Letter from Gene Sharp to Yang Jiechi

Gene Sharp

Dear Dr. Ambassador Yang:

    This letter concerns the status of Dr. Yang Jian Li who is currently imprisoned in your country.

    I write to express the option that your Government would be very wise to exercise extreme care and leniency in his present and future treatment. If it does not do so, and if serious mistakes are made in his treatment, the result could be serious negative repercussions both for China and for the People's Republic of China. Of course I support his release on humanitarian grounds, but other possible consequences also merit consideration by your government.

    Perhaps I should introduce myself. I am a specialist in the workings of nonviolent resistance in face of repressive regimes, which I have studied for over fifty years. I am the author of various books and other publications, and my writings have been translated into thirty-two languages.

    Governments are sometimes so frightened about their people possibly using nonviolent action that some branch of the government acts in excessively repressive ways. However, such harsh actions sometimes have unintended consequences that harm the government they intended to protect far more than the limited damage that the offending person or group could possibly have done.

    Let me give you an example. Sometime in the 1980s, during a lecture and consultation trip to the Middle East, before the first intifada (which was well over 90% nonviolent), I sought a meeting with the Israeli political governor of the West Bank. I told him that it was my impression that the Palestinians might before long conduct a nonviolent resistance campaign. (I had not advised the Palestinians on this.) I also expressed sympathy for the sufferings of Jews facing acts of violence and terrorism at the hands of Palestinians.

    If the Palestinians were to launch such a nonviolent campaign I said they would not be strongly committed to the rejection of violence. Therefore, the Israelis had, for their own good, best be restrained in the repression they applied. If not, the Palestinians could well revert to violence again, and hence Israelis would again face determined Palestinian violence and terrorism.

    Considering the limited Palestinian violence in the first Intifada (only the throwing of stones) and the predominant use of economic boycotts, closures of businesses, and symbolic protests, the Israeli repression was quite harsh. I visited the Palestinian hospital in Jerusalem and saw many Palestinians with broken bones and paralysis. The Israelis also gave no minor concessions that might have encouraged the Palestinians to use more nonviolent methods in the future. On later trips I also spoke with prominent Israelis (as at the then Israeli Institute for Military Studies and members of the Knesset) as well as groups of Palestinians in various cities.

    Consequently, Palestinians and some of their organizations concluded that nonviolent resistance was ineffectual and that violence was required to advance their cause. To this violence, the Israelis replied with great violence of their own. You are aware of the consequent ghastly situation that now exists in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.

    This did not have to happen. An opportunity was lost. The present situation was produced by grave errors in judgment by both Palestinians and Israelis.

    Yang Jian Li is a gentle person, and only an advocate of nonviolent methods to make China better. I know him. He is widely respected.

    Some weeks ago I predicted that if Yang Jian Li is treated harshly, dissidents will say that the Chinese government responds only to violence and will act accordingly, sooner or later. I have been since told that that view is already being voiced among some opponents of the PRC government. The advocates of harsh repression of Yang Jian Li will unintentionally thereby have contributed to the instigation of acts of violence against the present government.

    Some government officials or security personnel understand that nonviolent methods of resistance may at times post serious threats to an established government. They may fear the growth of such resistance. I know the power of this technique. Therefore, those officials may press for harsh repression and attempts to isolate advocates of nonviolent action, as the detention of Yang Jian Li all these months.

    An attempt to neutralize nonviolent action by isolation of its advocates, or worse, does not, however, ensure a halt to the spread of an understanding and the practice of nonviolent resistance. For those who do not shift to violent resistance, this focused repression, especially of a person regarded as mild and of no danger, will cause many to think that the government is afraid of him. What is it that makes this individual so dangerous that he must be jailed and isolated? Surely the illegal use of a passport does not him so dangerous.

    Perhaps there is substance in his calls to use only nonviolent forms of resistance. Nonviolent struggle may thereby gain new supporters and participants for beyond the numbers likely if he had been given less severe treatment.

    Exponents of harsh repression of a nonviolent dissenter, however well intended, may therefore help to produce an unintended growth of either resistance violence or of serious nonviolent struggle. Strong supporters of present government who favor the continued jailing of Yang Jian Li may contribute to consequences they do not wish.

    Gentler responses to persons perceived as dangerous may thereby prove to be advantageous even to the person and institutions against whom the dissent has been focused.

    Therefore, my counsel to your government is that whether or not anyone is concerned about the sufferings of Yang Jian Li and his family, or to issues of human rights, or to the ideals of great Chinese persons in the past, it is wise for them now to find some way to release him soon.

    The release of Yang Jian Li would appear to me as an appropriate step to take following President Hu Jintao's impressive call for more democracy in China. It is important that that process come peacefully and his release could be viewed as a very small step in that direction.

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Source: "yangjianli.com".