Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese rights activist
Oslo: Jailed Chinese dissident and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was on Friday named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in an apparent snub to Chinese government opposition against any move to recognize persons or groups exposing the autocratic and authoritative governance in the Asian nation.
Xiaobo, 54, became the first Chinese citizen to win the Peace Prize, which was awarded to him “for for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.
Currently serving an 11-year jail term in his home country, Xiaobo is among the many people campaigning for human rights in China and the Nobel Prize is expected to be a major boost to the beleaguered rights movement in the Asian country.
Xiaobo’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize had drawn criticism from the Chinese government, which had stated in no uncertain terms that any recognition to the jailed activist will not go down well with China and hinted that such a move could hamper ties between the two nations.
The award is being viewed as a rebuke to China’s refusal to accommodate dissident voices and yield to more democracy and freedom of expression in the country, which is now among the top world global economic powers but continue scoring poorly on human rights front.
Xiaobo, a political activist, author and university professor, first came to public prominence in 1989 during the bloody suppression of protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
He actively participated in the demonstrations, for which he returned home from the United States, but was imprisoned for nearly two years soon after.
He was also banned from teaching. Xiaobo was a professor at Beijing Normal University for some time.
The activist was jailed again in 1996 for speaking out against China’s one-party political system and spent three years at a re-education-through-labour camp.
He got married to Liu Xia during this period.
As he continued voicing his dissidence against the Chinese government’s stand on various issues, including Tibet, he grabbed more international attention and awards, while drawing ire from the government back home.
His latest imprisonment came over a document, Charter 08, which was released in December 2008 and called for a new constitution in China, an independent judiciary and freedom of expression.
The document got major support in the country and to douse a growing demand for a fuller debate on the issues raised in it, the Chinese government took away Xiaobo during a late-night raid at his home two days before the document was to be published.
His family received official confirmation on his captive status more than a month later and was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment after a one-day trial last December.
The United States, speaking up for Xiaobo during the period, had said in a statement: “We call on the Government of China to release [Liu Xiaobo] immediately and to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens to peacefully express their political views.
Xiaobo’s wife is allowed to visit her husband once a month at the prison in Liaoning Province in north-east China for hour-long meetings, watched over by guards and a security camera.
Oslo: Jailed Chinese dissident and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was on Friday named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in an apparent snub to Chinese government opposition against any move to recognize persons or groups exposing the autocratic and...
Oslo: Jailed Chinese dissident and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was on Friday named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in an apparent snub to Chinese government opposition against any move to recognize persons or groups exposing the autocratic and authoritative governance in the Asian nation.
Xiaobo, 54, became the first Chinese citizen to win the Peace Prize, which was awarded to him “for for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.
Currently serving an 11-year jail term in his home country, Xiaobo is among the many people campaigning for human rights in China and the Nobel Prize is expected to be a major boost to the beleaguered rights movement in the Asian country.
Xiaobo’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize had drawn criticism from the Chinese government, which had stated in no uncertain terms that any recognition to the jailed activist will not go down well with China and hinted that such a move could hamper ties between the two nations.
The award is being viewed as a rebuke to China’s refusal to accommodate dissident voices and yield to more democracy and freedom of expression in the country, which is now among the top world global economic powers but continue scoring poorly on human rights front.
Xiaobo, a political activist, author and university professor, first came to public prominence in 1989 during the bloody suppression of protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
He actively participated in the demonstrations, for which he returned home from the United States, but was imprisoned for nearly two years soon after.
He was also banned from teaching. Xiaobo was a professor at Beijing Normal University for some time.
The activist was jailed again in 1996 for speaking out against China’s one-party political system and spent three years at a re-education-through-labour camp.
He got married to Liu Xia during this period.
As he continued voicing his dissidence against the Chinese government’s stand on various issues, including Tibet, he grabbed more international attention and awards, while drawing ire from the government back home.
His latest imprisonment came over a document, Charter 08, which was released in December 2008 and called for a new constitution in China, an independent judiciary and freedom of expression.
The document got major support in the country and to douse a growing demand for a fuller debate on the issues raised in it, the Chinese government took away Xiaobo during a late-night raid at his home two days before the document was to be published.
His family received official confirmation on his captive status more than a month later and was sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment after a one-day trial last December.
The United States, speaking up for Xiaobo during the period, had said in a statement: “We call on the Government of China to release [Liu Xiaobo] immediately and to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens to peacefully express their political views.
Xiaobo’s wife is allowed to visit her husband once a month at the prison in Liaoning Province in north-east China for hour-long meetings, watched over by guards and a security camera.
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