这一年，我们已经习惯了思考中国的实力。中国巨额的外汇储备以及在全球经济低迷之际强劲增长的能力，令我们感到敬畏。我们看到它向世人展示越来越先进的军事装备和海军实力。我们还见证了它在国际舞台上日益提升的自信心――对美国赤字和美元走弱的危险，中国作了严厉的谴责。
但对于中国实力的迷恋，可能遮住了我们的双眼，让我们看不到它的明显缺陷。否则我们如何解释以下事实――在对资深人权活动家刘晓波施行一年实质上的单独监禁后，中国政府又以颠覆罪对他提起指控？
刘晓波的"罪行"是他参与撰写了《08宪章》，这是一份呼吁多党民主、改革宪法和以法治国的请愿书，去年有数千人在上面签名，后来审查机构将它清除出了互联网。《08宪章》受到了捷克斯洛伐克《77宪章》(Charter 77)的启发，上面有这样一句话："我们应该结束把言论当成罪行的做法。"共产党显然没有听进去这句话。现年53岁的刘晓波、曾担任文学教授并已多次入狱，如今又要面临5年甚至更长时间的牢狱之苦。
中国共产党似乎认为，严厉打击过去20年最顽固、也最高调的人权活动家刘晓波，将会使其他人噤声。如果说有什么不同的话，那就是在近来令人压抑的模式中，中国当局更加严厉地压制批评者，尽管我们曾天真地以为：更多的财富将会带来更大的包容。今年有许多敏感的纪念日（包括天安门事件20周年和达赖喇嘛逃离西藏50周年），在这一年里，中国加大了互联网审查力度。甚至连呼吁正义的母亲们也避不开例行公事的侵扰――她们的孩子在四川地震中被埋在质量低劣的建筑物下面，或是由于食用污染奶粉而发生中毒。
刘晓波是位选择留在中国、而没有流亡国外的爱国者，中国共产党对待他的做法令人厌恶。它应该立即释放刘晓波，并接受如下观点：在一个有13亿人口、日益富足的社会里，不是每个人都会听党的话。可悲的是，几乎这没有可能。政府对待异见人士如此缺乏宽容，对中国的长期稳定来说不是好兆头。在中国共产党懂得如何对待不同观点之前，它领导的将是一个脆弱的、而非强大的国家。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001030341
This year, we have grown accustomed to thinking about China's strengths. We have been awed by its mountainous foreign exchange reserves and by its ability to power ahead in a global downturn. We have seen its ever-more sophisticated military and naval hardware on display. And we have witnessed its growing confidence on the world stage, to wit, its shrill lectures on the dangers of the US deficit and a weakening dollar.
But our infatuation with China's strengths is in danger of blinding us to its palpable weaknesses. How else can we explain Beijing's indictment for subversion � after a year being held virtually incommunicado � of Liu Xiaobo, a veteran human rights campaigner?
Mr Liu's "crime" is that he co-authored Charter 08, an appeal for multiparty democracy, constitutional reforms and the rule of law, that was signed by several thousand people last year before it was snuffed from the internet by censors. The Charter, inspired by Czechoslovakia's Charter 77, contained the line: "We should end the practice of treating words as crimes." Clearly, the Communist party has not heeded that message. The 53-year-old former literature professor, who has already done stints in jail, now faces a further five years, perhaps more, in prison.
The Communist party seems to think that by cracking down hard on Mr Liu, one of the most consistent and high-profile rights activists of the past 20 years, it will scare others into silence. In a depressing recent pattern, China's authorities have, if anything, been clamping down harder on critics even as we fondly imagined that greater wealth would bring greater tolerance. In a year of sensitive anniversaries, including 20 years since Tiananmen and 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, censorship of the internet has tightened. Not even mothers campaigning for justice � after their children were crushed by sub-standard buildings in the Sichuan earthquake or poisoned by tainted milk � have been spared routine harassment.
The Communist party's treatment of Mr Liu, a patriot who has chosen to remain in China rather than sneak off into exile, is abhorrent. It should release him immediately and accept that in an increasingly prosperous society of 1.3bn people not everyone will toe the party line. Sadly, there is little chance of that. That it remains so intolerant of dissent does not augur well for China's long-term stability. Until the Communist party works out how to deal with a plurality of views, it will head a state that is brittle, not strong.
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