By YANG Jianli
Kennedy School Alumni, Distinguished Guests and Dear Friends,
Good afternoon. What a wonderful day! I am grateful to you for this award. This is recognition of the voice for democracy and human rights for one fourth of the world’s population which, as you asserted in your announcement letter, “must be recognized and amplified.”
I can only accept this award with a deep sense of gratitude. In the aftermath of the Tiananmen Massacre, which I narrowly survived, I, a mathematician, decided to devote myself to the cause of democracy in China. When I made that decision I understood my own need to study the democratic ethos and its concomitants in depth. I was lucky to be accepted by what I consider the best of all places to learn this knowledge—The Kennedy School, which is committed to both thought and actionand provides an especially thought provoking environment, asking the question: “What We Can Do” to solve the greatest problems confronting our era.
I am enormously thankful to The Kennedy School. It provided for me a superb learning environment. But even more importantly, it was here that I was exposed to and came to know well faculty like Professors Richard Zeckhauser and David King who are inspiring models of just, wise and learned human beings who embody the values that I had committed myself to fight for.
Here I also found similarly motivated students, for example, Jared Genser who has become a leading international human rights lawyer and worked to free me when I was imprisoned in China. Now Jared and I are partners in the struggle for the freedom of prisoners of conscience around the world.
During my five years imprisonment in China, over 100 Harvard faculty members petitioned to the Chinese leaders for my release. They include Harvard President Professor Larry Summers, Kennedy School Deans Professor Joseph Nye and Processor David Ellwood. I also learned later not surprisingly, many staff members in the executive and legislative offices in the US government who worked tirelessly for my release are Kennedy School alumni. I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart.
I also accept this award with a deep sense of humility. I am here, enjoying this wonderful air of Freedom that embraces this great country. But whatever I have done, whatever I have achieved, I have not done by myself. Whatever I have been able to do, I have done only because I am standing squarely on the shoulders of my countrymen who do not have the luxury of enjoying this wonderful air of freedom. I am standing on the shoulders and by the side of people who have knowingly traded their freedom and in some cases their lives to advance the cause of democracy in China.
You cannot see them, but they are here with me today. I speak of this noble to my left, Liu Xiaobo, author of Charter 08, recognized by the world as the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. And recognized By the Government of China with an 11 year jail sentence. To my right, Wang Bing Zhang, recognized around the world as the founder of the overseas Chinese democratic movement. And recognized by the Chinese Government with a life of solitary confinement. Behind me are Zhao Chang Qing, Ding Jiaxi, Gaozhisheng, Hada, Nurmemet Yasin, Liu Xianbin, Chen Wei,Yang Tianshui, Dhondup Wangchen, Chen Shuqing, Zhu Yufu, Tang Zuoren…. the list can go on and on. All recognized around the world as men of peace and service to their fellow men, but labeled as subversives by their government. Further behind me are the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Chinese citizens who risk their lives and their very fortunes every day to protest the corruption and the lack of the rule of law that defines life inside China today. It is on their behalf that I accept this gracious honor. It is on their behalf that I accept this honor.
This achievement award prompts me to exam what we have achieved. To be fair, we have done a lot. But this award comes as a reminder that we are still far from achieving our goal and so can only spur us to continue. I also take this award as a gesture of continued support for our cause from the Harvard community worldwide. Our Harvard motto is Veritas-the truth. No university, especially Harvard, should shy away from telling the truth about the dark side of the CCP’s rule in China. We must fight together for human rights and democracy, not because they are noble abstract concepts but because they are the tools for achieving civilized societies and a peaceful world order.
To conclude, I want to share with you this quote attributed to the man whose name is affixed to this great institution. “There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” The longer we delay our actions, the greater the costs for all of us.
Thank you all.