Xu Zhangrun Archive

 

On 5 December 2023, the Wei Jingsheng Foundation announced that Professor Xu Zhangrun had been awarded the Twentieth Annual Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize. The text of the announcement is reproduced below.

Professor Xu Zhangrun remains under constant surveillance in the western suburbs of Beijing. Despite his isolation, it was possible to communicate the details of this award to him. Humbled and touched by this recognition, Professor Xu requested that the prize money attached to the award be used to support the operations of the Wei Jingsheng Foundation.

This accolade is the second award that Xu Zhangrun has received in 2023. In January, Rong Wei 榮偉, founding editor of Bouden House 博登書屋, an independent Chinese publisher in New York, announced that Professor Xu was being recognised both for the intellectual impact as well as the publishing success of China’s Ongoing Crisis: Six Chapters 《戊戌六章》, a series of essays that he had published amidst considerable controversy, and at great personal cost, in 2018-2019. (For details, see Six Chapters — One Hundred and Twenty Years, China Heritage, 1 January 2020.)

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
6 December 2023

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Related material:

• Xu Zhangrun Archive
• Xu Zhangrun, Cyclopes on My Doorstep, 22 December 2020
• Xu Zhangrun, Composed of Eros & of Dust, 31 December 2020
• Xu Zhangrun, A Farewell Letter to My Students, ChinaFile, 9 September 2021
• Xu Zhangrun — Words of Gratitude & Elegies of Anger, 14 January 2023
• Xi Jinping’s Empire of Tedium

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Announcement of Wei Jingsheng Foundation’s 20th Annual “Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize”

December 5, 2023

 

Since 2004, December 5th is the day when the Wei Jingsheng Foundation presents the “Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize”. In the last 20 years, as Chinese people from all walks of life have made calls and movements for democracy and freedom, the Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize has become a symbol of the Chinese people’s demand for democracy and freedom. Through this award, the whole world has also seen that democracy and freedom are not only the voice of Wei Jingsheng, the “Father of Democracy”, alone on the Democracy Wall 45 years ago, but also the goal that the awakened Chinese people strive for. The award has not only aroused great responses around the world, but also provided great encouragement and support to the people persisting in the fight for democracy and freedom in China who are at any moment in life-threatening danger.

As can be expected, those who nominate a candidate believe the person they have nominated has made a great contribution to the cause of Chinese democracy and freedom. Nominating someone in and of itself is a way to commend all champions of democracy, including those unknown, untiring democracy heroes who do not concern themselves with fame and fortune. As in previous years, this year we received many excellent recommendations. The three finalist candidates for this year are all very outstanding figures. But it is true that the articles and influence of one of them are particularly prominent in China, where millions of people have been silent in recent years. As an elite who once had no worries about daily life, his outcries with conscience and courage, although not alone, yet have come at a huge tragic and heartbreaking personal cost. It was his shouts and appeals that helped end the inhumane zero-tolerance policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the more than three year Covid period, although the cold wave of dictatorship still enveloped the land of China.

In March 2018, Xi Jinping revised the Chinese Constitution, which ended the CCP’s years of term limit restrictions and paving the way for his lifelong dictatorship. Xi’s perverse actions were immediately opposed by people across China. Unsurprisingly, over the past more than a year Xi Jinping’s authoritarianism has reached a new peak. At the 20th National Congress of the CCP, which had “no single brave men” as teased by Xi Jinping, in full public view, Xi removed his old superior Hu Jintao from the venue and climbed to the throne of lifelong dictatorship. Afterwards, Premier Li Keqiang, who had told a few truths, including revealing that nearly half of China’s 1400 million people still had less than 1,000 RMB a month, was dismissed smoothly and died mysteriously. China’s economic development has brought more human rights disasters. The CCP has used high technology to create the modernization of contemporary dictatorship. Its “stability” maintenance expenditure has exceeded 210 billion US dollars, even higher than the military expenditure that has increased significantly over the past 40 years.

Faced with all these authoritarian behaviors and measures, the Chinese people have been even more angry yet afraid to speak out. The few who dare to speak out are also suppressed and silenced by the high-tech methods of the CCP. In recent years, due to the spread of the Covid virus, the CCP has used new shackles such as zero-Covid measures, makeshift hospitals, and health codes to retaliate against those who disclosed the truth such as Li Wenliang, Fang Bin, Zhang Zhan, and others, which further deprived personal freedoms of the Chinese people. It wasn’t until Peng Lifa’s brave words and deeds a year ago, followed by the White Paper Movement took hold one after another across China, that the CCP abruptly and irresponsibly ended its zero-Covid policy, in the way that caused millions and even tens of millions of deaths of the Chinese people.

