Mao Yushi, one of China's most outspoken and influential activists for individual rights and free markets, has been named the 2012 winner of the Cato Institute's Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. The award will be presented on the evening of May 4 at the Washington Hilton, and will include a keynote address by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and special remarks by John Stossel. Established in 2002 and presented every two years, the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty is the leading international award for significant contributions to advancing individual liberty.
Regretless Course of my Life is an autobiography of peace and war, of death and survival. The author tells his own life-story in four parts: childhood, young adulthood, adulthood, as well as miserable years of ?the Cultural Revolution?in which the author was severely persecuted and tortured. Modestly as the family was living, the author enjoyed his innocent years as a child — under the care of his parents. During the Anti-Japanese War that threw the whole nation in agony, he still tried hard to finish off his education, first in Nankai Middle School in Tianjin, then in a university until he became an engineer.After liberation he found a lifelong companion, a gentle and loving lady, with the name of Zhao Ailing, and married her. He was devoting all his efforts to China?s railway construction when he was criticized and denounced as a ?Rightist?before he knew why. Then he was sent to labour in the countryside in Shangdong province, where he was living on starvation.Soon came ?the Cultural Revolution?in which his house was raided, and he was assigned to Datong Engine Plant, located in the capital of Shangxi province, where he was made to toil as a workman. However, fortunately he sees with his own eyes that his country has altered its course, moving from being a landlocked nation to being a developing power. It now opens up to the world. Never shall the next generations come across such harsh years, nor does he feel regretful for all those hard years he has gone through in his life journey.
