Yan Lianke: Western politicians blinded by the Chinese economy no longer speak of ethical values

The great satirist says he is "saddened" because the dialogue between China and the West is based only on trade, money and agreements. For Ling Cangzhou, China has "managed to deceive Western politicians".


Edinburgh (AsiaNews / RfA) - Yan Lianke, author of many international best-sellers, says that Western politicians in dealing with China, speak "only of trade, money and agreements", but do not make any pressure for the human rights.

Speaking in recent days at the International Book Festival in Edinburgh, he said he was "saddened" that foreign leaders prefer to turn a blind eye to ethical issues in order to save economic contracts when they make state visits to China.

Yan Lianke (see photo) is known for his satirical style. For example, in one of his books, "The Dream of the Ding Village", he laughed at the attempts to modernize the Chinese countryside, telling of the pushes of the farmers to offer themselves to sell their blood, with the result of an AIDS epidemic that leads to the disappearance of the inhabitants of a Henan village. Yan is also constantly targeted by censors. His latest book, "The day the sun died", could not be published in China, only in Taiwan.

Another writer, Ling Cangzhou, among the first signatories of Charter 08, the manifesto drawn up by Liu Xiaobo for the reform of Chinese society, commenting on the words of Yan, said: "Selfishness is part of human nature and a pile of Western politicians have been seduced by money ... China is masquerading in front of the world as the descendant of Confucius and does not seem a totalitarian regime ... [In this way] it has managed to deceive Western politicians".