Famous Chinese dissident blogger and novelist Xu Lai was stabbed on Valentine's Day after being dragged into a bathroom by two men when a fight broke out a literary reading at the One Way Street bookshop in Beijing.



From the London Times:

"His wife said that two men forced Xu Lai into the men's toilet. She chased after them and found that one was holding a vegetable knife and the other a dagger. The men escaped, leaving Xu Lai on the ground with a cut to his stomach.

"The newspaper quoted a witness as saying that they heard one of his attackers say: "You brought this on yourself. You know why we're doing this, don't you?"

In addition to being the editor of the Beijing News Daily, Xu Lai blogs at "Pro State in Flames," a blog which reports on current events, science, anti-Communist ideas, and "Starcraft: Ghost," which is the only other English word I can read on this page.

His novel, published last year, is called "Fanciful Animals."

He's fine, by the way. He's recovering in the hospital. Guess he was right all along: the Chinese Communist party really HAS become incompetent. They can't even properly murder dissidents in broad daylight anymore.

Of course, this illustrates an interesting point about vocal dissent. No one knows exactly WHY Xu Lai was stabbed. It could have been gambling debts or because he was stepping out with the wrong lady.

But his stabbing has ALL KINDS of Chinese people inflamed at the Government. At a certain level of public dissent, the Government you hate and that hates you back actually has to PROTECT you, because anything that happens to you will be viewed as their fault, whether they did it or not.

Brutal, repressive, autocratic governments have it rough, don't they?

Have you hugged your brutal, repressive, autocratic government today?

Posted by miracle on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:48:02 -0500 -- permanent link