Liu Xiaobo, Charter 08 and the Challenges of Political Reform in China
(劉曉波、零八憲章與中國政治改革的挑戰)
 
In December 2008 some 350 Chinese intellectuals published a manifesto calling for reform of the Chinese constitution and an end to one-party rule. Known as “Charter 08,” the manifesto has since been signed by more than 10,000 people. One of its authors, Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 but has remained in prison since 2009 for subversive crimes. This collection of essays—the first of its kind in English—examines the trial of Liu Xiaobo, the significance and impact of Charter 08, and the prospects for reform in China. The essays include contributions from legal and political experts from around the world, an account of Liu’s trial by his defence lawyers, and a passionate—and ultimately optimistic—account of resistance, repression and political change by the human rights lawyer Teng Biao.
 
“This collection of deeply informed essays offers an extraordinarily rich, wide-ranging analysis of the many meanings of Charter 08 and Liu Xiaobo’s trial. It explains the historical meaning of Liu’s speech crime, the social and political contexts out of which his leadership emerged, and the features of the Chinese state exposed by the legal case against him. Liu’s place in history has never been so clearly revealed.”
 
—Andrew J. Nathan, Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
 
 
“Can a professor of Chinese, by peacefully promoting a rational statement of principles of government, shake the foundations of a state that enjoys growing power, boasts vaulting wealth, and rules more than a billion people? Many foreign observers believe not. They see the professor as a ‘dissident’ and his ideas as a tiny sideshow. But the rulers of that same state demonstrate by their actions that they see things quite differently. They throw the professor in prison for eleven years and expunge his statement from all public media. What do they understand that the foreign observers do not? This wonderful book, a collage of essays from experts writing from a number of angles, is the best single-volume source the world yet has on that important question.”
 
—Perry Link, University of California, Riverside and co-editor of No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems by Liu Xiaobo
 
| CONTENT |
 
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
 
Part One: Liu Xiaobo and the Crime of Inciting Subversion 
ls Jail the Only Place Where One Can "Live in Truth"?Liu Xiaobo's Experience
Jean-Philippe Béja
 
The Sky Is Falling: Inciting Subversion and the Defense of Liu Xiaobo
Joshua Rosenzweig
 
Criminal Defense in Sensitive Cases: Yao Fuxin, Yang Jianli,Jiang Lijun, Du Daobin, Liu Xiaobo, and Others
Gao Xia, Lü Xi, and Chen Zerui
 
Breaking through the Obstacles of Political Isolation and Discrimination
Cui Weiping
 
Part Two: Charter 08 in Context
 
Boundaries of Tolerance: Charter 08 and Debates over Political Reform
Pitman B. Potter and Sophia Woodman
 
The Threat of Charter 08
Feng Chongyi
 
Democracy, Charter 08, and China's Long Struggle for Dignity
Man Yee Karen Lee
 
Charter 08 and Charta 77: East European Past as China’s 163 Future?
Michaela Kotyzova
 
Part Three: Charter 08 and the Politics of Weiquan and Weiwen
Challenging Authoritarianism through Law
Fu Hualing
 
Popular Constitutionalism and the Constitutional Meaning 205 of Charter 08
Michael W. Dowdle
 
Charter 08 and Violent Resistance: The Dark Side of the 229 Chinese Weiquan Movement
Eva Pils
 
The Politics of Liu Xiaobo’s Trial
Willy Wo-Lap Lam
 
The Political Meaning of the Crime of “Subverting State 271 Power”
Teng Biao
 
Appendix: Charter 08
Notes
Index
 
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
 
Jean-Philippe Béja is a senior research fellow at the Centre for International Studies and Research, Paris. Fu Hualing is a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong. Eva Pils is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.