An open letter to Chinese citizens and friends

 An open letter to Chinese citizens and friends of China at home and abroad 

(給國內外中國公民和中國友人的公開信)

The current global crisis has been caused by the regime so many of you have been tolerating or supporting for decades.

當前的全球危機是許多人數十年來一直容忍或支持的政權引起的。

On 2 April 2020 a group of one hundred Chinese establishment scholars wrote an open letter decrying the 「many critical voices politicizing the COVID-19 pandemic」. They stated that (at) this stage of the pandemic, the exact source and origin of COVID-19 remain undetermined, but these questions are unimportant and finger pointing is demeaning and hurtful to everyone”. They also argued against what they alleged is the politicizing of the epidemic.

2020年4月2日，一百位中國官方學者寫了一封公開信。他們譴責許多批評聲音使COVID-19大流行病政治化”。 他們說：「在大流行病的這一階段，COVID-19的確切來源仍未確定，但是這些問題並不重要，指責使所有人貶低並傷害所有人」。他們也反對所謂的流行病政治化。

The open letter exemplifies what the independent intellectual Professor Xu Zhangrun has called the “ridiculous ‘Red Culture’ and the nauseating adulation that the system heaps on itself via shameless pro-Party hacks who chirrup hosannahs at every turn”.

公開信體現了獨立知識份子許章潤教授所說的「（至於舉國信心下跌、產權恐懼、政學憤懣、社會萎縮、文化出版蕭條，惟剩狗屁紅歌紅劇），以及無恥文痞歌功頌德之肉麻兮兮，早成事實。」

Professor Xu—now under house arrest—has called on his compatriots to stop their uncritical support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and instead to “rage against this injustice; let your lives burn with a flame of decency; break through the stultifying darkness and welcome the dawn”.

現在被軟禁的許教授號召同胞停止對中國共產黨無條件的支持。他呼籲同胞們「人人向不義咆哮，個個為正義將生命怒燃，刺破夜瘴迎接黎明，齊齊用力、用心、用命，擁抱那終將降臨這片大地的自由的太陽！」。

While the exact source and spread of the virus are not clear yet the question of origin is highly important, for the people of China and for all humankind: only by understanding how this global disaster could emerge we can prevent it from happening again.

儘管我們尚不清楚該病毒的確切來源和初始傳播，但起源問題仍然非常重要，對於中國人民和全人類來說：只有瞭解這種全球性災難是如何發生的，我們才能防止它再次發生。

The roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province. Under the influence of the CCP the World Health Organisation first downplayed the pandemic. Taiwanese health officials also allege that they ignored their alerts of human-to-human transmission in late December. Under pressure from the CCP, democratic Taiwan—which has coped with the pandemic in exemplary fashion—is excluded from the WHO.

大流行病的問題根源在於中共當局對於疫情剛在湖北省武漢市爆發時的隱瞞。 在中共的影響下，世界衛生組織（WHO）剛開始淡化了這次疫情的嚴重性。據臺灣衛生專家的說法，WHO忽略其2019年12月底發出關於病毒人傳人的預警。雖然民主臺灣成功地防治病毒在臺灣的傳播，可是迫於中共壓力，臺灣被世界衛生組織排除在外。

We should never forget that China’s Chernobyl moment was a self-inflicted wound. The CCP silenced Chinese doctors who wanted to warn other health professionals during the early stage of the outbreak: Dr Ai Fen can no longer appear in public after accepting a domestic media interview; her colleague Dr Li Wenliang died while fighting the virus in Wuhan. On his deathbed Dr Li famously said that “a healthy society shouldn’t have only one voice”.

我們永遠都不要忘記，中國的「車倫比時刻」是一個自我傷害的傷口。 中共壓制了中國醫生，他們想在疫情爆發初期警告其他衛生專業人員：艾芬醫生在接受國內一家媒體的採訪後就被禁聲了； 她的同事李文亮醫生在武漢與該病毒作鬥爭時死亡。 李醫生在臨終時曾留下廣為流傳的一句話：「健康的社會不應只有一種聲音」。

The Chinese entrepreneur Ren Zhiqiang wrote that “without a media representing the interests of the people by publishing the actual facts, the people’s lives are being ravaged by both the virus and the major illness of the system.” He disappeared on March 12.

