Lu Banglie
Two days ago the Guardian’s China correspondent was driving near the Chinese town of Taishi with Chinese dissident Lu Banglie, when his car was stopped at a road block. Lu Banglie was dragged out of the car and beaten senseless. Tuesday’s Guardian story (the front-page lead) speculated that he might have died, but it seems from today’s paper that he survived.
It’s important that incidents like this are well publicized. The least that brave people like Lu Banglie and Wei Jingshen, incarcerated for nearly 18 years for his book “The Fifth Modernization” and his support for the Democracy Wall movement in 1979, deserve is to have their heroism noticed, rather than being brushed aside like awkward leaves on the road to the Chinese century.
"Dissent may not always be pleasant to listen to, and it is inevitable that it will sometimes be misguided. But it is everyone's sovereign right. Indeed, when government is seen as defective or unreasonable, criticizing it is an unshirkable duty." -- Wei Jingshen
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