As the people awaken and directly challenge the regime of Xi Jinping’s totalitarian nightmare of tyranny and state terror in reply to his claim of absolute power and the brutal repression of dissent, China has these past days become a forge of democracy electrified by the chant of mass protests; “Give me Liberty or give me death!”
It is a phrase which reveals the democracy revolution beneath the surface of the anti-lockdown protests, and America as the ideological inspiration of a young generation who have turned their backs on the Maoist propaganda embodied by Xi Jinping and his bureaucracy of faceless men and sadistic thugs. With this call to action in 1775 Patrick Henry won Virginian soldiers to the cause of the Revolution against the British Empire, a call which became the motto of the French Revolution as “Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort”, and has now become a distant echo which sounds in thunder and fury in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Lanzhou, in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi where it began Friday night, and throughout the nation which now struggles to birth itself in Liberation from the Chinese Communist Party.
Here is Patrick Henry’s speech which birthed the Revolution; “If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
As written by Nectar Gan and Selina Wang of CNN; “For the first time in decades, thousands of people have defied Chinese authorities to protest at universities and on the streets of major cities, demanding to be freed not only from incessant Covid tests and lockdowns, but strict censorship and the Communist Party’s tightening grip over all aspects of life.
Across the country, “want freedom” has become a rallying cry for a groundswell of protests mainly led by the younger generation, some too young to have taken part in previous acts of open dissent against the government.
“Give me liberty or give me death!” crowds by the hundreds shouted in several cities, according to videos circulating online, as vigils to mark the deaths of at least 10 people in a fire in Xinjiang spiraled into political rallies.
Videos circulating online seem to suggest China’s strict zero-Covid policy initially prevented emergency workers from accessing the scene, angering residents across the country who have endured three years of varying Covid controls.
Some protesters chanted for free speech, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and other political demands across cities from the eastern financial hub of Shanghai to the capital Beijing, the southern metropolis of Guangzhou and Chengdu in the west.
CNN has verified protests in 16 locations, with reports of others held in dozens of other cities and universities across the country.
In a symbolic protest against ever-tightening censorship, young demonstrators across China held up sheets of white paper – a metaphor for the countless critical posts, news articles and outspoken social media accounts that were wiped from the internet.
“I think in a just society, no one should be criminalized for their speech. There shouldn’t be only one voice in our society – we need a variety of voices,” a Beijing protester told CNN in the early hours of Monday as he marched down the city’s Third Ring Road with a thin pile of white A4 paper.
“I hope in the future, I will no longer be holding a white piece of paper for what I really want to express,” said the protester, who CNN is not naming due to concerns about repercussions for speaking out.
The United Nations on Monday urged Chinese authorities to guarantee people’s “right to demonstrate peacefully,” Secretary General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a daily briefing.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said China’s ruling Communist Party should “take notice” of the protests.
“Protests against the Chinese government are rare. And so when they do happen, I think it’s worth us taking note, but more importantly, I think it’s incumbent on the Chinese government to take notice of its own people,” Cleverly told reporters.
Throughout the weekend, censors moved swiftly to scrub videos and photos of the protests from the Chinese internet, though the startling images made headlines worldwide.
In online commentaries, Chinese state media made no mention of the protests, instead focusing on the strengths of Beijing’s anti-Covid policies, emphasizing they were both “scientific and effective.”
But to many protesters, the demonstrations are about much more than Covid – they’re bringing together many liberal-minded young people whose attempts to speak out might otherwise be thwarted by strict online censorship.
A Shanghai resident in their 20s who took part in the candlelight vigil in the early hours of Sunday said they were greeted by other young people holding white papers, flowers and shouting “want freedom” as they walked toward the makeshift memorial.
“My friends and I have all experienced Shanghai’s lockdown, and the so-called ‘iron fist’ (of the state) has fallen on all of us,” they told CNN, “That night, I felt that I could finally do something. I couldn’t sit still, I had to go.”
They broke into tears quietly in the crowd as the chants demanding freedom grew louder.
“At that moment, I felt I’m not alone,” they said. “I realized that I’m not the only one who thinks this way.”
In some cases, the protests have taken on an even more defiant tone and openly called for political change.
During the first night of the demonstrations in Shanghai, a crowd shouted “Step down, Xi Jinping! Step down, Communist Party!” in an unprecedented, direct challenge to the top leader. On Sunday night, some protesters again chanted for the removal of Xi.
In Chengdu, the protesters did not name Xi, but their message was hard to miss. “Opposition to dictatorship!” chanted hundreds of people packing the bustling river banks in a popular food and shopping district on Sunday evening, according to videos and a participant.
“We don’t want lifelong rulers. We don’t want emperors!” they shouted in a thinly veiled reference to the Chinese leader, who last month began a norm-shattering third term in office.
According to the participant, the crowd also protested against revisions to the party charter and the state constitution – which enabled Xi to further cement his hold on power and scrap presidential term limits.
