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|
Biodun@bbcnews.com
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Chinaâs Tirades Are Partly Aimed at Home Audience
Topic: nobel peace prize, bbc news, bio
By ANDREW JACOBS for the BBC'S BIODUN IGINLAPublished: December 10, 2010BEIJING — As much of the world on Friday focused their eyes on the empty seat in Oslo that starkly represented the absence of the Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, a lone Chinese blogger posted the image of a chair on the country’s most popular microblogging site. Within minutes, it had been deleted by a censor’s unseen hand. That small gesture of solidarity with Mr. Liu, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for “subversion of state power,” is largely emblematic of China’s sweeping effort to quash any expression of sympathy for a man whose plight has captivated the world. All mentions of the pageantry at the award ceremony on Friday were scrubbed from the Chinese Internet, and the relatively small number of people who have access to overseas news outlets such as BBC and CNN saw their television screens go black in the days leading up the ceremony. On Friday night, the most discussed topics on Sina, the largest news portal, included plunging temperatures and flight delays at Beijing’s airport. To those outside China, the government’s response to the Norwegian committee’s decision to give Mr. Liu the Nobel Peace Prize was remarkable for its bombast and audacity. Beijing dispatched its diplomats to warn countries against sending envoys to the ceremony, while the Foreign Ministry and state media issued a steady drumbeat of invective, describing the prize as a Western plot to hold back a rising China and branding the award’s supporters as “clowns.” On Friday, Global Times, a populist tabloid affiliated with the party-owned People’s Daily, called the event a “political farce” and Oslo a “cult center.” But while such outbursts may have provoked snickers around the world, the stern-faced men who run China’s government may have the last laugh. Minxin Pei, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California, said those who focus solely on the damage done to Beijing’s global image are missing the point. In the end, he said, the only opinions that matter are those held by China’s 1.3 billion citizens. “After Tiananmen, China suffered three years of international isolation, but it recovered,” he said, referring to the violent crackdown of pro-democracy protesters in 1989. “The regime’s approach to the Nobel was strategic. They know the world will come calling again because China and its economy cannot be ignored for long.” After the prize was announced, China’s censors promptly took measures to stymie the spread of the news via the Internet and text messaging, while police agents began detaining and harassing liberal colleagues and supporters. But once they realized they could not control the debate beyond their nation’s borders from seeping into China, Mr. Pei and other analysts say, senior leaders decided to tailor their message to the domestic audience. Although the Chinese government has become increasingly adept at controlling information available to its 440 million Internet users, several people with knowledge of the government’s deliberations said the Nobel Prizepresented propaganda officials with a daunting challenge: how to smear what many ordinary Chinese see as honor, without fanning interest in Mr. Liu. Within a few days of the announcement, China’s Politburo met to complete a game plan: Mr. Liu would be painted as a traitor and the Nobel committee’s decision would be officially labeled a “plot by Western enemy forces, headed by the United States,” according to a veteran journalist at a party-run media outlet who had knowledge of the deliberations. Wielding rhetoric redolent of the Maoist era, a succession of commentaries soon appeared that played on nationalistic sentiment by highlighting Mr. Liu’s affiliation with an American pro-democracy group. Others pulled quotes from an interview he gave to a Hong Kong magazine in 1988 in which he described colonialism as the antidote to China’s problems. (Supporters say his remarks were incendiary to make a point about China’s dysfunction.) In every article about him, Mr. Liu was described as a criminal who had been tried and convicted by the nation’s justice system. At the same time, the censors assiduously removed information about Mr. Liu not approved by the propaganda ministry, including any mention at all of Charter 08, the pro-democracy manifesto that he helped shape and that led to his conviction. The intense media controls appear to have had the desired effect. According to the veteran party journalist, an official survey of university students taken since the prize was awarded found that 85 percent said they knew nothing about Mr. Liu and Charter 08. Although it is not clear exactly when the survey was taken, that figure was partly borne out Friday in conversations with more than three dozen people across the capital, many of them students at two of the country’s top universities. One student said she thought the Nobel recipient was the Dalai Lama (he won in 1989) and another insisted that the award ceremony had long since taken place. Most said they had no idea who Mr. Liu was, but a handful quietly voiced support for him and his ideas. Even if they did not know his name, those who were aware that a Chinese citizen was the recipient said they agreed with the government that his selection was a plot to embarrass China. Xiao Feng, 27, said she thought the recipient had probably done something to harm the nation. “I think this year’s prize is a little bit unfair,” she said. “From what I can tell, its purpose is to humiliate China.”
