In 2014, the Chinese writer known as Murong Xuecun announced in an essay in The New York Times that he was returning to China to turn himself in to the police. Two weeks earlier, the authorities had arrested three of Mr. Murong’s friends in Beijing after they attended a small private gathering to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations. Mr. Murong believed he, too, would have been arrested at that event if he had not been in Australia at the time. Once he flew back to China, he posted a message online announcing he was ready to be picked up.
For over a decade, I have worked for international human rights organizations and been an advocate for the rights of people in China. Mr. Murong was certainly brave, but his story is not singular. Many Chinese writers, journalists, civil rights lawyers and others have also chosen to stand up to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, knowing they could end up in prison for doing so.
I, too, have suffered repercussions: The Chinese authorities have monitored my activities here in the United States and used internet trolls to harass me online. Periodically, the party has menaced my family in China as a way to pressure me to end my work.
More and more Americans are now, perhaps for the first time in their lives, facing threats from their own government for simply doing their job, speaking their mind or protesting. As someone with experience challenging one of the world’s most ruthless and powerful governments, I have one important piece of advice to share: Show courage. This is not simply a display of moral strength. It is also an effective strategy for fighting back against creeping authoritarianism.
It is human to want to protect yourself, even at the expense of your principles, to avoid potential reprisals. I saw this after President Trump issued executive orders denouncing diversity, equity and inclusion programs as well as those focused on democracy promotion and civic society. In response, some advocacy organizationsscrubbed mentions of D.E.I. from their websites and rewrote program descriptions to tie democracy promotion to Mr. Trump’s “America First” agenda.
Similarly, companies including household names such as Target, Walmart and Meta pre-emptively scaled back D.E.I. programs. I was disappointed. Americans are known globally for their defiance of authority. But I also understood. Fear is powerful.
