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I& #39;m signing this open letter after a bit of thought (thread follows) 1/ https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/e/1FAIpQLScLew8SS-GpNYv36Ly37g5-Lr5F-_JzX5LiDJw2CDgEgz91BA/formResponse">https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1...
While I agree with the letter, it is addressed to "Chinese citizens" as well as friends of China, and calls on them to stop unqualified tolerance and support for the Chinese Communist Party. As a comfortable and safe tenured professor at a respected US university 2/
I don& #39;t like to tell people in China what they should do re politics. To stop tolerating and supporting the CCP is not simple for many to whom this letter is addressed. The brilliant dissidents listed in the letter are heroes for their courage, for being 与众不同. 3/
But now, watching the Trump administration behave more and more like the CCP, with its acute insecurity, cover-ups, rage at truth-tellers, rampant corruption and favoritism 4/
—a wannabe emperor embubbled by yes-men who feed his awesome ignorance, reigning over an island of incompetence in a sea of obsequiousness— 5/
Seeing cronies shamelessly kiss the king& #39;s ass for the cameras, while he fumes at fair questions reporters ask him—Chuanpu would disappear them if he could, like Ren Zhiqiang, Xu Zhongrun, Ilham Tokhti and Chinese citizen journalists have been disappeared— 6/
Now this all makes me realize that our only hope lies in depriving the autocrats of our tolerance and support, because if left to their devices, these power-hungry, hating regimes WILL get us all killed. 7/
They are doing so now. They endanger humanity by scapegoating outsiders to hide their own egregious errors. These emperors have no clothes. We all have to say it, out loud or however we can. 8/
The open letter reflects not "western" values or "Chinese" values, but human values at a time when they are needed most. So I& #39;m joining the other signatories, friends and colleagues from China and around the world to recall that 9/
得道者多助，失道者寡助。"A just ruler earns the support of the people; but when a ruler loses the way, the people are absolved of loyalty to him." 10/
(Dear trolls: pls don& #39;t say I mistranslate Mengzi / Mencius. The translation is from a book published by 外文出版社，given to me as swag at a PRC embassy event a few years back.) END/