Posted by biginla
at 1:55 AM GMT
China anger at 'farce' of Liu Xiaobo Nobel Peace Prize
Topic: nobel peace prize, bbc news, bio
10 December 2010 Last updated at 14:38 ETNobel chairman Thorbjorn Jagland presents the prize Courtesy: Nobelprize.org Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prizeby Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News China has said the awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is a "political farce". China's foreign ministry said the move by the prize committee in Oslo "does not represent the wish of the majority of the people in the world". There were standing ovations at the ceremony in Norway for Mr Liu, who was represented only by an empty chair. The committee's chairman called for the immediate release of the dissident. Thorbjorn Jagland praised China for lifting millions of people out of poverty, calling it an "extraordinary achievement". But he warned China that its new status as a leading world power meant Beijing "must regard criticism as positive". In response, the foreign ministry in Beijing said in a statement: "We resolutely oppose any country or any person using the Nobel Peace Prize to interfere with China's internal affairs or infringe upon China's legal sovereignty." China says that Mr Liu is a criminal, and insists that giving him a prize is an insult to China's judicial system. Beijing has also waged a campaign in recent weeks to discredit the Nobel prize. 'China's Mandela'During the award ceremony in Oslo, Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read out a statement that Mr Liu had made in court during his trial in December 2009. Continue reading the main storyWhy China considers Liu Xiaobo a threat- 1989: leading activist in Tiananmen Square protests for democratisation; jailed for two years
- 1996: spoke out against China's one-party system; sent to labour camp for three years
- 2008: co-author of Charter 08, calling for a new constitution, an independent judiciary and freedom of expression
- 2009: jailed for subversion for 11 years; verdict says he "had the goal of subverting our country's people's democratic dictatorship and socialist system. The effects were malign and he is a major criminal".
"I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future, free China," said the statement. "For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme." Honouring the new laureate, Mr Jagland placed the Nobel diploma on the empty chair marking Mr Liu's absence. He compared China's anger at the award to the outcry over peace prizes awarded to other dissidents of their times, including South African archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He said Mr Liu was dedicating his prize to "the lost souls from 4 June", those who died in the pro-democracy protests on that date in Tiananmen Square in 1989. "We can say (Mr) Liu reminds us of Nelson Mandela," he said. The former South African president received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. The UN says it had information that China detained at least 20 activists ahead of the ceremony. Continue reading the main storyAt the sceneMike WooldridgeBBC News, Oslo An image of Liu Xiaobo is being thrown on to the facade of the Grand Hotel in the centre of Oslo as night falls, after the city honoured this year's Nobel peace laureate. For the first time in more than 70 years the peace prize ceremony has been essentially symbolic, with the recipient in jail and none of the close family members who would be entitled to receive the prize on his behalf allowed to leave China. The most symbolic moment of all was when the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, placed Liu Xiaobo's medal on a chair on the podium that had been deliberately left empty. It has been one of the most controversial peace prizes for years. To China, the award has diminished this prestigious prize. But to the Nobel committee, China's diplomatic offensive over the award only justifies the choice of Liu Xiaobo as a deserving winner. A further 120 cases of house arrest, travel restriction, forced relocation and other acts of intimidation have been reported. The BBC's English and Chinese language websites have been blocked, and BBC TV coverage was blacked out inside China during the ceremony. Mr Liu, one of China's leading dissidents, is serving an 11-year sentence in a jail in north-east China for state subversion. Police are stationed outside his home in Beijing where his wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest. Chinese pressureGeir Lundestad, the director of the Nobel committee, said 48 foreign delegations attended the Oslo ceremony, 16 countries - including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan - turned down the invitation and the Chinese returned their invitation unopened. Analysts say many of those who stayed away did so as a result of Chinese pressure. However, Serbia - which had previously said it would not attend - announced on Friday that it would be sending a representative. Beijing had sought to prevent anyone travelling from China to Oslo to collect the prize on Mr Liu's behalf. Continue reading the main storyCountries that boycotted the ceremony- China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan
