Nobel Peace Prize ceremony goes ahead without the winner Liu
Dec. 13, 2010
An empty chair standing in for imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo took center-stage as the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony began in Oslo on Friday.
Liu, the 2010 winner for his part in writing the democratic manifesto ''Charter 08'' that called for sweeping political change in China, was unable to attend as he is still serving an 11-year jail term for ''inciting subversion of state power'' in China.
He was taken from his home in December 2008, just before the release of Charter 08, and given the jail term on Christmas Day last year.
In February, Liu's appeal against his conviction was turned down by a Beijing high court that upheld the sentence.
His wife, Liu Xia, was also unable to represent him despite having expressed her desire to do so as she was held under heavy police surveillance in Beijing.
Among the 1,000 guests at the Oslo ceremony were several Chinese dissidents who live overseas or who had managed to make the trip from China, Hong Kong or Macao on their own.
In China, the government cracked down on the dissident community and supporters of Liu in the aftermath of the award announcement in October, including preventing many from traveling abroad in a bid to prevent them from attending Friday's ceremony on the Norwegian capital.
But in Hong Kong, about 400 people gathered outside the Legislature building Friday night to witness the ceremony.
Watching a live broadcast via a big screen outside the building, the crowd applauded along with the invited guests in Oslo's City Hall.
Liu, born in 1955, has been detained repeatedly by Chinese authorities over two decades of activism that included involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.
In announcing this year's winner of the prestigious Peace Prize, Thorbjoern Jagland, head of the Nobel Committee, said Liu had, for more than two decades, been a strong spokesman for application of fundamental human rights in China and called him the ''foremost symbol'' of that struggle.
A description of Liu on the Nobel Prize website says he was awarded the prize ''for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.''
Friday night Jagland added, ''We regret that the laureate is not present here today. He is in isolation in a prison in northeast China. Nor can the Laureate's wife Liu Xia or his closest relatives be here with us. No medal or diploma will therefore be presented here today. This fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate...this is why Liu Xiaobo deserves our support today.''
He went on to say that ''to a certain degree (we can) say that China with its 1.3 billion people is carrying mankind's fate on its shoulders.''
''If the country proves capable of developing a social market economy with full civil rights, this will have a huge favorable impact on the world. If not, there is a danger of social and economic crises arising in the country, with negative consequences for us all,'' Jagland said, adding that promulgation of democracy in China and elsewhere is essential to global peace.
On Liu, Jagland added, ''He has not done anything wrong. He must be released.''
Underlining Liu's detention in northwestern China, Jagland ended his speech by placing the medal and award in the empty chair Liu would have filled if he had been allowed to visit Oslo.
Liu is the third winner to be awarded while under arrest.
Anti-militarist journalist Carl von Ossietzky, who got the prize in 1935, was imprisoned and spent time in a concentration camp in Germany and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi got it in 1991 while still under house arrest in Myanmar.
Charter 08 was inspired by Czechoslovakia's ''Charter 77,'' published in 1977 by Czech and Slovak intellectuals that called for an end to one-party rule by the Communist Party and the establishment of a human rights-based system of law and democracy.
Charter 08 was originally signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals and activists, many of whom have reported being harassed by Chinese security personnel for their endorsement.
And China has reacted with very public anger against the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu, calling it an ''erroneous decision'' that is a ''flagrant intervention in (China's) judicial sovereignty.''
The foreign ministry has also threatened those that support Liu with ''consequences'' and at a press briefing earlier this week referred to the committee as ''anti-China clowns.''
Friday night, while the ceremony was still on in Oslo and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was reading out Liu's own words, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement called the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony ''political farce'' that will not succeed in diverting Chinese people from the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Spokeswoman Jiang Yu added China ''resolutely opposes any country or individual'' using the award to interfere in China's judicial sovereignty and added the ''plot of some people'' will not succeed.
Beijing earlier applied diplomatic pressure on other countries, including Japan, not to send representatives to the award ceremony, and 19 nations reportedly declined to attend.
Determined to keep the majority of Chinese in the dark about the ceremony honoring Liu, China blocked scores of websites, including the Nobel Prize's official site and censored news from international news outlets reporting on the Nobel awards.
The Friday ceremony was broadcast live by webcast around the world, but the Nobel committee's website was blocked in China as were those of international news outlets, including CNN and BBC, that had featured extensive coverage of the awards and Liu and tried Friday to broadcast the ceremony in Oslo.
With even TV news broadcasts of stories related to Liu blacked out on-air, Chinese without the know-how to circumvent China's sophisticated Internet censorship will only have access to the by-now daily criticism of the awards published in state-run media.
