喬安妮·李多姆‐阿克曼（Joanne Leedom‐Ackerman），美國作家、國際筆會前副主席
劉曉波離開人世僅僅八年，但感覺上好像已經過去很久了，或許是因為如今思想交流的速度太快，而中國和我的國家美國，似乎都正在遠離我們曾經希望能將兩個國家更緊密地聯繫在一起的理想。
但思想和理想是不受時間和地點限制的。唯一的限制是想像力以及那些擁有這些理想的人的精神。今天，當我在華盛頓特區的角落寫下這些文字時，我仍然希望並相信，劉曉波所體現和啟發的理想將會流傳，並終有一天會實現。
我最初是透過國際筆會（PEN International）了解到劉曉波的。國際筆會是一個全球性的作家組織，我有幸在那裡擔任過各種職務，目前擔任副會長，也是在那裡，我第一次認識了劉曉波，獨立中文筆會是在他的倡導下建立起來的。遺憾的是，我們從未見過面，但我們確實在思想領域以及透過我們在同一時間，從事類似的工作上見過了面。
劉曉波激勵了我，也激勵了海內外的許多人。 2017年，他去世的消息傳到世界各地，那些認識他的作家和民主活動家就紛紛開始寫作悼念和分析文章。
為了紀念劉曉波，我願與各位分享一些我撰寫的關於他的文字，這些文字收錄在我有幸主編的書中，這是那本與張裕、李潔和廖天琪共同編輯的《從黑馬到諾貝爾獎得主劉曉波》，裡面收錄了許多中外友人的悼念文章。
劉曉波在其最後陳述《我沒有敵人》中理解並宣告的一個理念是：「表達自由是人權之基，人性之本，真理之母。」劉曉波於2009年12月23日向宣判他的法官發表的最後陳述《我沒有敵人》，與馬丁·路德·金的《發自伯明翰監獄的信》一樣，在激勵並建構本國社會方面是非常重要的文本。
我不願對劉曉波這位我從未見過的人做太多的評價，但他作為一名作家，以及透過筆會代表那些用文字對抗國家權力的作家們的活動家，我相信劉曉波和他的思想將會流傳下去。
他的文字如今是我們唯一的交流場所，他的寫作充滿活力，充滿了關於人類精神的真諦，無論從個人還是集體的角度，這都是構成政治體中的公民。我希望他的詩歌和他作為主要起草人之一，並獲得2000多名中國公民的支持的《零八憲章》，終有一天能夠產生深遠的影響。 《零八憲章》闡明了一條通往更民主的中國的道路，而這個目標終有一天或能實現。
《零八憲章》針闡述的是政治體。劉曉波的《最後陳述：我沒有仇恨》針對的是個人，對我來說，它引起了最深刻的共鳴。它的號召不依賴他人，而是依賴自身。他警告人們不要仇恨。
「仇恨會腐蝕一個人的智慧和良知，敵人意識將毒化一個民族的精神…煽動起你死我活的殘酷鬥爭，毀掉一個社會的寬容和人性，阻礙一個國家走向自由民主的進程。」
在劉曉波去世後的一次會議上，一名與會者問一位認識曉波的演講者，如果劉曉波知道自己的生命將如此終結，他是否會更變這句話。這位朋友向提問者保證，他不會，因為他始終堅持這個理念。劉曉波對「沒有敵人，沒有仇恨」的承諾，並非向他所反對的威權主義妥協，而是抵制一切負面力量。他認同仁愛，認為仁愛是滋養人類精神並最終使其蓬勃發展的力量。劉曉波的話語和思想，如同燈塔，指引我們所有人。
Tribute to Liu Xiaobo—Paris Conference July 13, 2025
By Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
It seems much more time has passed than only eight years since Liu Xiaobo walked this earth, perhaps because ideas shoot back and forth so much faster these days and countries like China and my country America appear to be moving away from the ideals we once hoped would bind us closer.
But ideas and ideals are not bound by time and place. The only limitation is imagination and the spirit of those who share them. As I write today from my corner of Washington, DC, I continue to hope and believe that the ideals which Liu Xiaobo embodied and inspired will endure and someday find their realization.
I first learned of Liu Xiaobo through PEN International, the worldwide writers’ organization where I’ve had the privilege to work in various roles, currently as a Vice President and where I first met Liu Xiaobo through his work helping establish and guide the Independent Chinese PEN Center. Unfortunately, we never met in person, but we did meet in the territory of ideas and through our work which overlapped in time and close proximity.
Liu inspired me and so many others inside and outside China. When news of his death in 2017 reached the world and in particular the writers and democracy activists who knew him, writers began to write. Tributes and analyses poured in.
To celebrate Liu Xiaobo, I share here some of the writing I have done about him in the book I was privileged to edit which included many of these tributes and analyses: From Dark Horse to Nobel Laureate, edited along with Tienchi Martin-Lio, Yu Zhang and Jie Li.
One idea that Liu Xiaobo understood and declared in his final statement I Have No Enemies was “Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth.” Liu’s Final Statement: I Have No Enemies delivered December 23, 2009 to the judge sentencing him stands beside important texts which inspire and help frame society as Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail did in my country.
I hesitate to project too much onto Liu Xiaobo, this man I never met, but as a writer and an activist through PEN on behalf of writers whose words set the powers of state against them, I am confident that Liu Xiaobo and his ideas will endure.
Though his words are now our only meeting place, his writing is robust and full of truth about the human spirit, individually and collectively as citizens form the body politic. I hope eventually both his poetry and the famed Charter 08, for which he was one of the primary drafters and which more than 2000 Chinese citizens endorsed, will one day grow in consequence. Charter 08 set out a path to a more democratic China that someday may yet be realized.
Charter 08 addresses the body politic. Liu Xiaobo’s Final Statement: I Have No Hatred addresses the individual, and for me resonates most profoundly. Its call doesn’t depend on others but on oneself for execution. He warned against hatred.
“Hatred only eats away at a person’s intelligence and conscience, and an enemy mentality can poison the spirit of an entire people… It can lead to cruel and lethal internecine combat, can destroy tolerance and human feeling within a society, and can block the progress of a nation toward freedom and democracy.”
At a conference after Liu Xiaobo’s death, a participant asked a panelist who knew him if he thought Liu Xiaobo would have changed this statement if he understood how his life would end. The friend assured the questioner that he would not, for he was committed to the idea. Liu Xiaobo’s commitment to No Enemies, No Hatred does not accede to the authoritarianism he opposed but instead resists the negative. He aligns with benevolence and love as the power that nourishes the human spirit and ultimately allows it to flourish. Liu’s words and his ideas live as a beacon and a guide for all of us.
