I want to have a dream, a beautiful China, with beauty and liberty, fairness and happiness. It will be a democratic China. The world will still be the world of all people over the world. It will not be a land ruled by one clan or one party, but really a country by the people, with its power from the votes, not from the guns.
The people will regularly elect councilors, mayors, governors, and presidents. The power will be from the people, of the people, by the people, and for the people. From then on, people are no longer a cover for the dictators to hide their shames, no longer the unknown ants in the cycle of dynasties, but the real masters of the country. From then on, those in power will no longer be the high-ranking occupants, but humble servants. They will compete fairly for the people to choose the best. From then on, change of a regime will no longer be something with a bloody rain and foul wind, but a celebration of people’s festival.
When the Grand course was to practice, the world would be for the public. As it has been three thousand years, the Chinese nation will certainly get out of the Three Gorges of history and move toward a modern civilization. A democratic China is to emerge in our generation, and we will never pass the responsibility to the next generation.
It will be a China with the rule of law. A legislative democracy will have the people elect their own deputies. Law will be enacted through democratic procedure to represent the interests of the absolute majority of the people. There will be none of evil laws imposed on the people by the rulers, nor extrajudicial laws in the names of discipline and order. The law enforcements will be strict. People will elect the governments to enforce the laws for the people. None of individuals or organizations will be above a law, nor the weak will be beyond the protection of the laws. The judiciaries will be fair, and judges independent. There will be no superior except for the law, as justice will be judged by law and conscience.
From then on, law will no longer be a tool of class dictatorship, but a measure of fairness and justice. From then on, the judges will no longer be the handles of the privilege and authoritarian, but the patron saints of justice. From then on, there will be a world with the rule of law, where all power is in an order under the rule of law, where the people believe in the rule of law, and where fairness and justice are like the torrents.
It will be a free China. I hate a society where the power is rampant and human nature distorted. A small number of the bureaucrats have decided for the 1.3 billion people what doctrines to believe in, what discourses to talk of, what news to listen to, and what movies to watch. They have built a high cultural firewall to isolate China from the civilized world. They have fed millions of Internet monitors, Internet police, and Internet commentators to stifle the voices of people. They have utilized hundreds of millions of cameras and big data in building an airtight surveillance network, making Chinese people feel naked in front of power. They have also invaded people’s spiritual world, burned the church crosses, demolished Buddhist colleges, and forced new domestic religions into exile around the world.
Without an absolute freedom, it does not absolutely mean that there is any reason to arbitrarily stifle freedom. Human civilization has universal standards, which have been written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the rights to freedom in China’s Constitution, impossible to be a blank note forever.
I long for a free country, a China without any power rampant monsters. We have freedom of belief, as a matter of individual nature to believe in any of religions and doctrines. We have freedom of expression, with no large-scale deletion of posts and accounts, nor restricted area of political expressions. No one will be imprisoned for expressing political opinions. We have freedom of public participation, with none of false and manipulated elections, nor “false discussions”, for everyone to have freedom to form parties, to associate, and to participate in public affairs. We have freedom of personal life, without the ubiquitous eyes of Big Brother, for everyone to have privacy and dignity before the power. In a free China, people will be like the sprouts growing vigorously in spring, to support the reborn civilization of the ancient East. Everyone will be free from power distortion, to live in reality and grow into the best self.
Without an absolute freedom, the people in China have no rights. Sadly, it has become common sense for Chinese people to find relationship to do something. Every country has something unfair, but China is different. There is no independent judiciary, no free media, and no dissent voice. Anti-corruption is still a way for the rulers to eliminate the aliens. The biggest injustice in China is autocracy, where a privileged group monopolizes all of the state powers and economic lifelines. There are high oil prices, high housing prices and high taxes, meaning exploitation everywhere. The people are overwhelmed, while the exploiters say that they are in deficit every year.
I long for a fair and just country, a China with no pervasion of privileged relationship. There will the powers restricted by the people, clean and honest, for the officers not to make money but public services. There will be equal education, regardless of household registration, urban or rural areas, and the rich or poor, for everyone to an equal opportunity to receive education. Public schools will not distinguish between the key and ordinary, and the parents will free from anxiety of choosing a school. There will be a fair opportunity to choose a job, regardless of belief, partisanship and gender, for the public positions to be open to all. Everyone does not need to rely on power relationship but on talents and morals to , just need to find a suitable position and create a happy life. There will be fair pension, regardless of cities or villages, and civil servants or enterprises. The ratio of pensions to job wages will be roughly equal, while the elderly in the poorest villages will also have pensions enough to live a decent life. There will be fair medical care, regardless of officials or civilians, free medical treatment for serious illnesses, so that no one will be poor because of illness.
It will be a charitable China, to constrain the strong and protect the weak. Each will perform one’s duties, do one’s best, and get what one deserves. There will be no much anger or anxiety from the cradle to the cemetery, for everyone to have a happy smile on one’s face, in a China full of love. I hate a society of alert, indifference, and mutual harms. I was taught not to trust strangers since my childhood. Poisonous milk powders, waste food oils, fake vaccines, and clenbuterol have poisoned us for years. People are on the alert against each other with thick masks, walking around though seeing the elderly lying on the ground. Every society has human indifference, but China is different. The foundation of this country is class struggle, and the barrels of guns for soldiers never to tire of cheating. Including the state power trapped in the jungle, without a bottom line, the society has lost the cornerstone of conscience. After many years of materialism indoctrination, people’s spiritual world has been barren, and people’s hearts have abandoned the spiritual world on the other side, so that love has become the sourceless water.