- Russia
- Venezuela, Cuba
- Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Algeria
- Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka
The BBC's Mike Wooldridge in Oslo says that to the Nobel committee, Liu Xiaobo symbolises a message it was keen to send to China - that its growing economic strength and power do not exempt it from universal standards of human rights. On the other hand, China said the committee had chosen a criminal convicted under Chinese law to serve the interests of certain Western countries, our correspondent says. Charter 08Liu Xiaobo first came to prominence when he took part in the Tiananmen protests. He was sent to prison for nearly two years for his role, and has been a critic of the Chinese government ever since. He was given the 11-year prison sentence in December 2009 for inciting the subversion of state power, a charge which came after he co-authored a document known as Charter 08. The document calls openly for political reforms in China, such as a separation of powers and legislative democracy. This year marks the first time since 1936 that the Nobel Peace Prize, now worth $1.5m (£950,000), was not handed out. The BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from the prison holding Liu Xiaobo UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Thursday again called for Mr Liu to be released "as soon as possible". Last year's peace prize winner, US President Barack Obama, has also called for his release. As well as putting Liu Xia, the Nobel laureate's wife, under house arrest, the authorities have put pressure on other activists and dissidents. Some have been prevented from leaving the country, while others have been forced to leave their homes for the next few days, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. One of those to disappear, it said, was Zhang Zuhua, the man who co-wrote Charter 08. (Required)Name(Required)Your E-mail address(Required)Town & Country(Required)Your telephone number(Required)In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Terms and conditions Send
Posted by biginla
at 1:20 AM GMT
Nobel Peace Prize 2010 for Liu Xiaobo--presented by the BBC's Biodun Iginla
Topic: nobel peace prize, bbc news, bio
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Award Ceremony SpeechPresentation Speech by Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo, 10 December 2010. Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu 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." This was the first paragraph of the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s announcement on the 8th of October of the award of this year’s Peace Prize. We regret that the Laureate is not present here today. He is in isolation in a prison in north-east 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. We congratulate Liu Xiaobo on this year’s Peace Prize. There have been a number of previous occasions when the Laureate has been prevented from attending. This has in fact been the case with several awards which have proved in the light of history to have been most significant and honourable. Even when the Laureate has come, he or she has several times been severely condemned by the authorities of his or her own country. There was a great deal of trouble in 1935, when the Committee gave the award to Carl von Ossietzky. Hitler was furious, and prohibited all Germans from accepting any Nobel Prize. King Haakon did not attend the ceremony. Ossietzky did not come to Oslo, and died a little over a year later. There was considerable outrage in Moscow when Andrej Sakharov received his Prize in 1975. He, too, was prevented from receiving the award in person. He sent his wife. The same thing happened to Lech Walesa in 1983. The Burmese authorities were furious when Aung San Suu Kyi received the Peace Prize in 1991. Once again, the Laureate could not come to Oslo. In 2003, Shirin Ebadi received the Nobel Peace Prize. She came. Much could be said of the reaction of the Iranian authorities, but the Iranian Ambassador did in fact attend the ceremony. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has given four Prizes to South Africa. All the Laureates came to Oslo, but the awards to Albert Lutuli in 1960 and to Desmond Tutu in 1984 provoked great outrage in the apartheid regime in South Africa, before the applause broke out thanks to the awards to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk in 1993.
