Dissidents: Pesky, Prickly Characters

A strong piece by Jill Drew in the Washington Post (here)
about how Beijing is silencing dissidents ahead of the Olympics by arrest and intimidation. Like all good stories of this kind, it’s strength comes from telling the story of one dissident, Fu Pei. He and several others have been raising the “sensitive” issue of the tofu schools that collapsed in the Sichuan quake. His description of his experience is bizarre. He was kept in a hotel room for 12 days and forced to watch an endless looping video of heroic rescue efforts so as to correct his incorrect views. Several of his companions are still in custody and he was warned strongly not to tell anyone about his experience. He did of course and no doubt will suffer for it. I have always been fascinated by the courage of people like Fu and his friends, who often persist in their work when it has been made crystal clear to them that doing so will essentially ruin their lives. Fu’s companion, for example, was divorced by his wife. Whether in China or elsewhere, this breed of activists stand apart from everyone else and can seem prickly, obsessive characters. Some of course will turn into the Nelson Mandelas and Kim Dae Jongs of their countries, praised for their steely wills. Many others will end their days broken, impoverished and alone. Much of the efforts of the state security apparatus consists in reminding people like Fu of that fact and trying to prevent them from doing their work. Oddly enough, they’d much rather not have to detain, torture etc.They want the minimum trouble and fuss but these pesky activists just won’t shut up and do what’s good for them. I recall hearing the 80 year old AIDs activist Dr. Gao Yaojie describe how her eldest son got down on his knees and begged her to stop, even saying that her stubbornness was ruining not only his life but that of his children. She didn’t pay any attention, of course.