Clarion call:Yang Hengjun.Credit:Sanghee Liu
Confronted with one of history’s most powerful dictatorships,Mr Yang has managed to convey an extraordinarily powerful message,one that is as passionately pro-China as it is intolerable to the country's Communist Party rulers.
He has implored his supporters to push for “freedom,human rights,the rule of law and justice” even as China’s writers,lawyers andminorities are weathering oppression and assault.
“Maintain belief in China's democratic future,” he says,in the letter written in 2011 that wasreleased toThe Age. “And when it doesn't put yourself or your family at risk,use all your means to push China's democratic development to happen.”
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Mr Yang’s letter is a clarion call for Chinese civil society to hold fast under excruciating pressure. But it is not just addressed to China.
It is also an invitation for political leaders in Australia and across the democratic world to stand up for the values that they preach.
Australia’s diplomats and politicians should have learnt by now that silence at a time like this aids perpetrators,not victims. Shining a light on bad behaviour won’t always guarantee the release of detainees,but it will stop a bad situation from getting worse. And sometimes it works.