Danwei, a great blog about Chinese media, has an important post, a translation of a short article by sociologist Li Yinhe about the Taishi incident (a crackdown by PRC police on rural people trying to legally recall local government officials).  There is much to admire in Li’s piece, but this paragraph stood out:

     In any society, civilization improves but gradually, relying on the hard work
of the entirety of society. Whenever barbaric and uncivilized things happen, we
should rise up in protest and criticism, attacking them as a group. Thus can the
power of barbarism recede and civilization improve. The west went from
indifference and silence at Nazi brutality to criticism and protest, finally
achieving today’s level of civilization. If we take an attitude of indifference
and silence to every instance of brutality in China, then the power of barbarism
will only become greater and will ultimately harm our own interests.

    By referencing the Nazi’s and their persecution of the Jews, Li is tying this specific instance of repression in China to larger 20th and 21st century themes.  But by framing things in terms of civilization v. barbarism, he is also alluding to deep historical Chinese themes. 

    Everything Confucius and Mencius were working for was civilization.  They very much felt the need to combat even seemingly small and insignificant moments of brutality.  For them, barbarism had to be attacked at the level of each person’s daily morality.  Li is not calling for that.  But he is telling us that if Chinese people do not stand up, together and publicly, for the weak and excluded in society, then the power of repression only grows and dominates all sectors of society.

     He is brave to publish this (he posted it on a Chinese web site); if I can read it here in rural Northwest Massachusetts, then I am certain police in Beijing have already made note of it.  PRC authorities are working hard to suppress and spin information about what has gone on in Taishi.  Li could face some punishment.  But he is not only brave, he is right and, indeed, true to the best principles of Confucius and Mencius.