China also stepped up on its harassment of activists and dissidents, human rights groups reported and Internet blogs and forums have been scrubbed of all comment that does not follow the Chinese government's line against the Peace Prize going to a Chinese citizen for the first time.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Dec. 10, 2010)
Liu, the 2010 winner for his part in writing the democratic manifesto ''Charter 08'' that called for sweeping political change in China, was unable to attend as he is still serving an 11-year jail term for ''inciting subversion of state power'' in China.
He was taken from his home in December 2008, just before the release of Charter 08, and given the jail term on Christmas Day last year.
In February, Liu's appeal against his conviction was turned down by a Beijing high court that upheld the sentence.
His wife, Liu Xia, was also unable to represent him despite having expressed her desire to do so as she was held under heavy police surveillance in Beijing.
Among the 1,000 guests at the Oslo ceremony were several Chinese dissidents who live overseas or who had managed to make the trip from China, Hong Kong or Macao on their own.
In China, the government cracked down on the dissident community and supporters of Liu in the aftermath of the award announcement in October, including preventing many from traveling abroad in a bid to prevent them from attending Friday's ceremony on the Norwegian capital.
But in Hong Kong, about 400 people gathered outside the Legislature building Friday night to witness the ceremony.
Watching a live broadcast via a big screen outside the building, the crowd applauded along with the invited guests in Oslo's City Hall.
Liu, born in 1955, has been detained repeatedly by Chinese authorities over two decades of activism that included involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.
In announcing this year's winner of the prestigious Peace Prize, Thorbjoern Jagland, head of the Nobel Committee, said Liu had, for more than two decades, been a strong spokesman for application of fundamental human rights in China and called him the ''foremost symbol'' of that struggle.
A description of Liu on the Nobel Prize website says he was awarded the prize ''for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.''
Friday night Jagland added, ''We regret that the laureate is not present here today. He is in isolation in a prison in northeast China. Nor can the Laureate's wife Liu Xia or his closest relatives be here with us. No medal or diploma will therefore be presented here today. This fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate...this is why Liu Xiaobo deserves our support today.''
He went on to say that ''to a certain degree (we can) say that China with its 1.3 billion people is carrying mankind's fate on its shoulders.''
''If the country proves capable of developing a social market economy with full civil rights, this will have a huge favorable impact on the world. If not, there is a danger of social and economic crises arising in the country, with negative consequences for us all,'' Jagland said, adding that promulgation of democracy in China and elsewhere is essential to global peace.
On Liu, Jagland added, ''He has not done anything wrong. He must be released.''
Underlining Liu's detention in northwestern China, Jagland ended his speech by placing the medal and award in the empty chair Liu would have filled if he had been allowed to visit Oslo.
Liu is the third winner to be awarded while under arrest.
Anti-militarist journalist Carl von Ossietzky, who got the prize in 1935, was imprisoned and spent time in a concentration camp in Germany and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi got it in 1991 while still under house arrest in Myanmar.
Charter 08 was inspired by Czechoslovakia's ''Charter 77,'' published in 1977 by Czech and Slovak intellectuals that called for an end to one-party rule by the Communist Party and the establishment of a human rights-based system of law and democracy.
Charter 08 was originally signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals and activists, many of whom have reported being harassed by Chinese security personnel for their endorsement.
And China has reacted with very public anger against the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu, calling it an ''erroneous decision'' that is a ''flagrant intervention in (China's) judicial sovereignty.''
The foreign ministry has also threatened those that support Liu with ''consequences'' and at a press briefing earlier this week referred to the committee as ''anti-China clowns.''
Friday night, while the ceremony was still on in Oslo and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was reading out Liu's own words, the Chinese Foreign Ministry in a statement called the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony ''political farce'' that will not succeed in diverting Chinese people from the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Spokeswoman Jiang Yu added China ''resolutely opposes any country or individual'' using the award to interfere in China's judicial sovereignty and added the ''plot of some people'' will not succeed.
Beijing earlier applied diplomatic pressure on other countries, including Japan, not to send representatives to the award ceremony, and 19 nations reportedly declined to attend.
Determined to keep the majority of Chinese in the dark about the ceremony honoring Liu, China blocked scores of websites, including the Nobel Prize's official site and censored news from international news outlets reporting on the Nobel awards.
The Friday ceremony was broadcast live by webcast around the world, but the Nobel committee's website was blocked in China as were those of international news outlets, including CNN and BBC, that had featured extensive coverage of the awards and Liu and tried Friday to broadcast the ceremony in Oslo.
With even TV news broadcasts of stories related to Liu blacked out on-air, Chinese without the know-how to circumvent China's sophisticated Internet censorship will only have access to the by-now daily criticism of the awards published in state-run media.
China also stepped up on its harassment of activists and dissidents, human rights groups reported and Internet blogs and forums have been scrubbed of all comment that does not follow the Chinese government's line against the Peace Prize going to a Chinese citizen for the first time.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Dec. 10, 2010)