Much like in Shanghai, the gathering started as a small candlelight vigil for people killed in the fire in Urumqi on Thursday.
But as more people gathered, the vigil turned into a louder arena to air political grievances.
“Everyone started shouting these slogans very naturally,” the participant said. “It is so rare that we have such a large-scale gathering and demonstration. The words of mourning didn’t feel enough, and we had to shout out some words that we want to say.”
To her, the experience of suffocating censorship inevitably fuels desire for “institutional and spiritual freedom,” and mourning the victims and demanding democracy and freedom are two “inseparable” things.
“We all know that the reason why we have to keep undergoing lockdowns and Covid tests is that this is a political movement, not a scientific and logical response of epidemic prevention,” she said. “That’s why we have more political demands other than lifting lockdowns.”
The Chengdu protester said she felt encouraged by the wave of demonstrations sweeping the country.
“It turns out there are so many people who are wide awake,” she said. “I feel like I can see a glimmer of light coming through ahead.”
China under the iron boot of the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping has its true origins in the Loyalty Purge and Massacre of the Jiangxi Soviet of 1930-31, in which Mao killed three out of four of the communists, some one hundred thousand people, and seized absolute control. In this mass murder and crime against humanity Mao established the First Rule of Tyranny; When the state’s absolute monopoly on power is in doubt, kill everyone not personally loyal to you. This aphorism, not included in the public version of the Red Book, became the founding principle of the Chinese Communist Party as an instrument of terror and tyranny, as autocratic and totalitarian as the regime of any king or emperor.
Democracy in China is a dream stolen by a dead tyrant, but one which may be restored. Now is the time we must stand in solidarity with the people of China against tyranny and state terror, for who stands alone dies alone. As the line in the film Brazil goes which inspired so many adventures of my youth; “We’re all in this together.”
The Hunger Games Salute of the Revolution
Here is the famous scene in the film Brazil:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/28/china/china-protests-covid-political-freedom-intl-hnk-mic/index.html
Chinese
2022 年 11 月 28 日，不自由，毋寧死；群眾抗議成為中國的民主革命
隨著人民覺醒並直接挑戰習近平的專制暴政和國家恐怖噩夢，以回應他對絕對權力的宣稱和對異見的殘酷鎮壓，中國在過去的日子裡變成了一個被群眾口號所激勵的民主熔爐抗議； “要么給我自由，要么給我死亡！”
這句話揭示了反封鎖抗議活動表面下的民主革命，以及美國作為年輕一代的意識形態靈感，他們背棄了習近平及其不露面的官僚和虐待狂所體現的毛澤東主義宣傳暴徒。通過 1775 年的這一行動號召，帕特里克·亨利贏得了弗吉尼亞士兵參加反對大英帝國的革命事業，這一號召成為法國大革命的座右銘“Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort”，現在已成為遙遠的迴聲在上海、北京、成都、武漢、蘭州，在周五晚上開始的新疆首府烏魯木齊，以及現在正在努力從中國共產黨手中解放出來的全國各地響起雷鳴般的怒火。
這是帕特里克·亨利 (Patrick Henry) 的演講，這場演講催生了革命； “如果我們有足夠的基礎去渴望它，現在退出比賽為時已晚。除了服從和奴役，別無退路！我們的鎖鍊是鍛造的！在波士頓的平原上可能會聽到它們的叮噹聲！戰爭是不可避免的，讓它來吧！我再說一遍，先生，讓它來吧。先生，減輕這件事是徒勞的。先生們可能會呼喊，和平，和平，但沒有和平。戰爭真的開始了！下一次從北方刮來的大風，將讓我們耳邊傳來震耳欲聾的兵器交擊聲！我們的弟兄們已經在戰場上了！為什麼我們在這裡閒著？先生們的願望是什麼？他們會有什麼？生命如此寶貴，和平如此甜蜜，以至於要以鎖鍊和奴役為代價來換取？禁止它，全能的上帝！我不知道別人會採取什麼做法；但至於我，要么給我自由，要么給我死亡！”
中國共產黨和習近平鐵蹄下的中國真正起源於 1930-31 年江西蘇維埃的忠誠清洗和屠殺，毛澤東殺死了四分之三的共產黨人，大約十萬人，並取得了絕對的控制權。在這場大屠殺和反人類罪中，毛澤東建立了暴政的第一條規則；當國家對權力的絕對壟斷受到質疑時，殺死所有不忠於你的人。這句格言沒有被收錄在紅皮書的公開版本中，卻成為中國共產黨的建國原則，成為恐怖和暴政的工具，與任何國王或皇帝的政權一樣專制和極權。
中國的民主是一個被死去的暴君偷走的夢想，但可以恢復。現在是我們必須與中國人民站在一起反對暴政和國家恐怖主義的時候了，因為誰孤獨終老。正如電影《巴西》中的那句台詞，它激發了我年輕時的許多冒險經歷； “我們誰都跑不了。”
Torch of Liberty 