During these series of horrifying events, people often ask where China’s elites are. They may even denounce the wealthy and powerful Chinese who have benefited from the “reform and opening up” in China over the past more than thirty years, but turn a blind eye to the suffering of ordinary Chinese. Don’t they have the conscience to stand up, raise their arms on the tank, tell the truth and point out the direction like Boris Yeltsin did in 1989?

Today, we want to honor such an elite Chinese, an intellectual with conscience and insight, who has the courage to call out and point out the right direction. Today, the “Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize” jury announced that this year’s winner of the “Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize” is someone who published several outstanding articles in recent years, who opposes one-man dictatorship and high-pressure policies that suppress humanity, and who has put forward constructive suggestions: Professor Xu Zhangrun. This is also an appeal and support to other conscientious Chinese elites, especially those in the intellectual and power classes, hoping and encouraging them to stand up bravely for the benefit of the entire Chinese people, oppose dictatorship and tyranny, and strive for everyone’s democracy and freedom.

Professor Xu Zhangrun was born on October 25, 1962, in Lujiang, Anhui Province. He is a Chinese jurist and was appointed as a researcher by the Fairbank Center for China Studies at Harvard University. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Melbourne Law School, he served as a professor and doctoral supervisor at Tsinghua University Law School, director of the Tsinghua University Rule of Law and Human Rights Research Center, and editor-in-chief of “Tsinghua Law”. His research fields are mainly jurisprudence, Western legal philosophy, constitutional theory and Confucian humanism and jurisprudence. In 2005, he was selected as one of the “Top Ten Outstanding Young Jurists in China”.

After Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CCP and the supreme leader in China in 2012, Professor Xu Zhangrun began to criticize Xi Jinping’s governance policy. In July 2018, Xu published an article “Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes”, which raised several concerns and suggestions, triggering a huge response. In March 2019, Xu was suspended from his teaching and academic work by Tsinghua University. On May 21, 2020, Professor Xu Zhangrun published a new article “China’s Lone Boat on the Ocean of World Civilization — Political Views and Civilization Theory of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Context of the Global System”, which analyzed the various problems exposed in China during the pandemic and called for institutional reform. Since then, he has been further suppressed by the Chinese Communist authorities.

In Professor Xu Zhangrun’s article “Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes,” he pointed out and criticized the one-man dictatorship that actually is also dangerous to China’s elites and even the powerful class. He wrote:

“However, in recent times people have been both pointedly critical and fearful of the significance of the revisions made to the Chinese Constitution [in March 2018] which included the abandonment of term limits on political leaders [a move that, in effect, opened the way for State President/ General Secretary/ Military Commission Chairman Xi Jinping potential to enjoy lifelong tenure in power]. There is a widespread feeling that this move actually signifies the negation of the last thirty years of the Economic Reform and Open Door policies. People fear that, in one fell swoop, China will be cast back to the terrifying days of [one-man rule under] Mao. We have witnessed along with this Constitutional revision a rising clamour related to the manufacturing of a personality cult [for Xi Jinping], something that has in particular provoked the Imminent Fears that I outline in the following.”   

After listing the “eight fears” about the CCP’s policies, Professor Xu Zhangrun then put forward the “eight hopes” that would benefit China and the people, and concluded:

“The Eight Hopes outlined here merely give expression to what one would call contemporary political commonsense; they also sum up widespread appeals and desires [regularly expressed] within the populace at large. Herein I am — to use an old expression — ‘Putting My Life on the Line Simply to Say What Everyone Already Knows and Thinks’. In this vast world of great disorder, if there is no reasonable way to express such views there can then be no [reasonable way to legitimate them through appropriate] legislation. If that is the case, neither I nor the Masses can find a way to live [without fear]. What to do? Alas and Alack indeed!”

After enumerating the various scandalous operations of the CCP authorities led by Xi Jinping in recent years, Professor Xu Zhangrun concluded:

“As for all of this to do: it’s simply too much, too excessive, over the top, as those involved vie to outdo each other. Such behaviour merely serves to drag us back into the Dark Ages of fearfulness and deprivation. That’s all I’ve got to say now. We’ll see what Fate has in store; only Heaven can judge the nation’s fortunes.”   

