Unveiling of the Marx monument in Trier

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has accused the city of Trier of offending millions of persecuted people in China by accepting a glorifying Marx monument as a gift from the People’s Republic. “There’s blood on the hand of the Marx-statue – the blood of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and other persecuted people in China. Millions of Chinese people have already lost their live as a consequence of the Communist Party’s claim to absolute power. It is a sign of ignorance and indifference towards human rights to accept such a gift from China’s totalitarian state leadership,” criticized Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Friday.

More than 30 years after the death of Mao, China’s CP is still not prepared to forgive its critics, but will even try to drive them to their deaths. Liu Xia – the widow of writer Liu Xiaobo, who died shortly after being released from prison in July 2017 – is being driven to madness and suicide. This week, the poet, who has been under house arrest for eight years, stated that she no longer has the will to live. “The 57-year-old is being muzzled, and the Chinese security apparatus is trying to break her – also in the name of Marx. It is not wise to accept a gift from a state that treats is critics in such an inhuman way,” Delius emphasized.

The German Federal Government has been trying to advocate for the widow so that she can leave the country – but in vain. She is in desperate need of medical and psychological care. “It is a violation of international human rights conventions and a crime against humanity to deny severely ill prison inmates or persons under house arrest adequate medical care,” Delius said.

“Trier wasn’t forced to accept a poisoned gift of the Chinese state. Unlike in China, neither the Lord Mayor nor the members of the city council would be threatened with persecution or imprisonment if they had rejected the monument. However, such a gesture would have been an important sign of solidarity with Liu Xia and the democracy movement in China, which is under considerable pressure,” Delius stated. “Instead of advocating for a rule of law or for ethical values, Trier decided in favor of short-term profit and more guests in the city’s hotels. This is a declaration of moral bankruptcy. It is primarily the supposedly small gestures that could help to show respect for human rights – not so much governmental activities.”

Header Foto: Andy Hay via Flickr