Few average Americans have ever heard of Liu Xiaobo. I certainly hadn't until just before I went on a trip to China and Tibet, which included a three-day cruise on the Yangtze River after our return to China from Tibet.
By the time of the cruise, I had heard and seen a lot of examples of Chinese government suppression. We heard stories of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, personal stories of people being forced from their purchased apartments by force so that new, more expensive buildings could rise, and so on.
I found it amusing that I could not access my own blog--this site--while I was China and Tibet. Amusing, that is, until I considered the implications of that.
Yesterday came news that Xiaobo had died in prison. I thought it appropriate to review the story I wrote about him while I was trying to see through dense smog on the Yangtze River.
http://gullible-gulliblestravels.blogspot.com/2010/12/the-china-journals-chapter-six-ghosts.html
I had read about the passing of Liu Xiaobo in the Anchorage paper today. Nobel Prize Winner extraordinaire. I re-read again your post from your China trip. Important question: Is is better that a government blocks information or lies about information. Great question for us to be contemplating today ... Rest in peace Liu Xiaobo ... Patti
ReplyDeleteI too, as did Patti, went back to your long ago Post, well six plus years ago. Looking at where we are here in the U.S. today and now makes one wonder. Interesting. Cap
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