中國企業家任志強寫道 「沒有了媒體代表人民利益去公告事實的真相，剩下的就是人民的生命被病毒和體制的重病共同傷害的結果」。 他於3月12日失蹤。(目前正受審中)

The courageous citizen journalists Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua, who tried to report freely about the situation in Wuhan, now are also missing.

勇敢的公民記者陳秋實、方斌和李澤華因試圖自由報導武漢局勢至今下落不明。

Mainland China’s political malaise goes beyond the leadership failure of Xi Jinping. In a recent video message a young student called Zhang Wenbin reflected on his evolution from an uncritical CCP supporter to a critical citizen with a conscience: “Since I scaled the Great Firewall, I gradually came to the realization that the Chinese Communist Party has extended its dragon claws into every corner of the world, including collective farming [1950s], the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976], the Great Famine [1958-1961], the One-Child Policy, the Tiananmen massacre [1989], as well as the persecution of the Falun Gong [spiritual movement], and the peoples of Tibet, Hong Kong and Xinjiang…Yet everyone continues to turn a blind eye, singing the party’s praises. I just can’t bear it”. Zhang disappeared shortly after recording his message. His friends fear he will face interrogation and torture by the secret police.

中國內地的政治困境不僅僅是習近平領導的失敗，而且有其他因素。 在最近的一段視頻資訊中，一位元叫張文斌的大學生，反思了他從一個非批判的中共支持者，到一個有良知的具有批判性的中國公民的過程：「(自從我) 翻牆之後慢慢認清共產黨邪惡的嘴臉。中國共產黨從土地改革、文化大革命、三年饑荒、計劃生育、六四屠殺、對法輪功的迫害、對西藏、香港和新疆人民的迫害，到今天它已經將魔爪伸向了全世界，而大家還都視而不見，甚至還在歌功頌德，我實在無法忍受。」 張先生在記錄他的視頻後不久就消失了。 他的朋友擔心他會受到當局的訊問和酷刑。

The global pandemic forces us all to confront an inconvenient truth: by politicizing all aspects of life including people’s health, continued autocratic one-party rule in the People’s Republic of China has endangered everyone. Rather than trusting the CCP’s intentions and accepting establishment academics’ uncritical approval of the party-state’s policies, we should pay greater attention to the voices of what can be termed ‘unofficial’ China. These independent-minded academics, doctors, entrepreneurs, citizen journalists, public interest lawyers and young students no longer accept the CCP’s rule by fear. Neither should you.

全球大流行病迫使我們所有人面對一個不便的事實：中華人民共和國的一黨專制，統治繼續包括人民健康在內的生活各個方面政治化，從而危害了所有人。 我們不應該相信，中共的意圖，並接受官方學者對党國政策的不予批判的認可，而應該更加關注非官方中國的聲音。 這些思想獨立的學者、醫生、企業家、公民記者、公益律師和大學生不再接受中共以恐嚇為主的政治統治方式。 您也不應接受這樣的恐嚇。

As an international group of public figures, security policy analysts and China watchers we stand in solidarity with courageous and conscientious Chinese citizens including Xu Zhangrun, Ai Fen, Li Wenliang, Ren Zhiqiang, Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin, Li Zehua, Xu Zhiyong, and Zhang Wenbin, just to name a few of the real heroes and martyrs who risk their life and liberty for a free and open China. Their individual voices are already forming a chorus. They demand nothing less than a critical evaluation of the impact of CCP policies on the lives of Chinese citizens and citizens around the world. We urge you to join them.

作為公眾人士、安全政策研究者和中國觀察者國際團體的成員，我們與勇敢有良知的中國公民站在一起。在此僅列舉一些英雄：許章潤、艾芬、李文亮、任志強、陳秋實、方斌、李澤華、許志永和張文斌，他們為自由開放的中國，冒著生命和自由的危險。 他們各自的聲音已經匯成一首合唱曲。 他們呼籲重新批判性地評估中共的政策，以及這些政策，對中國公民和全球各國公民所帶來的影響。 我們也敦促您加入他們。

網路文章

09/14/2020