Professor Xu Zhangrun was not unaware that the CCP would retaliate, but he still spoke out. Sure enough, a few months later, he was suppressed and suspended from teaching and academic work at Tsinghua University. Even so, just a few months after the CCP virus ravaged China and even the whole world, Professor Xu, adhering to his consistent sense of responsibility for the people and concern for the destiny of mankind, published another article: “China’s Lone Boat on the Ocean of World Civilization — Political Views and Civilization Theory of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Context of the Global System.” In his article, he criticized various issues in China’s politics and society, the elites verses masses, and current world politics since the pandemic, and expressed his views on many aspects such as China’s civilization reconstruction, system renewal, and future relationship between China and the world.

At the beginning of the article, Professor Xu Zhangrun wrote:

“At this critical moment of life and death, this scholar has something to say and has to say it.Although one’s life would be perish, there will still be a faint wisp in the sky tomorrow morning, as existence would not exist, yet existence will last forever.”

At the end, he shouted:

“Enough, this musty god-making movement and shallow leader worship; enough, this shameless and dirty singing and dancing; enough, this heroic boundless lies and endless suffering; enough, the bloodthirsty politics of the Red Dynasty and the insatiable party-state system; enough, the absurd chaos and step-by-step perverseness of the past seven years; enough, the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in the past seventy years from this red tyranny, in the way never been seen before…”

Red tyranny quickly revealed its horrific side. Professor Xu Zhangrun was once again retaliated against even more shamelessly. Within three months, Professor Xu Zhangrun was stigmatized, officially expelled from Tsinghua University, and banned from leaving China. This is a new and more cruel method adopted by the Chinese Communist regime. In the past, the CCP’s political suppression and even physical imprisonment of people of conscience only served to promote these people and thus win the respect of the Chinese people and the world. That can be described as a failure. But nowadays, the CCP is advancing with the times and is better at creating cases and even scandals through so-called legal and administrative means to crackdown on dissidents, relying on stigmatization and other means to isolate, divide and crack down.

Today, as we award Professor Xu Zhangrun the 20th “Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize” it is not only an encouragement and commendation to those who have been resisting the totalitarian tyranny of the CCP for decades, but also an encouragement and commendation to Chinese intellectual elites who resist tyranny. Especially, we want to commend and praise Sun Wenguang, a physics professor at Shandong University, and Tong Shidong, a physics professor at Hunan University, who have passed away and were unable to receive our awards in time. Both of them could have enjoyed the glory and wealth they had gained from vested interests, yet they bravely stood up for their conscience and responsibility. As a result, they were imprisoned, and even their wives and children were separated from them. All members of this judging committee are highly educated intellectuals who studied in the United States in their early years, who also deeply feel the great responsibility of the intellectual elite. We hope that this year’s prize will inspire more Chinese elites to stand up bravely and jointly to end the dictatorship of the CCP, especially the one under Xi Jinping. We want to promote realization of democracy and freedom in China, for the well-being of the Chinese people and world peace.

The total prize money collected this time is two thousand US dollars (US $2,000.00). People who donate are donating their enthusiasm and belief in Chinese democracy, and we would like to express our sincere gratitude. In addition, we also express our gratitude to all friends who participated in the nomination of the 20th “Wei Jingsheng Chinese Democracy Champion Prize”, especially Professor Perry Link who nominated Professor Xu Zhangrun, and Professor Geremie Barmé who translated Professor Xu Zhangrun’s articles into English, and Professor Lawrence Anderson-Huang for reviewing English for this announcement and many previous newsletters. Thank you, especially to Professor Perry Link, Professor Geremie Barmé, Professor Lawrence Anderson-Huang for your long-term support and encouragement to the cause of democracy and freedom in China over the years.

Wei Jingsheng Foundation “Wei Jingsheng Democracy Champion Prize” Judging Committee:

HUANG Ciping;
Dr. CHEN Xingyu;
LIU Jijie;
Dr. CHEN Bangzheng;
Dr. WANG Ping (signed)

December 5, 2023

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• The quotations from Professor Xu’s works are from texts translated by Geremie R. Barmé. See:
  https://chinaheritage.net/journal/imminent-fears-immediate-hopes-a-beijing-jeremiad/

Contact information:

• Email: hcp@weijingsheng.org or hcp0411wjs@aol.com
• Tel: 1-202-270-6980

For further information and details, visit our website at: www.weijingsheng.org

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Source:

• Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1621-W1180, December 5, 2023

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中文版

魏京生基金会第二十届”魏京生中国民主斗士奖”公告

 

