Slavery in China

Charles de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755), who was a widely accepted anti-slavery enlightenment thinker, had satiric comments on slavery of the colors and pungent criticism on the slavery laws. In his The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu wrote, “Slavery, properly so called, is the establishment of a right which gives to one man such a power over another, as renders him absolute master of his life and fortune. The state of slavery is bad of its own nature: it is neither useful to the master nor to the slaves; not to the slave, because he can do nothing thro’ a motive of virtue; not to the master, because he contracts all manner of bad habits with his slaves; he accustoms himself insensibly to the want of all moral virtues; he grows fierce, hasty, severe, choleric, voluptuous, and cruel.”

Frederick Douglass (1818? – 1895, a former slave and a prominent abolitionist) wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. In Chapter 3 of this book, Douglass told us a story which was regarded a chat between his master Colonel Lloyd and a telling-the-truth slave. Colonel Lloyd was so rich and he had some around of a thousand slaves and several plantations, so that, before the chat, both of them did not know of each other. In their seemingly casual chat, the slave told Colonel Lloyd that he was not treated fairly by his master. But, weeks later, this poor slave was traded away. “He was immediately chained and handcuffed; and thus, without a moment's warning, he was snatched away, and forever sundered, from his family and friends, by a hand more unrelenting than death. This is the penalty of telling the truth, of telling the simple truth, in answer to a series of plain questions.” Douglass wrote; and he continued, “The frequency of this has had the effect to establish among the slaves the maxim, that a still tongue makes a wise head. They suppress the truth rather than take the consequences of telling it”. Douglass observed that “slaves are like other people, and imbibe prejudices quite common to others. They think their own [master] better than that of others.” And how the slaves bragged, quarreled and even fought for their masters. “They [slaves] seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves. It was considered as being bad enough to be a slave; but to be a poor man's slave was deemed a disgrace indeed!”

When I take Colonel Lloyd as the Chinese Communist, take that telling-the-truth slave as the Chinese dissidents, and take those ordinary slaves as those ordinary Chinese people, I see its similarity: the Chinese Communist has taken those conscientious dissidents as its properties and has done nasty things to them at its will, just for imposing its maxim that “a still tongue makes a wise head”; those unenlightened ordinary Chinese “people” are actually more like the slaves in the Allegory of the Cave; they brag, quarrel and even fight for their masters – the Chinese Communist, for “They seemed to think that the greatness of their masters was transferable to themselves.”

Montesquieu said, “In despotic countries, where they are already in a state of political slavery, … In democracies, slavery is contrary to the spirit of the constitution”, and “In all despotic governments people make no difficulty in selling themselves; the political slavery in some measure annihilates the civil liberty.” The civil liberty is indeed deprived of from those political slaves, haven’t you read the report on “[a] Chinese dissident living in legal limbo in Japanese airport” in internet? The Chinese Communist denied his right to back to China without any merits, domestic or international. Many ordinary Chinese “people” blame him bringing humiliation upon China, for they already sell themselves to the tyranny. Montesquieu said that “the Muscovites sell themselves very readily: their reason for it is evident; their liberty is not worth keeping.” My question is: Aren’t the Chinese the same notorious?

Henry Thoreau (1817 – 1862) said, “I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also. All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. … When the subject had refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the [peaceable] revolution is accomplished.” The slavery in China goes on already and it continues. In the Haven, on the Earth, even down to the Hell, why don’t abolish this political slavery in China?