在当代中国，民主与自由并非抽象的口号，而是无数勇敢的人以血泪、牢狱与生命所换来的真实斗争。从中国民主党的创建，到近几十年来一批批民主人士、维权律师、独立记者的抗争与倒下，中国社会的良心一直在顽强地对抗专制暴力。今天，我们必须大声疾呼：声援他们，就是声援未来中国的希望；抗议对他们的迫害，就是捍卫全人类的普世价值。
中国民主党自1998年成立之初，就代表了一种前所未有的尝试：通过合法、公开、和平的方式推动中国实现多党制与宪政民主。王有才、秦永敏、徐文立、刘贤斌、朱虞夫等人，是这一尝试的奠基者。他们并未选择暴力或秘密结社，而是以最公开的姿态挑战中共一党专政，却因此遭到最残酷的打击。短短几个月内，大批成员被捕、判刑，党的运作被彻底摧毁。但他们的努力开辟了道路，证明了中国人完全有勇气和能力走出极权的阴影。
除了民主党成员，还有更多良心人士在不同的领域承载着同样的使命。
刘晓波 —— 诺贝尔和平奖得主，《零八宪章》的主要起草人。他因呼吁民主与宪政，因推动思想启蒙与非暴力抗争，被长期监禁。2017年，他在被囚禁状态下罹患肝癌，未获自由便仓促离世，成为全世界的震惊与悲恸。他曾说：“没有仇恨的未来，中国才有希望。”他的死，是中共最血腥的控诉。
张展 —— 独立记者，因报道武汉新冠疫情真相而被捕，被判刑四年。她以微弱的身体承担了言论自由的代价，她的坚持告诉世界：中国并非没有勇敢发声的女性。她在狱中长期绝食，身体状况极度恶化，却始终未妥协。
徐琳 —— 民主活动人士，以创作政治歌曲与参与公民运动闻名。他通过音乐表达对民主与自由的渴望，多次因此被捕。他的经历表明，即使是艺术创作，在极权体制下也会被视为威胁，因为它触动了人心中最深的自由渴望。
高智晟 —— 著名人权律师，曾三度被评为“中国十大律师”。他勇敢为法轮功学员、维权人士、宗教信徒辩护，公开批评中共的酷刑与迫害。2006年以来，他多次被秘密抓捕、酷刑折磨，长期失踪。高智晟是中国最具勇气的法律人之一，他的命运象征着法律在专制之下的彻底沦丧。
丁家喜 —— “新公民运动”的核心成员之一，与许志永并肩作战，倡导公民社会与法治改革。因组织公民聚会、推动宪政理念，他被以“颠覆国家政权罪”判刑。他的温和与坚守，恰恰证明中共对“和平倡议”的恐惧。
这些名字背后，是一个个血淋淋的事实：中共不允许任何独立的声音存在，无论是政党组织、独立新闻报道、艺术表达，还是法律维权，只要触动极权，就会遭遇牢狱、酷刑、死亡。
我们不能忘记郭飞雄（杨茂东）在狱中的惨死，不能忘记许志永的坚守，不能忘记无数籍籍无名的民主党人、维权律师、独立记者，他们在中国各地被抓捕、审讯、判刑，却几乎无人知晓。他们的家人被连累，孩子失去父母，妻子被迫流亡，他们的付出是孤独的，但绝不是徒劳的。
这些民主人士共同构成了中国的良心与脊梁。他们的勇敢让我们看到：中国人并非不懂民主，也并非懦弱；相反，他们愿意用生命去证明，自由值得一切代价。正是因为他们的存在，世界才看见了一个与中共暴政不同的“中国”。
今天，我们必须再次发声：声援中国民主党人，声援刘晓波、张展、徐琳、高智晟、丁家喜，以及所有在黑暗中坚持的人；抗议中共的残酷迫害，抗议它用监狱、酷刑与死亡摧残中国的良心。
他们是中国未来的火种。历史不会忘记他们，世界也不应沉默。支持中国的民主人士，就是支持中国的未来；支持他们，就是捍卫人类文明的尊严。极权终将倒塌，自由终将到来。
In Solidarity With China’s Democracy Activists: A Protest Against CCP Persecution
In contemporary China, democracy and freedom are not abstract ideals—they are struggles paid for with blood, tears, prison cells, and lives. From the founding of the China Democracy Party in the late 1990s to the tireless work of countless dissidents, human rights lawyers, and independent journalists in recent decades, the conscience of Chinese society has fought relentlessly against authoritarian violence. Today, we must speak loudly: to support them is to support the hope of a future China; to protest their persecution is to defend the universal values of humankind.
