Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Prize

HONG KONG—Imprisoned Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, throwing the global spotlight on China's controversial human rights record.

Release Liu Xiaobo

Release Liu Xiaobo Candlelight Vigil

The 54-year-old Liu was given the coveted prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China," the Nobel Committee announced in Oslo on Friday.

Drawing parallels between Liu and former South African president Nelson Mandela, Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjorn Jagland said the award was intended to boost the pro-democracy movement in China.

"Human rights are very important for building peace, because democratic nations don't go to war with each other," Jagland said.

In Beijing, the award drew a furious response from China, which accused the Nobel panel of violating its own principles by honoring "a criminal," AP reported.

"Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Awarding him "runs completely counter to the principle of the prize and is also a blasphemy to the peace prize."

Beijing summoned Norway's ambassador to protest the Nobel Committee's decision.

U.S. President Barack Obama said China should release Liu as “soon as possible,” describing him as "an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and nonviolent means," according to a White House statement.

While China has made dramatic progress on economic reform and improving the lives of its people, "this award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace,” said Obama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

The prize, including U.S. $1.5 million, will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.

In awarding Liu, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it sees human rights and peace as directly linked.

"Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China," it said in a news release carried on its website.

The committee cited Liu's participation in the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989 and the so-called Charter 08 document he recently co-authored, which called for greater freedom in China and an end to the Communist Party's political dominance.

Netizens react

Online reaction to the news was swift.

"The world is both very large and very small," wrote Beijing-based academic and rights campaigner Cui Weiping via the microblogging service Twitter. "We are not alone. Brother Xiaobo, you have not suffered in vain."

"The whole world is with you, and with all the prisoners of conscience currently in jail in China."

Online media commentator Kaiser Kuo tweeted: "For threatening the Norwegian government? ... It serves you right!"

Chinese officials had hit out at Liu's nomination before Friday's announcement, warning that a peace prize for Liu could damage diplomatic ties with Norway.

Liu's page on the official Nobel site was already awash with comments in Chinese and English.

"Long live [Liu Xiaobo]!" wrote one commenter. "God Bless China!" said another. "Now we have glimpsed hope," said a third.

"Liu Xiaobo" and other keywords related to China's pro-democracy movement have long been on a blacklist used by government and Internet service providers to filter and block content the authorities deem subversive.

Netizens discussing Liu's award via Twitter would need to use a variety of circumvention tools to get around the intricate system of filters and blocks known as the Great Firewall, or GFW.

True honor

Liu's wife Liu Xia, who currently must travel six hours to Jinzhou in northeastern China's Liaoning province to visit him, said she was grateful to the Nobel Committee for the selection.

"It is a true honor for him and one for which I know he would say he is not worthy," she said in a statement issued through lawyers of the NGO Freedom Now, who serve as Liu's international counsel.

"I hope that the international community will take this opportunity to call on the Chinese government to press for my husband’s release," she said.

Liu Xia said earlier via the microblogging service Twitter that she had been invited to visit her husband in prison by police on Thursday.

"I didn't agree," she wrote, without elaborating.

Liu was sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in prison for his role in authoring a pro-democracy document that called for sweeping changes in China's government.

While more than 100 Chinese scholars, lawyers, and reform campaigners have lobbied the Nobel committee on behalf of Liu, a number of dissidents also opposed his nomination, accusing him of not being critical enough of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

But Liu's nomination was supported by top former Communist Party aide Bao Tong, who urged the government to embrace the award.

And an Oct. 4 letter signed by a bipartisan group of 29 members of the U.S. House of Representatives called Liu "a renowned scholar and human rights advocate who helped draft Charter 08, which called for an improvement in the human rights situation and respect for rule of law [in China]."

Official opposition

China has bitterly opposed Liu's nomination from the start, and netizens shared messages saying that authorities were forbidding discussion of the award.

Others replied that some microblogging services were already censoring discussion, and that content pages mentioning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize were now unavailable on major Web portal sina.com.

The Nobel Committee said in its announcement that China has enjoyed unparalleled economic development in recent years, but has lagged behind on human rights protection. "China's new status must entail increased responsibility," the statement said.

"China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights."

Citing Article 35 of China's constitution, which states that "citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration," the statement said the government had failed to deliver on its promises.

"In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens," it said.

The exiled Dalai Lama, also a Nobel laureate, pressed China for Liu's release as well as others "imprisoned for exercising their freedom of expression."

Liu was jailed last December on subversion charges after he was identified as a key author and organizer of Charter 08, a document published online in 2008 that called for political change in China.

A pro-democracy manifesto that called on the Communist Party to enact political reforms and uphold the constitutional rights of Chinese citizens, Charter 08 was signed by 303 mainland intellectuals and sent shock waves through the highest echelons of China’s leadership.

Liu was arrested on the eve of its publication in 2008 and sentenced to 11 years in prison on Dec. 25, 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power."

Previous Nobel Peace Prize laureates have included Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Archibishop Desmond Tutu, and U.S. President Barack Obama.