China Voices

As it plays a key role in driving the worlds economy, China needs to tackle challenges of a different sort on the home front. In the face of a burgeoning rights movement, it has rounded up dissenters, even imposed long jail terms on key activists, most notably of whom Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Being targeted are independent intellectuals who have boldly called for political reform and the restoration of justice in the country. They embrace universal values such as freedom, democracy and rights protection that are deservingly honoured in any civilized society. Although some have disappeared from public view under repression, the voices of conscientious individuals continue to be heard in blogosphere and media interviews. This book features 10 prominent, liberal Chinese intellectuals who have spoken their minds on the changes necessary for the country. Defiant but peace-loving, they represent a different China that can come onto the world stage in due course.