The China Democracy Party (CDP), established in 1998, represented an unprecedented attempt to advance multiparty competition and constitutional democracy in China through legal, open, and peaceful means. Figures such as Wang Youcai, Qin Yongmin, Xu Wenli, Liu Xianbin, and Zhu Yufu were among its founders. They did not choose violence or secret plots; instead, they took the most transparent approach to challenge the CCP’s one-party monopoly. For that, they endured the harshest repression. Within months, scores of CDP members were arrested and sentenced, their organization crushed. Yet their courage carved a path forward, proving that Chinese citizens indeed have the strength and resolve to step out of the shadows of tyranny.
Beyond the CDP, other voices of conscience have carried the same mission in different arenas.
Liu Xiaobo — Nobel Peace Prize laureate and chief drafter of Charter 08. He was imprisoned repeatedly for advocating democracy and constitutional reform. In 2017, while still in custody, he was diagnosed with liver cancer and died under guard, never granted freedom. His death shocked the world. He once wrote: “For there to be a future for China, there must be a future without hatred.” His passing remains one of the most searing indictments of the CCP.
Zhang Zhan — Independent journalist, arrested and sentenced to four years in prison for reporting truthfully on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan. With her frail body, she bore the weight of freedom of expression. Even in prison, where she went on hunger strikes and faced life-threatening conditions, she refused to yield.
Xu Lin — Democracy activist known for his political songs and civic engagement. He used music to voice the longing for liberty, and for that he was repeatedly detained. His case demonstrates how even art, under tyranny, is seen as a threat because it speaks to the deepest yearning for freedom in the human spirit.
Gao Zhisheng — One of China’s most courageous lawyers, once honored as one of the country’s “Top Ten Lawyers.” He defended Falun Gong practitioners, religious believers, and rights activists, openly criticizing torture and persecution by the CCP. Since 2006, Gao has been abducted, tortured, and disappeared multiple times. His fate symbolizes the total collapse of the rule of law under authoritarianism.
Ding Jiaxi — A core member of the New Citizens’ Movement, who worked alongside Xu Zhiyong to promote civic engagement and constitutional reform. For organizing citizen gatherings and advocating peaceful reform, he was sentenced on charges of “subverting state power.” His calm determination reflects precisely what the regime fears most: peaceful advocacy for justice.
The list is long, and it includes many more: Guo Feixiong (Yang Maodong), who died in 2023 after years of imprisonment and torture; Xu Zhiyong, still imprisoned for calling for “freedom, justice, and love”; and countless lesser-known CDP members, rights defenders, and independent journalists who remain behind bars across China. Their families are harassed, their children grow up without parents, and their names are often erased from public record. Yet it is their sacrifices that form the lifeblood of China’s democratic struggle.
The CCP’s persecution is so brutal precisely because these activists strike at its most vulnerable point: the illegitimacy of one-party rule. Unlike scattered protests or individual grievances, these people sought to organize, to give structure and permanence to opposition. Their methods were peaceful and transparent, yet they met with prison cells, torture chambers, disappearances, and exile.
But their sacrifices have not been in vain. Their existence proves that Chinese people are neither incapable of democracy nor lacking in courage. On the contrary, they are willing to risk their freedom and their lives to defend the most basic of human rights. They are the conscience of China, the voices of its future, and in the annals of history, they will be remembered with honor.
Today, we must speak out once more: in solidarity with all CDP members languishing in prison, with Liu Xiaobo, Zhang Zhan, Xu Lin, Gao Zhisheng, Ding Jiaxi, and countless others who have endured unimaginable suffering for freedom. We protest the CCP’s cruelty, its prisons, its torture, and its silencing of China’s conscience.
They are the seeds of China’s future. History will not forget them, nor should the world remain silent. To support China’s democracy activists is to support China’s tomorrow. To stand with them is to defend the dignity of civilization itself. Tyranny will not last forever. Freedom will come.