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From December 24 last year, the authorities at Tsinghua University kept calling me to tell me the “gatekeepers” wanted to talk to me. On January 9 this year, the secretary and deputy secretary of the Humanities Institute arranged to call around, whereupon they told me that the high-ups knew that I signed the Charter 08, so had told them to them come and investigate. I told them I hadn’t signed Charter 08. It was incorrect to say I had. However, I endorsed its main spirit and aspirations. A lot of my friends were signatories. For a long time, given the slightest opportunity, how to activate the process of constitutional democracy in China had been the subject of discussions in which I have taken part, including discussion of texts of one kind and another. In an information society with people communicating ideas so actively, and by such diverse means, wasn’t it pointless to solemnly ask who had discuss some article with you, and how many times? Given no state secrets were involved, nor any criminal matter, what was there to investigate? I stated: because of some of the views it contained, I hadn’t signed this document. But I wouldn’t promise not to sign a similar one in future. In advanced civilizations today, it’s quite shameful to demand of citizens only to say that they like the government. You can’t say that I support the main spirit of the Charter—I don't support it. But I also hold a position of “disagreeing with your opinion, but strongly defending your right to express it,” and I oppose people being arrested because of it. I never signed Charter 08, but if someone launched a signature campaign demanding the release of Liu Xiaobo who was arrested over it, I would very likely sign. This is because if he can be arrested today because of something he said, I myself could be tomorrow. To defend Liu Xiaobo’s freedom of expression is to defend our own freedom of expression, including people who disagree with him. Qin Hui, “Zhongguo geng xuyao minzhu bianlun yu chongxin qimeng” [Democratic debate and renewed enlightenment is more necessary for China], Yazhou zhoukan, 18 March 2009 [秦晖： “中国更需要民主辩论与重新启蒙”， 亚洲周刊，2009年3月 18日 (http://zyzg.us/thread-194339-1-1.html). Opening statement source: http://zyzg.us/thread-194339-1-1.html Translated by David Kelly China Research Centre University of Technology Sydney © Copyright 2009 by Boxun News Top of Page |
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