Human Rights

[Renaming the street of China's embassy in Washington] is the sort of symbolic shaming that the [People's Republic of China] and many politically conscious Chinese really dislike. Of course, what the regime did to Liu Xiaobo violated every reasonable moral standard, and this action will make some in the West feel good. But it will not speed his release by even one day.

In any dictatorship, it’s dangerous to be someone the leader depends on to stay in power – it means that you can easily become a threat, as it appears that Jang [Song-Thaek] and the patronage system that he ran did.