“Free my friend Hao Wu”

My friend Lisa writes a moving post about her friend Hao Wu, who is apparently languishing in a state prison somewhere in China for no discernible reason. It’s too heartbreaking.

It’s hard for me to know what to say, except that Hao is a great person, with talent and heart and vision, and that for the Chinese government to detain him is yet another sign of how the CCP still squanders the talent of its own people, how it is destroying China’s future in the name of “social harmony,” which more than anything else seems to be a figleaf of ideological cover for the exercise of raw power and untrammeled authority. Hao never challenged the CCP. The only way in which his work could be considered “political” is that he does not censor his own observations, that he thinks freely and isn’t afraid to say what he thinks.

If these are the kinds of characteristics that the Chinese authorities find so threatening that they respond with detentions and repression, then I really do fear for China’s future.

Please go and read the whole thing.

The Discussion: 3 Comments

I read Lisa’s whole post. Here’s some good news?
A press release from Reporters Without Borders, the supposedly have written to Who JeanTowel in Beijing.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16810

March 21, 2006 @ 11:46 pm | Comment

Admiral, thanks for that news. Let’s hope for the best.

March 21, 2006 @ 11:59 pm | Comment

In any other country Hao Wu would be a celebrated talent, he’s a great writer and in a foreign language to boot. To lock him away in jail is just so stupid, retrogressive and pathetic I am lost for words. I wonder how the Massage Milks of the blogosphere will feel about this – just another hoax, chaps? No, this is the reality, when our good friends are being taken away for something they’ve said, or for trying to make a video. 21sy Century China: Shoot a few villagers and get a promotion. Shoot a low budget movie and get a jail sentence.

March 22, 2006 @ 5:02 am | Comment

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