The point of these awards has of course never been to offend anyone. The Nobel Committee’s intention has been to say something about the relationship between human rights, democracy and peace. And it has been important to remind the world that the rights so widely enjoyed today were fought for and won by persons who took great risks. They did so for others. That is why Liu Xiaobo deserves our support. Although none of the Committee’s members have ever met Liu, we feel that we know him. We have studied him closely over a long period of time. Liu was born on the 28th of December 1955 in Changchun in China’s Jilin province. He took a Bachelor’s degree in literature at Jilin University, and a Master’s degree and a PhD at Beijing Normal University, where he also taught. Stays abroad included visits to Oslo, Hawaii, and Columbia University, New York. In 1989 he returned home to take part in the dawning democracy movement. On the 2nd of June he and some friends started a hunger strike on Tiananmen Square to protest against the state of emergency that had been declared. They issued a six-point democratic manifesto, written by Liu, opposing dictatorship and in favour of democracy. Liu was opposed to any physical struggle against the authorities on the part of the students; he tried to find a peaceful solution to the tension between the students and the government. Non-violence was already figuring prominently in his message. On the 4th of June he and his friends tried to prevent a clash between the army and the students. He was only partially successful. Many lives were lost, most of them outside Tiananmen Square. Liu has told his wife that he would like this year’s Peace Prize to be dedicated to "the lost souls from the 4th of June." It is a pleasure for us to fulfil his wish. Liu has said that "The greatness of non-violent resistance is that even as man is faced with forceful tyranny and the resulting suffering, the victim responds to hate with love, to prejudice with tolerance, to arrogance with humility, to humiliation with dignity, and to violence with reason." Tiananmen became a turning-point in Liu’s life. In 1996, Liu was sentenced to three years in a labour camp for "rumour-mongering and slander." He was president of the independent Chinese PEN-centre from 2003 to 2007. Liu has written nearly 800 essays, 499 of them since 2005. He was one of the chief architects behind Charter 08, which was made known on the 10th of December 2008, which was, in the words of the document’s Preamble, on the occasion of "the one hundredth anniversary of China’s first Constitution, the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Democracy Wall, and the 10th anniversary of the Chinese government’s signature of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." Charter 08 defends fundamental human rights and has in due course been signed by several thousand persons both in China itself and abroad. On the 25th of December 2009, Liu was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment and two years’ loss of political rights for, in the words of the sentence, "incitement to the overthrow of the state power and socialist system and the people’s democratic dictatorship." Liu has consistently claimed that the sentence violates both China’s own constitution and fundamental human rights. There are many dissidents in China, and their opinions differ on many points. The severe punishment imposed on Liu made him more than a central spokesman for human rights. Practically overnight, he became the very symbol, both in China and internationally, of the struggle for such rights in China. Your Majesties, ladies and gentlemen, During the cold war, the connections between peace and human rights were disputed. Since the end of the cold war, however, peace researchers and political scientists have almost without exception underlined how close those connections are. This is, allegedly, one of the most "robust" findings they have arrived at. Democracies may go to war against dictatorships, and have certainly waged colonial wars, but there is, apparently, not a single example of a democracy having gone to war against another democracy. The deeper "fraternity between nations" which Alfred Nobel mentions in his will, and which is a prerequisite for real peace, can hardly be created without human rights and democracy. There are scarcely any examples in world history of a great power achieving such rapid growth over such a long period of time as China. Since 1978, year by year, decade after decade, the country’s growth rate has stood at 10 percent or more. A few years ago the country’s output was greater than Germany’s; this year it exceeded Japan’s. China has thus achieved the world’s second largest gross national product. The USA’s national product is still three times greater than China’s, but while China is continuing its advance, the USA is in serious difficulties. Economic success has lifted several hundred million Chinese out of poverty. For the reduction in the number of poor people in the world, China must be given the main credit. We can to a certain degree 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 favourable 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. Historical experience gives us reason to believe