November 1, 1981
Dear Lingling, Taotao, and Shanshan [Wei’s siblings]:
I stick to my beliefs, not only because I feel that they can help people, but because history is already beginning to prove that such beliefs are beneficial to the prosperity and happiness of our people. Today, even the mighty leaders of the central government wouldn’t dare to openly deny the validity of the basic points I raised during what amounted to little more than a short-lived political movement in the late 1970s. Would they now dare to openly praise dictatorship and deny the necessity of democracy? Would they deny the necessity of reform and call for the preservation of a Soviet-style socialist economy? Would they deny that the days when dictators appointed local representatives have passed, that open elections are now needed to legitimize the government?
November 21, 1981
Dear Lingling, Taotao, and Shanshan:
I once thought I was condemned to death and I had prepared for it. After spending half a year on death row, death began to seem about as inevitable as life. Still, I never felt lonely. Sometimes I think if I had died, it would have been better for me and all of you. A quick death is better than lingering around like this half dead, half alive, waiting for death.
April 12, 1983
Dear [Communist Party chief] Hu Yaobang:
I’ve got coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, and at times I’ve shown symptoms of cerebral hemorrhaging–all of which I’ve written to you about before. I would like to receive competent medical treatment and be placed in an environment more conducive to recovery than I have here in prison.
July 6, 1987
Dear Deng Xiaoping:
I no longer place any great hope in the future of China before your death. This isn’t because your plans for reform don’t have their reason, and it isn’t because China is without the social and material conditions for rapid development, but it’s because you, a man well into his eighties, are unable to overcome your greatest weaknesses and continue to persecute those who try to put a check on you.
June 15, 1989
Dear Deng Xiaoping:
As you ascended the throne, step by step you gradually betrayed yourself, and now by ordering tanks onto Tiananmen Square you have fallen to even lower depths than [Mao Zedong’s henchmen,] the Gang of Four. Your power may be great now, but I’m afraid that you will come to an even worse end than they did.
November 3, 1989
Dear Deng Xiaoping:
No ruler has absolute freedom in managing his so-called ““internal affairs.’’ When a situation has developed to a certain point, not only does everyone have the authority to concern themselves with the ““internal affairs’’ of others, but when things get more serious, they also have the right to interfere in your affairs whether you have invited them to or not.
