BEIJING – Imprisoned Chinese democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo yesterday won the Nobel Peace Prize – an award that drew furious condemnation from the authoritarian government and calls from world leaders including President Barack Obama for Liu’s quick release.
Chinese state media blacked out the news and Chinese government censors blocked Nobel Prize reports, which highlighted Liu’s calls for peaceful political change, from Internet websites. China declared the decision would harm its relations with Norway and promptly summoned Oslo’s ambassador to Beijing to make a formal protest.
In Oslo, China’s ambassador to Norway met with a state secretary at Norway’s Foreign Ministry, ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund said.The Norwegian officials explained that the Peace Prize committee is independent of the government and that Norway wanted to maintain good relations with China, Imerslund said.
This year’s Peace Prize followed a long tradition of honouring dissidents around the world and was the first Nobel for China’s dissident community since it resurfaced after the Communists launched economic but not political reforms three decades ago.
Liu, 54, was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for subversion. The Nobel committee said he was the first to be honoured while still in prison, although other Nobel winners have been under house arrest, or imprisoned before the prize.
Other dissidents to win the Peace Prize include German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa in 1983 and Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.The Nobel committee praised Liu’s pacifist approach, ignoring threats by Chinese diplomats even before the announcement that such a decision would result in strained ties with Norway. Liu has been an ardent advocate of peaceful, gradual political change.
The Nobel committee cited Liu’s participation in the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989 and the Charter 08 document he recently co-authored, which called for greater freedom in China and an end to the Communist Party’s political dominance.
Obama said in a statement that Liu “has sacrificed his freedom for his beliefs” and is “an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and nonviolent means”.
“We call on the Chinese government to release Mr Liu as soon as possible,” Obama said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the award, calling Liu “a brave man”. Her spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel hoped Liu would be released from prison to accept the Peace Prize in person.
Chinese authorities would not allow access to Liu yesterday, and it was not clear if he had been told about the award.
His wife, however, expressed joy at the news. Surrounded by police at their Beijing apartment, Liu Xia was not allowed out to meet reporters.
But she issued a statement through Freedom Now, a Washington-based rights group, saying she was grateful to the Nobel committee.
“It is a true honour for him and one for which I know he would say he is not worthy,” she said, thanking former Czech Republic
President Vaclav Havel and two former Nobel Peace Prize winners – Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and South African Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu – for nominating her husband.
“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 planned to go today to deliver the news to Liu at his prison, 300 miles from Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry quickly criticised the Nobel decision, saying the award should been used instead to promote international friendship and disarmament.
“Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law,” spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement. Honouring him “runs completely counter to the principle of the prize and also desecrates the Peace Prize”. (AP)