ABSTRACT
Liu Qing belongs to the 1978-79 generation of Chinese dissidents. In 1992 Liu Qing left China for New York, where he became engaged in the organization Human Rights in China, set up in 1989, and now serves as its chairman. Despite the many setbacks in human rights work over the years and the continuing repression in the People's Republic of China (PRC), Liu takes an optimistic outlook and remains convinced that the struggle for human rights and democracy will eventually bear fruit. The struggle for democracy and human rights in China is part of a global trend and therefore elicits more sympathetic attention from the international community. Although many democratic countries in the international community have been inconsistent in applying pressure on China regarding its human rights record, or reluctant to apply such pressure for reasons of economic, political, or other benefits, these countries will sustain it for their own safety, advantage, and out of a general respect for humanity.
