In 2014, the Chinese writer known as Murong Xuecun announced in an essay in The New York Times that he was returning to China to turn himself in to the police. Two weeks earlier, the authorities had arrested three of Mr. Murong’s friends in Beijing after they attended a small private gathering to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. Mr. Murong believed he, too, would have been arrested at that event if he had not been in Australia at the time. Once he flew back to China, he posted a message online announcing he was ready to be picked up.
For over a decade, I have worked for international human rights organizations and been an advocate for the rights of people in China. Mr. Murong was certainly brave, but his story is not singular. Many Chinese writers, journalists, civil rights lawyers and others have also chosen to stand up to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, knowing they could end up in prison for doing so.
I, too, have suffered repercussions: The Chinese authorities have monitored my activities here in the United States and used internet trolls to harass me online. Periodically, the party has menaced my family in China as a way to pressure me to end my work.
More and more Americans are now, perhaps for the first time in their lives, facing threats from their own government for simply doing their job, speaking their mind or protesting. As someone with experience challenging one of the world’s most ruthless and powerful governments, I have one important piece of advice to share: Show courage. This is not simply a display of moral strength. It is also an effective strategy for fighting back against creeping authoritarianism.
It is human to want to protect yourself, even at the expense of your principles, to avoid potential reprisals. I saw this after President Trump issued executive orders denouncing diversity, equity and inclusion programs as well as those focused on democracy promotion and civic society. In response, some advocacy organizations scrubbed mentions of D.E.I. from their websites and rewrote program descriptions to tie democracy promotion to Mr. Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Similarly, companies including household names such as Target, Walmart and Meta pre-emptively scaled back D.E.I. programs. I was disappointed. Americans are known globally for their defiance of authority. But I also understood. Fear is powerful.
Such obedience comes from a place of weakness, not strength. In Chinese, there is an idiom to describe how the government operates: “qi’ruan pa’ying,” or “bully the weak and fear the strong.” The Communist Party in China has long acted like a street bully. But the party rarely rewards submission with benevolence.
When we hear stories about outspoken activists who are now in jail, we might assume that it is safer to stay quiet. But this is not so. What we may not see or hear are the stories of dissenters who have done seemingly nothing at all, and have still been punished.
Over the years, I have received numerous messages from people across China saying that they had been unjustly treated by the government but did not want to make this injustice public out of fear.
I have seen bullies respond to strength, even in the case of the Chinese Communist Party, which commands arguably the world’s most sophisticated system of repression. It is costly, both in resources and reputation, to censor, try to intimidate and prosecute people on trumped-up charges. Once you demonstrate that you are not easily cowed, and will be a persistent headache, the bully may simply drop you as a target.
In the case of Mr. Murong, two days after his online post, the police summoned him for interrogation. And yet they decided not to arrest him. Mr. Murong’s audacity had stirred a wave of public attention. My guess is that the party determined that the negative publicity of an arrest would not be worth the deterrent effect.
That said, fighting back does not guarantee a tormentor will retreat. Many critics of the Chinese government have gone to prison. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo died in police custody in 2017.
My experience working with victims of Chinese government abuses is that when the Communist Party’s iron fist first punches them, most people freeze and submit — but gradually, many will stand up, because of an innate sense of right and wrong. Some will become extraordinary human rights activists.
Standing up can restore one’s sense of dignity and offer an important sense of internal liberation. The Chinese activist Wang Qiaoling faced horrendous harassment, including police surveillance and evictions, for speaking out about the abduction and detention of her husband, the human rights lawyer Li Heping. Still, Ms. Wang later said she had no regrets.
I am witnessing something similar unfolding in America. Though some institutions and individuals initially caved to Mr. Trump, a growing number are standing up: Once Harvard stood firm, other university presidents vowed not to be strong-armed by the administration. After the first law firms cut deals with the administration, some lawyers resigned from those firms in protest.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, has emerged as a fierce advocate for her husband. “If God threw me in this, I know he’s going to take me out of it. So this is God’s battle. And I’m going to fight it, for Kilmar and for everyone,” she told The Washington Post in April. I’ve heard words like these many times from the families of persecuted individuals in China — voices shaped by pain, yet grounded in resolve.
The United States has a long tradition of supporting freedom and democracy fighters around the world, me included. I still believe in the promise of this nation. And so I offer you a Chinese blessing, Americans: Jiayou! Don’t give up!
Yaqiu Wang is a Chinese human rights researcher and advocate.
Source photograph by Roc Canals/Getty Images.
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