Liu Xiaobo, 刘晓波, Won Nobel Peace Prize 2010

刘晓波, liu xiaobo, nobel peace prize 2010, 诺贝尔和平奖 2010, 诺贝尔 和平奖 2010.Announcement of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize by Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, 8 October 2010

Pro-democracy protesters hold the picture of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with Chinese words ‘Release Liu Xiaobo’ during a demonstration outside the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong, on Oct. 8. Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for using non-violence to demand fundamental human rights in his homeland.
Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland said Mr. Liu has been a strong spokesman for more than two decades for human rights in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989 and was a leading author of Charter 08, a manifesto demanding basic human rights and political reform in China that was published on Dec. 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Mr. Jagland cited Mr. Liu’s sentencing in 2009 to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” as a key factor behind the committee’s decision this year, and the growing influence of China as the world’s second largest economy.
“China’s new status must entail increased responsibility,” said Mr. Jagland. “China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights.”

China sees red

The prize was widely rumoured to be on its way to Mr. Liu this year following last year’s surprise victory for US President Barack Obama. However, there were concerns among some that the choice could prove provocative after a Chinese deputy foreign minister warned the Nobel committee this year not to issue the prize to a Chinese dissident.
Jagland dismissed the idea that it had felt pressured from any governments. “The committee is entirely independent of the [Norwegian] government and parliament,” he said. “We have the responsibility to speak when others are not willing or able to speak.
“If we all become silent because of our own interests – economic and other interests – and because we believe it could the worsen the situation for somebody, then we are lowering the standards which have been set and accepted by the world community since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted,” he added.
‘Brave decision’
The Nobel Committee has irked the Chinese before by giving the peace prize award to the Dalai Lama in 1989. The award resulted in diplomatic tensions between China and Norway and could trigger a similar reaction this time as well, according to Kjell Magne Bondevik, Norway’s foreign minister at the time and current director of the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights.
“The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo is a correct and brave decision,” said Mr. Bondevik. “Brave because we must expect reactions from the Chinese authorities.”
It is yet unclear whether Liu or his wife will be able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo in December.
Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of 30 members of the US House of Representatives sent a letter to Obama asking him to request the release of Mr. Liu and Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese human rights lawyer who disappeared in April 2010, when the president meets next month with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G20 summit in Seoul, South Korea.
Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the “fraternity between nations” of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.
Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world’s second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened.
China’s new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article 35 of China’s constitution lays down 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”. In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China’s citizens.
For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China’s own constitution and fundamental human rights.
The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.