By Xiong Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-09-12 07:30

It is not surprising to learn that the selection of a Chinese sculptor to carve a monument to Martin Luther King Jr on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. triggered controversy in the United States. After all, King was an outstanding leader of the African-American people and the feeling his statue should have been commissioned to an African-American artist is quite understandable.

But I did not expect some of the critics would oppose the selection out of resentment against the country where the artist is from. They challenged the artist's qualifications because of China's so-called "poor human rights record", which they asserted would have been "abhorred" by King.

I don't know what King would have "abhorred". In his time, he and his comrades regarded China and the Chinese people as their most reliable allies, and indeed they turned to China for support in their civil rights struggle.

It may seem absurd, but the Chinese are among the best qualified for the King memorial.

Mao Zedong, the late Chinese leader, delivered two statements supporting the African-American people "in their just struggle against racial discrimination."

The first statement, dated August 8, 1963, was issued 10 days prior to the famous "March of Freedom" to Washington, D.C. led by King, which involved 250,000 people.

In the statement Mao gave an account of the plight of African-American people in the United States, such as their average wage was only one-third or half of their Caucasian counterparts, and they suffered the highest unemployment rate.

He admired the African-American people's struggle against discrimination and exploitation.

The second statement, delivered on April 16, 1968, expressed indignation at King's assassination. Mao pointed out that King was an advocate for non-violence, the US imperialists could not tolerate him and used reactionary violence to impose bloody suppression on him.

Although a teenager who did not speak English at the time, I was full of sympathy for the American black people's sufferings and admired them for their struggle. The name of Martin Luther King Jr and the civil rights movement he led was rooted in my heart then.

Both statements by Mao inspired millions of Chinese to demonstration in support of "our black brothers and sisters". On both occasions, my friends and I joined other demonstrators shouting slogans against US imperialists and racists and for the just struggle of the African-American people.

You may say those demonstrations 40 years ago were "orchestrated" by the Chinese government. But we in the parade were truly sincere. We believed that everyone in this world should be equal and racism was a bad thing. We believed that we Chinese and all the oppressed people in the world should stand together and support each other in fighting against any injustice. And I still believe that.

Of course, China was not the only country that supported the American black people's struggle in the 1960s. But I wonder how many demonstrations in other countries displayed the momentum as those in China did. In May 1968, China even issued a set of commemorative stamps to honor the American black people's struggle against racism.

As a Chinese netizen identified as Shandong remarked in a Chinese BBS essay, the worldwide support, including the support from China, should be a plus for the success of American civil rights movement. Some Americans voted for the Civil Rights Bill in order to "deprive the communist countries of the pretext to attack the United States".

In other words, the worldwide support for the American civil rights movement, including the demonstrations in China, helped with the adoption of the Civil Rights Bill, however reluctant the US government was.

None of the Chinese demonstrators who supported the American civil rights movement would claim credit, so it is really ironic that we Chinese would have "abhorred" the civil rights leader.

Even if human memory is short, history will not forget how China lined up with the oppressed people and nations in the world and upheld their human rights. It is a history we are proud of.

The author is a council member of China Society for Human Rights Studies

(China Daily 09/12/2007 page10)