自2004年以来，每年的12月5日，是魏京生基金会颁发”魏京生中国民主斗士奖”的日子。近二十年来，伴随着中国各界人民争取民主自由的此起彼伏的呼声与运动，魏京生中国民主斗士奖已成为中国人民要求民主自由的标志。整个世界也暨此看到了民主自由不仅仅是“民主之父”魏京生45年前孤独一人在民主墙上发出的呼声，更是觉醒的中国人民为之努力的目标。颁奖不仅仅在世界范围引起了很大反响，更是对正在中国为民主与自由坚持奋斗、随时都有危险的人们的巨大鼓励与支持。

毫无疑义，被提名人为中国的民主和自由做出了卓越的贡献。提名本身就是对所有民主斗士，包括那些默默无闻、坚持不懈、不计名利的勇士们的牺牲精神的赞扬。和往年一样，今年我们也收到了众多出色的推荐。今年最后入选的三组候选人，都是非常优秀的人物。但的确，其中一位的文章与影响在近几年来万马齐喑的中国尤为突出。作为曾经衣食无虑的精英阶层，他以良心与勇气尤其是个人巨大的代价发出的呼喊虽不孤单，却也因此结果惨烈，令人心痛。正是他这样的呐喊与呼吁，才帮助结束了中共3年多惨无人道的清零政策，虽说独裁专制的寒流依然笼罩着中国大地。

2018年3月习近平修改宪法，结束了中共多年来的连任限制，为其终身独裁铺路。其倒行逆施立即遭到了全国人民的反对。不出所料，在过去的一年多里，习近平的独裁专制达到了新的顶峰。在“无一男儿”的中共二十大，习近平在众目睽睽之下，将老上级胡锦涛架出会场，并顺势爬上了终身独裁的宝座。之后，曾经说过几句真话，包括披露中国还有近半人口的6亿老百姓每月只有不到1000人民币的李克强总理也被顺利解职，并神秘遽死。中国的经济发展，带来的是更多的人权灾难。中共以高技术创建了当代独裁的现代化。其维稳费已超过2100亿美元，甚至高于四十多年来已经大幅度增长了的军费。

面对这一切独裁行为与措施，中国老百姓更加敢怒而不敢言，少数敢言者也被中共以高科技的手法打压封锁。几年来更由于中共病毒的传播，中共以大白、方舱医院、健康码等新枷锁，包括对披露真相者如李文亮、方斌、张展等人予以打击报复，剥夺了老百姓的更多人身自由。直到一年前彭立发勇敢发声并采取行动，随后白纸运动在全国此起彼伏，中共才不负责任地匆匆收场，并造成数百万可能上千万人的无辜死亡。

在这一系列惊心动魄的事件中，人们常常会质问中国的精英阶层在哪里。人们甚至会谴责，作为三十多年来“改革开放”的受益者，有钱有势甚至有权阶层的人们为何熟视无睹老百姓的苦难。难道他们没有良心站起来，像当年的叶利钦那样在坦克上振臂一呼，说出真话，指出方向？

今天，我们要表彰的正是这样一位中国精英，一位有良心与卓识，并勇于发出呼喊且指出正确方向的知识份子。今天，”魏京生中国民主斗士奖”评委会宣布，今年”魏京生中国民主斗士奖”的获得者是近几年多次发表檄文，反对一人独裁，反对压制人性的高压政策，并提出建设性建议的许章润教授。这也是对其他有良心的中国精英尤其是知识与权力阶层人士的支持与呼吁，希望并鼓励他们为全中国人民的福祉，勇敢地站出来，反对独裁暴政，争取大家的民主自由。

许章润教授，1962年10月25日生，安徽庐江人。他是中国的法学家，并获聘哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心研究员。在获得墨尔本大学法学院博士后，他曾任清华大学法学院教授、博士生导师、清华大学法治与人权研究中心主任、《清华法学》主编，其研究领域主要是法理学、西方法哲学、宪政理论和儒家人文主义与法学。 2005年，他被评选为「全国十大杰出青年法学家」之一。

在习近平2012年出任中共中央委员会总书记成为最高领导人后，许章润教授开始批评习近平的执政方针。 2018年7月，他发表文章《我们当下的恐惧与期待》，提出数项担忧与建议，引发巨大回响。 2019年3月，他被清华大学暂停其教学和学术工作。2020年5月21日，许章润教授发表文章《世界文明大洋上的中国孤舟–全球体系背景下新冠疫情的政治观与文明论》，分析了中国在疫情下暴露的种种问题，呼吁制度改革。从此受到中共当局更进一步的打压。

