locals appeared to be oblivious about the political prisoner, whose name is extremely sensitive in the Communist country. AFP
LAST BULL RUN. A participant is hit by a bull as others run ahead of Miura’s fighting bulls during the eighth and last bull run of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain. AFP
TAIPEI―When saxophonist Chen Shen-ching was jailed during Taiwan’s “White Terror” political purges, it was music that helped him hold on to his sanity. Banned from taking his instrument into prison he scrawled songs on scraps of paper and memorized them during his 12 years behind bars. As the island prepares to mark 30 years since martial law was lifted and it began its journey to become a vibrant democracy, Chen is one of a number of creative Taiwanese who want to ensure those dark days are never forgotten. Now 75, he continues to sing his prison songs at political rallies and human rights events. “I hope people will listen, sing them and want to learn more about White Terror history,” Chen told AFP. At 32, with a promising musical career and a young family, Chen was given a life sentence for sedition after joining a group advocating Taiwan independence―taboo under nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. His father died soon after he was arrested and he penned a tribute song to help him through his grief. “I taught others to sing it and we often cried,” Chen said. “For a musician, playing a sad song helps release emotions.” He composed 20 songs in jail reflecting the inmates’ homesickness and mental anguish. Chen was freed in 1986 as part of a prison amnesty and slowly managed to rebuild his life in southern Taiwan. He still wants the self-ruling island to split from China and often performs at pro-independence rallies. Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has said it would respond with force if it ever announced a formal breakaway. Chen is glad he never wavered from his beliefs. “I did what I did for my ideals,” he says. “So, I have no regrets.” Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war to Communist forces on the mainland, but saw himself and his authoritarian government as the legitimate rulers of the whole of China. Under his rule, political opponents were killed and imprisoned, there was no free press and songs deemed vulgar or proCommunist were banned. AFP
Beijing under pressure to release Liu’s widow SHENYANG―China faced international calls Friday to free the widow of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo after global condemnation over the Communist regime’s refusal to grant the democracy champion’s dying wish to leave the country. The United States and the European Union urged President Xi Jinping’s government to let Liu’s widow, the poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010, leave the country. Chinese doctors said she was by her husband’s side when he lost his battle with liver cancer on Thursday at age 61, more than a month after he was transferred from prison to a hospital in
the northeastern city of Shenyang. Liu’s main doctor said he was able to say goodbye to his 56-year-old wife and in his final moments told her to “live well”. But authorities have restricted her contact with the outside world and her whereabouts were unknown following the death of her husband, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests whose advocacy for democratic reform infuriated the government. “I call on the Chinese government to release Liu Xia from house arrest and allow her to depart China, according to her wishes,” US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. The EU urged Beijing to let Liu Xia
and her family bury the dead democracy campaigner “at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace”. Jared Genser, a US lawyer who represented Liu, said all contact with Liu Xia had been cut off in the past 48 hours. “I am deeply worried about what’s happening with her right now,” Genser told CNN, adding that it would be hard for the government to still justify holding her without charges. “The world really needs to rally and mobilize to make sure she can go wherever she wants and that she can bury her husband wherever she wants,” he said.
Liu Xia’s parents both died over the last year, and the poet, who was never interested in politics, has suffered from depression, according to friends. “After the death of Liu Xiaobo, our most important goal is to save Liu Xia from the bitter sea,” Hu Jia, a Beijingbased activist, told AFP. “We will also use public opinion and public opinion pressure to urge the Chinese Communist Party to open the cage door, so Liu Xia can get free” along with her brother, Hu said. Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang rejected the criticism of China’s handling of Liu’s death, adding that doctors made “all-out” efforts to treat him. AFP
Protest leader rues Liu’s death TAIPEI―Exiled Tiananmen Square student protest leader Wu’er Kaixi said on Friday the world had “failed to save” Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, whom he described as his mentor. Wu’er is one of the best-known figures from the pro-democracy movement that took over the square in Beijing in 1989, prompting a bloody crackdown in which at least several hundreds are believed to have died. He fled China and now lives in Taiwan, but said he had managed to stay in touch with Liu via Skype before his imprisonment. Wu’er said Liu was a key adviser to him during the student movement before Chinese authorities sent in tanks to crush the peaceful protests. “The world has failed to save one of the most conscientious and genuine Chinese,” said Wu’er, speaking of Liu who was a professor of Chinese literature at the university where he was studying at the time.
“You can say we tolerated and indulged the Chinese government to kill him,” he told AFP in Taipei. Liu―who was detained in 2008 after calling for democratic reforms and sentenced to 11 years in prison―died in custody aged 61 on Thursday in a heavily guarded hospital, where he was transferred from prison to treat latestage liver cancer. Wu’er called on world leaders to put pressure on the Chinese government to release Liu’s wife Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest since 2010. Liu had been one of the main reasons why the movement had remained peaceful and non-violent, he added. “I’m his little prodigy. He was my mentor,” he said. Wu’er said the last time he saw Liu was in 1992 because he was barred from returning to the mainland while Liu could not leave. “His relations with me was really close. We were like family,” he added. AFP
BASTILLE DAY PARADE. Soldiers dressed as World War I Sammies carry the US flag as they lead US troops marching during the annual Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. AFP