Beijing – China’s leaders may have felt they had no better friend in Taiwan than Li Ao, a defiant and outspoken politician and author who says that Taiwan should unify with communist China.
But when China invited Li to tour the mainland this week, the Communist Party got a taste of its rival’s pungent democracy.
During an address at Beijing University on Wednesday, broadcast live on a cable television network, Li chided China’s leaders for suppressing free speech, ridiculed the university administration’s fear of academic debate and advised students how to fight for freedom against official repression.
“All over the world leaders have machine guns and tanks,” Li told the students and professors in the packed auditorium. “So I’m telling you that in the pursuit of freedom, you have to be smart. You have to use your cunning.”
Li, 70, is a member of Taiwan’s parliament and the host of a popular talk show on the mainland-backed Phoenix TV of Hong Kong, which helped arrange his trip to China – his first visit since his family fled the mainland for Taiwan when he was a high school student.
Li does not have a high profile in Taiwanese politics, but he has a prominent reputation among intellectuals in China for his prolific writings – nearly 100 books – and his fervent belief that Taiwanese should be proud to be part of greater China.
Li also praised the scholar Hu Shih for defining what it means to be a liberal. “A group of slaves will never make a liberal and progressive country,” he quoted Hu as saying. “Such a country can be made up only of independent-minded and free-thinking people.”
China’s propaganda authorities imposed a blackout on reporting about Li’s visit after the speech.