在许章润教授《我们当下的恐惧与期待》一文中，他指出并抨击了其实对中国的精英乃至权力阶层也很危险的一人独裁。他写道：“而最为世诟病并令人胆战心惊的，便是修宪取消政治任期制，等于一笔勾销了三十多年的改革开放，一巴掌直要把中国打回那个令人恐惧的毛时代，伴随着甚嚣尘上而又可笑之至的领袖个人崇拜，这才引发出下列全面恐慌。”

在列举了对中共政策的“八种担忧”后，许章润教授又针对性地提出了利国利民的“八项希望”，并总结道：“以上诸项，均为现代政治的一般常识，也是刻下国人的普遍诉求。此番「冒着杀头的危险说出人所共知的道理」，就在于举世滔滔，若无此说法，就无此立法，从而吾侪百姓没个活法，其奈也何，呜呼哀哉！ ”

在列举了习近平为首的中共当局近年来的种种骚操作后，许章润教授的结语为：“凡此种种，太作了，太过分了，而过犹不及，只会把我们带回那个人人觳觫苟存的酷烈人世也！话说完了，生死由命，而兴亡在天矣。”

许章润教授并非不知中共会打击报复，但依然仗义执言。果然，几个月后，他就受到了打压，被清华大学暂停了教学和学术工作。即便这样，在中共病毒肆虐中国乃至全世界后没几个月，许教授秉持其一贯的对人民的责任感与对人类命运的关怀，发表了又一篇著名檄文：《世界文明大洋上的中国孤舟–全球体系背景下新冠疫情的政治观与文明论》。其中，他抨击了疫情以来中国政治与社会、精英与大众以及当下世界政治的种种问题，并表达了有关中国的文明重建、制度更新及今后中国与世界的关系等诸多方面的看法。

该文开篇，他写道：“当此危急存亡之际，书生天命，有话要说，不得不说。 一己生命虽必殒落，明晨天际照旧一抹熹微，则存在不存，而存在永在。”。在最后，他高喊：“够了，这发霉的造神运动、浅薄的领袖崇拜；够了，这无耻的歌舞升平、肮脏的鲜廉寡耻；够了，这骁骁漫天谎言、无边无尽的苦难；够了，这嗜血的红朝政治、贪得无厌的党国体制；够了，这七年来的荒唐错乱、一步步的倒行逆施；够了，这七十年的尸山血海、亘古罕见的红色暴政……”

红色暴政迅速地展现了其恐怖的一面。许章润教授被再次更无耻地予以报复。不到三个月，许章润教授被污名，被清华大学正式开除，并被禁止出境。这是中共新式的更为残酷的手段。在过去，中共对良心人士予以政治镇压乃至肉体囚禁，反倒成了为这些人宣传并因此赢得人民乃至世界的尊敬。可谓失败之举。而如今，中共与时俱进，更善于通过所谓法律与行政手段来制造案件乃至丑闻，借此打击异议人士，依靠污名化等手段进行孤立、分化与打击。

今天给许章润教授发奖，不仅仅是对几十年来不断反抗中共极权暴政的人们的鼓励与表彰，更是对中国的知识精英阶层反抗暴政人士的鼓励与表彰。我们尤其要提到的是已经过世而未能及时获奖的山东大学物理学教授孙文广与湖南大学物理学教授佟适冬。他们本可享受既得利益的荣华富贵，却为了良心与责任而勇敢地挺身而出，因此而被囚，乃至妻离子散。本评奖委员会的所有委员，作为早年留学美国的高级知识分子，也深感知识精英的责任重大，更希望暨此能激励更多的中国精英人士勇敢地站出来，共同结束中共尤其是习近平的一党专制，为人民的福祉与世界的和平，推动中国早日实现民主自由。

这次汇集的奖金总额为两千美元整（US $2,000.00）。捐款的人们捐出的是他们对中国民主的热情和信念，在此我们表示衷心感谢。此外，我们也向第二十届”魏京生中国民主斗士奖”参与提名的所有朋友特别是提名许章润教授的林培瑞教授，翻译了许章润教授文章的英文译文的白杰明教授，及就公告的英文及其它新闻发表的英文稿进行修正的安斯文教授表示谢意。感谢您们尤其是林培瑞教授，白杰明教授，及安斯文教授多年来对中国民主自由事业的长期支持和鼓励。

魏京生基金会”魏京生中国民主斗士奖”评委会

黄慈萍，陈兴宇博士，刘继杰，陈邦铮博士，王平博士（签署）

2023年12月5日

 

白杰明教授翻译的许章润教授文章的英文译文网址：

https://chinaheritage.net/journal/imminent-fears-immediate-hopes-a-beijing-jeremiad/

更多详情：www.weijingsheng.org

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