Editor’s note: On March 13, the Italian magazine IL Foglio published this article by Dr. Jianli Yang. We are privileged to share it with you with its English translation.
In 2002, I was arrested by the Chinese government as one of the leaders of the Chinese democracy movement. I was interrogated over a hundred times. Almost every time, the interrogators, acting on behalf of the all-powerful communist regime, would remind us that we had no cards in our hands. However, we did not think so. Deep in our hearts, we knew we had strong cards because we recognized that every human being, including our Chinese compatriots, desires freedom, and that the free world led by the U.S. was on our side.
BY: JIANLI YANG
“A person without trust cannot stand, a business without trust cannot thrive, and a nation without trust will decline.”—An Old Chinese Saying
The February 28 confrontation between Ukrainian President Zelensky and U.S. President Trump and Vice President Vance at the White House reminded me of scenes of classic gangster movies about extortion. However, this was not a story about a small business owner being bullied by thugs and seeking protection from the mafia. Instead, it involved the president of a democratic nation, Ukraine, which is under attack by authoritarian Russia, and the president of the United States, the leader of the free world and a major keeper of the rule-based liberal international order.
This scene at the White House shocked the world, and even Chinese people who do not have access to much information took notice. Many Chinese people left comments on the U.S. Embassy’s Weibo account, condemning and mocking the actions of U.S. leaders:
“The values that the world has upheld for 100 years were destroyed by your great president in just a few days. What a shame!”
“The day the Statue of Liberty was shamed.”
“A day of shame for America.”
These comments clearly show that these Chinese people are not supporters of the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government; they believe in the values of freedom and democracy. They also support the rule-based liberal international order led by the United States, which has been in place for nearly a century. It can be inferred that people in every corner of the world, generation after generation, who have been oppressed, also believe in these values and see the democratic world, represented by the U.S., as their hope for the future.
Source: https://www.yibao.net/2025/03/27/its-credibility-that-is-on-the-line/