I long for a country full of love, a China free from memories of fear and shadow. A nation with faith, in respecting heaven and loving people, has a god three feet above one’s head. I believe that lives have the same root, comes from the same spiritual home, and returns there. One experiences different roles in this world to learn through the practices of happiness, where there are differences, disagreements, and harms, but no devils. We sink into the joys and sorrows of our own roles, and also from a high place, look back at our different choices and roles on the ground. There is no hatred but only compassion. Love oneself, to practice in this world and perfect one’s soul; love relatives and friends, for love of lives has also a gratitude; love strangers, to smile at each other; love enemies, only with a soul of sympathy but none of hatred, hostility and binding; love all beings, as a spirit of everything; and love the endless world. In a China full of love, there will be no devils, no enemies, and no dark jungles. We are sincere, simple, and kind, with clean faces, clear eyes, and innocent smiles. That will be our reborn China.
For more than 2,000 years, the haze of Qin Dynasty has enveloped China. Despite the revival of Tang and Song Dynasties, the backwardness of modern era is inevitable. The root of the rebirth of Chinese civilization exists above us, where there is the Haotian God, a rich spiritual world of the ancestors, a China with the Spring warmth and blossoming flowers, a trend integrated into modern democracy and science, and an oriental civilization to reborn gloriously. For thousands of years, different groups of human beings have followed different paths to today’s global village, with huge differences of the spiritual worlds under the same roof. Conflicts based on different religions and civilizations have emerged. Human being needs a new path to move toward the future together. This is the destiny of China. God leaves this spiritual wilderness for the growth of a new civilization. The spiritual food we dedicate to mankind is not the bamboo slips in the cemeteries of our ancestors, but the revelation to which our generation listening: to realize in a higher place the nature and ourselves. This is the new era of civilization led by God’s new philosophical belief, a China to be admired by the world, as China will definitely become the greatest country in the world. It must be a free and democratic China after ending autocracy. 1.3 billion people are generating together the passionate vitality to create the most advanced technology, the most splendid culture, and the most prosperous economy in the world. We will have a strong military, neither to occupy any land nor to plunder any resource, but to hold our swords as there will be still tyranny and injustice waiting for us in the world. We have the most advanced ideology and culture, not relying on strong promotion, but on its own charm to attract the world and spread it everywhere.
Taking as a creed “(A country does )not have permanent friends, only permanent interests, ” a person must fail, and so must a country. Diplomacy has mutual benefits and win-win results, but also more in moral responsibility. None of the autocrats and traitors to the people will ever be our friend. For those people who are still struggling under the iron heels of tyranny, we have the responsibility to lend our hands and help them share human civilization. This is a moral responsibility as well as self-salvation.
To the nations that hurt us physically and mentally in the 20th century, we have the courage to let go their historical burdens. A great nation in true confidence will not dwell forever in the pain of history, and we will work together to create a better future for Asia. With the developed countries, we have mutual benefits, cooperations, and competitions, to jointly create a new world order of freedom and democracy. People need a world government to maintain peace, protect the environment, provide disaster relief, and explore outer space.
Who lets you born in China? Love for this country needs no reason, it is a seed that God has planted deeply in every soul. To love China is to work hard and make her more beautiful. For a beautiful China, I have been in prison three times in my life. The first time, they accused Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative), a non-profit charity organization, of tax evasion. The second time, they accused us of disrupting public order by promoting the local college entrance examination for the children of immigrants. This time, I am accused of subverting the state power by expressing my dream of a beautiful China and advocating for people to be citizens. To be a genuine citizen is subverting? Practicing their core values and pursuing democracy and freedom are subverting? Singing the March of the Volunteers, with “Arise! All those who don’t want to be slaves”, is subverting? How hypocritical and absurd their regime is, how corrupt it is. For liberty, justice and love, it is my glory to suffer. I don’t believe that the building of national rejuvenation can be built on the quicksand of lies; I don’t believe that the power and slavery are the eternal destiny of the Chinese nation; I don’t believe that the Spring breeze of freedom will always be isolated from the high wall; I don’t believe that a long night will last forever without tomorrow. For more than 30 years, from a boy running wildly in a blizzard to waiting for daylight before dawn, my life has walked on the same road. This tortuous and bumpy road has continued the dreams of the sages. “Beautiful China” was the struggle and regret of Mr. Sun Yat-sen’s life, the sad last words written by Lin Juemin to his wife, the songs of youth by Lin Zhao and Yu Luoke who died for China, the students’ sweeping and bleeding declaration on Tiananmen Square in 1989. For more than a century, the Chinese nation has experienced ups and downs on the road to modern civilization. Now the sacred mission is falling on the shoulders of our generation.
Citizens and compatriots, the world trend is mighty. The rising sun of the rebirth of Eastern civilization is about to burst out, and the great change after three thousand years to be accomplished in our generation. Let us shoulder the great era with the attitude of citizens and welcome a China with the Spring warmth and blossoming flowers !
Source: Chinese text
(Translated by Yu Zhang, on 8 April 2023)