that continuing rapid economic growth presupposes opportunities for free research, thinking and debate. And moreover: without freedom of expression, corruption, the abuse of power, and misrule will develop. Every power system must be counterbalanced by popularly elected control, free media, and the right of individual citizens to criticise. More or less authoritarian states may have long periods of rapid economic growth, but it is no coincidence that nearly all the richest countries in the world are democratic. Democracy mobilises new human and technological resources. China’s new status entails increased responsibility. China must be prepared for criticism and regard it as positive – as an opportunity for improvement. This must be the case wherever there is great power. We have all formed opinions on the role of the USA through the years. Friends and allies criticised the country both for the Vietnam War and for the lack of civil rights for the coloured people. Many Americans were opposed to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martin Luther King in 1964. Looking back, we can see that the USA grew stronger when the African-American people obtained their rights. Many will ask whether China’s weakness – for all the strength the country is currently showing – is not manifested in the need to imprison a man for eleven years merely for expressing his opinions on how his country should be governed. This weakness finds clear expression in the sentence on Liu, where it is underlined as especially serious that he spread his opinions on the Internet. But those who fear technological advances have every reason to fear the future. Information technology can not be abolished. It will continue to open societies. As Russia’s President Dmitrij Medvedev put it in an address to the Duma: "The new information technology gives us an opportunity to become connected with the world. The world and society are growing more open even if the ruling class does not like it." No doubt Medvedev had the fate of the Soviet Union in mind. Compulsory uniformity and control of thought prevented the country from participating in the technological revolution which took place in the 1970s and 80s. The system broke down. The country would have stood to gain a great deal more from entering into a dialogue at an early stage with people like Andrej Sakharov. Your Majesties, ladies and gentlemen, Today neither the nation-state nor a majority within the nation-state has unlimited authority. Human rights limit what the nation-state and the majority in a nation-state can do. This must apply to all states that are members of the United Nations and who have acceded to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. China has signed and even ratified several of the UN’s and the ILO’s major international conventions on human rights. It is interesting that China has accepted the supranational conflict-resolving mechanism of the WTO. China’s own constitution upholds fundamental human rights. Article 35 of the country’s constitution thus 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." Article 41 begins by stating that citizens "…have the right to criticise and make suggestions regarding any state organ or functionary." Liu has exercised his civil rights. He has done nothing wrong. He must therefore be released! In the past 100 to 150 years, human rights and democracy have gained an ever-stronger position in the world. And with them, peace. This can be clearly seen in Europe, where so many wars were fought, and whose colonial powers started so many wars around the world. Europe today is on the whole a continent of "peace". Decolonization after the Second World War gave a number of countries, first in Asia and then in Africa, the chance to govern themselves with respect for basic human rights. With India in the lead, many of them seized the opportunity. Over the latest decades, we have seen how democracy has consolidated its position in Latin America and in Central and Eastern Europe. Many countries in the Muslim part of the world are treading the same path: Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia. Several other countries are in the process of opening up their political systems. The human rights activists in China are defenders of the international order and the main trends in the global community. Viewed in that light, they are thus not dissidents, but representatives of the main lines of development in today’s world. Liu denies that criticism of the Communist Party is the same as offending China and the Chinese people. He argues that "Even if the Communist Party is the ruling party, it cannot be equated with the country, let alone with the nation and its culture." Changes in China can take time, a very long time: political reforms should, as Liu says, " be gradual, peaceful, orderly and controlled." China has had enough of attempts at revolutionary change. They only lead to chaos. But as Liu also writes, "An enormous transformation towards pluralism in society has already taken place, and official authority is no longer able to fully control the whole society." However strong the power of the regime may appear to be, every single individual must do his best to live, in his words, "an honest life with dignity."
