Chinese Dissident Liao Speaks at Patrick Henry College

Liao Yiwu (R) performs on the xiao, a Chinese instrument, during an  interview with Dr. David Aikman. (Photo credit: Patrick Henry College)

Sometimes called “China’s Solzhenitsyn,” Liao Yiwu—poet, writer, and dissident—offered a presentation on Chinese persecution at Patrick Henry College on October 17. The author of God is Red has devoted himself to exposing the plight of those that suffer under the Communist regime, especially Christians. During the lecture, Liao made it clear that America had to stand by its traditional values in order to check the evils of Communism.

David Aikman former Time magazine journalist and now professor of history at Patrick Henry, commended him for both “suffering for telling the truth about what was going on in that regime” and for recording “the story of several generations of courage under intense persecution.” Born during the bloody “Great Leap Forward” in the 1950’s, Liao Yiwu saw firsthand the horrors of government oppression. Liao witnessed his parents divorced for the protection of their children during the turbulent Cultural Revolution. Over the course of his short life, millions of Chinese died by programmatic starvation or direct execution. Liao was hired as a state writer for the Chinese Ministry of Culture. In 1989, he took advantage of loosened censoring policies to write poems critical of the regime. One of his most famous, “Massacre,” recounted the horrors of the Tiananmen Square slaughter. Subsequently, he was arrested for his dissidence. While in prison, he was mercilessly tortured and tried to commit suicide twice. He also began to gather the stories of his downtrodden inmates. He chronicled their struggles, which in turn garnered international attention upon his release. Earlier this year, he escaped China and now speaks against the evils of Communism. This week, he shared a concert with his PHC guests and took part in an interview led by Aikman.

Liao became aware of the Christians’ plight when he met Dr. Sun in southwest China. This remarkable man, who was in attendance at the lecture, had worked as a dean at a respected medical center in Shanghai. Upon his conversion to Christianity, Dr. Sun left to bring his gifts and training to the poor in the countryside. In this capacity, he came into contact with isolated yet vibrant Christian churches scattered throughout these outlying territories. “God was doing me a big favor by bringing Dr. Sun to me,” Liao declared. “What surprised me was him doing an operation in a simple room, not a hospital.” The doctor’s compassion “touched me…for me it was a big shock.” Sun invited the writer, “Come with me to the mountains. You will find stories there.”

Tucked away in the rugged hills, Chinese racial minorities eke out their existence on terraced farms. Nevertheless, these hardy peasants have Westernized names like “John” and “Peter,” receiving them from their Christian forbears. Each village remembers the day a pale-skinned, long-nosed European missionary came to their borders with medical treatment in their hands and the Gospel on their tongues. Liao commented, “Chinese intellectuals would never set foot in those areas.” Turning to the students around him, he exclaimed, “[The missionaries] came along when they were about your age…Once they got [to China], there was never any going home.” Their message rang true with these downtrodden farmers: “There’s a Person up there who cares for us and who we can talk to.”

Brave preachers from the China Inland Mission often learned the native language after landing in China and generally suffered great depravation as they traveled. Liao shared, “I suffered tremendously in prison…It can be compared to what those missionaries suffered through.” Nevertheless, they left a multigenerational Christian heritage to these villages. Missionaries not only told about Christ’s atoning sacrifice for sin, but also left Chinese Bibles at the towns’ disposal. Liao said, “I think we need to thank Western missionaries who came hundreds of years ago to bring a new set of values.”

The Chinese government has harshly persecuted these believers. Liao recorded many of these stories in his latest book. During the Cultural Revolution, he remembered, “Many [Chinese Christians] chose to give up their belief.” At the time, a faithful pastor stated, “I will shepherd however many sheep God has given me to shepherd.” Another timid Christian compromised for years, until he finally confessed, “I will not worship Chairman Mao.” Soon, he was executed in front of thousands chanting the chairman’s praises. Liao interviewed the martyr’s son: “The boisterous red flags looked like red blood spreading…The corpse was almost ruined because of the number of gunshots.” Liao saw this as evidence of a “really crazy and shameless state.” Thankfully, the Chinese church has endured. “Each one of these stories was like Christ rising from the dead,” Liao observed.

Despite the courage of Chinese Christians, not all is well with the church overseas. Liao mentioned, “Many have a very pragmatic and secular attitude toward God, mostly just asking him for something…even a government officer can do that.” The dissident himself remains unconverted to the Christian faith; he told the audience this prosperity Gospel is “what turns me off.” He also mentioned a “new generation trying to find a new way to deal with the CPC.” Liao mourned, “I think they urban churches have already abandoned the essentials of the Christian faith…They keep trying different tactics to spread and get more members.” He saw the traditional rural churches as superior: “You should know the realities of China. You should go to the countryside, the mountains. Meet the local people, and there you will find their God.” He further claimed, “Christ Himself would not have done this…True Christians should always say no to evil powers.” Liao even chastised a compromising believer, “Why as a Christian who is fighting with the devil, do you give in to the devil?”

And the Chinese government is quite the evil power. “The Chinese people have suffered for thousands of years,” Liao mourned, “peaking with Communism, which is the depth of Hell.” He continued, “The Chinese are going through a vicious cycle…You have to lie to survive in a dictatorship. You have to lie, and this leads to more suffering.” Even the government critic had had to lie to escape arrest; his choices lay heavy on his conscience. “If I were to become a Christian, I would have to confess my sins to God every day.” Nevertheless, his resolve became adamant after he was arrested: “In prison, I realized that I wasn’t shameless enough. I still wanted truth.”

According to Liao, the United States could do more to undercut repression in China if Americans would only hold true to their traditional morality. Liao accused American business leaders of “forsaking virtue for benefits and for profit in China.” He also criticized the Obama administration for playing diplomatic patty-fingers with the corrupt Communist regime. Both economic and political elites are “willing to work with the Chinese because of the downturn in the economy and they want to create jobs.” It seems American leaders have forsaken the values of “democracy, freedom, human rights, and love.” Liao recalled a story his father told him about how to deal with a wolf. “Stop and stare into the wolf’s eyes; be stubborn to it. Don’t look away or the wolf will kill you and drink your blood…If the United States doesn’t stand with traditional values, China will be like the wolf.”