Another Chinese Free Speech Advocate Joins Roll of Honour
BEIJING — Yu Jie has picked a fight with the Communist Party of China, and if state security forces haul him away in the dark of night, there will be no one to stop them. It’s a risk Yu took knowingly when he wrote a book published this month that slammed the country’s prime minister as an “actor” shilling for an authoritarian government.
His challenge is a rarity in a nation noted for its rough treatment of dissidents, and is made all the more remarkable by the fact that Yu, an unassuming author who looks like a Beijing office worker, has no prominent family or professional connections in China to bail him out of prison.
Via McClatchy’s excellent Tom Lasseter
China’s leaders are petty-minded, paranoid, intolerant, and filled with spiteful punitive intent when challenged. Such is the courage required of the dissenting voice in the Middle Kingdom.
Yu Jie, take a bow. China needs many more as brave as you.