The answer from the Chinese authorities is to claim that this year’s Peace Prize humiliates China, and to give very derogatory descriptions of Liu. History shows many examples of political leaders playing on nationalist feelings and attempting to demonize holders of contrary opinions. They soon become foreign agents. This has sometimes happened in the name of democracy and freedom, but almost always with a tragic outcome. We recognise this in the rhetoric of the struggle against terrorism: "You are either for me or against me." Such undemocratic methods as torture and imprisonment without sentence have been used in the name of freedom. This has led to more polarisation of the world and harmed the fight against terrorism. Liu Xiaobo is an optimist, despite his many years in prison. In his closing appeal to the court on the 23rd of December 2009, he said: "I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme." Isaac Newton once said, "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." When we are able to look ahead today, it is because we are standing on the shoulders of the many men and women who over the years – often at great risk – have stood up for what they believed in and thus made our freedom possible. Therefore: while others at this time are counting their money, focussing exclusively on their short-term national interests, or remaining indifferent, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has once again chosen to support those who fight – for us all. We congratulate Liu Xiaobo on the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010. His views will in the long run strengthen China. We extend to him and to China our very best wishes for the years ahead. Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2010TO CITE THIS PAGE:
Posted by biginla
at 1:10 AM GMT
Friday, 10 December 2010
China stands firm against Liu Xiaobo Nobel prize
Topic: nobel peace prize, bbc news, bio
10 December 2010 Last updated at 04:36 ETby Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News. Xian reported from Beijing. Nobel Ceremony 1200GMT: Courtesy Nobelprize.org
Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize committee is preparing to host its award ceremony, amid continuing anger from the Chinese government at this year's winner. Dissident Liu Xiaobo - jailed in north-east China for political offences - will not be in Norway to get his prize. China has waged a wide-ranging campaign to discredit the award in recent weeks. Ahead of the ceremony, the UN said it had information that China had detained at least 20 activists and was making efforts to block Western media. A further 120 cases of house arrest, travel restriction, forced relocation and other acts of intimidation have been reported. The BBC's Damian Grammaticas, outside Liu Xiaobo's home in Beijing, says uniformed and plainclothes officers guarding the compound. Mr Liu's wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest. Intense politicsContinue reading the main storyWhy China considers Liu Xiaobo a threat- 1989: leading activist in Tiananmen Square protests for democratisation; jailed for two years
- 1996: spoke out against China's one-party system; sent to labour camp for three years
- 2008: co-author of Charter 08, calling for a new constitution, an independent judiciary and freedom of expression;
- 2009: jailed for subversion for 11 years; verdict says he "had the goal of subverting our country's people's democratic dictatorship and socialist system. The effects were malign and he is a major criminal".
Of about 50 countries invited to the Nobel ceremony, almost a third are staying away, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, many as a result of Chinese pressure. However, Serbia - which had previously said it would not attend - announced on Friday that it would be sending a representative. The Serbian government, which has warm relations with China, had come under pressure from within the European Union and from political parties and civil society groups in Serbia to attend. Beijing has sought to prevent anyone travelling from China to Oslo to collect the prize on Mr Liu's behalf. And a Chinese group of academics launched their own award, the Confucius Peace Prize, in the Chinese capital on Thursday. Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland has said the award should not be seen as a statement against China. The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says that the intense politics surrounding this year's Nobel peace laureate will overshadow the ceremony itself. Continue reading the main storyChina press commentsChina's English-language newspapers had big front-page articles about the Nobel Peace Prize - and China's objection to the award. But the issue was given less prominence in Chinese-language newspapers. The two most important stories on the front page of the Beijing Morning Post were about vehicle tax and private kindergartens. There was, however, a commentary piece in the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's newspaper. It ran an editorial attacking the Nobel Peace Prize committee, saying it faced an "unprecedented embarrassing situation". But it also felt compelled to defend China's position in not allowing Liu Xiaobo to attend the prize ceremony. "No country in the world that is governed by laws would allow a high-sounding criminal to leave and 'pick up an award'," said the commentary. And the Chinese-language Global Times suggested there was great division among countries about whether the award was a good thing. To the Nobel Committee, Liu Xiaobo symbolises a message it was keen to send to China - that its growing economic strength and power do not exempt it from universal standards of human rights. On the other hand, China says the committee has chosen a criminal convicted under Chinese law to serve the interests of certain Western countries, our correspondent says. Liu Xiaobo first came to prominence when he took part in the 1989 protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He was sent to prison for nearly two years for his role, and has been a critic of the Chinese government ever since. He was given an 11-year prison sentence in December 2009 for inciting the subversion of state power, a charge which came after he co-authored a document known as Charter 08. The document calls openly for political reforms in China, such as a separation of powers and legislative democracy. This year marks the first time since 1936 that the Nobel Peace Prize, now worth $1.5m, will not be handed out. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Thursday again called for Mr Liu to be released "as soon as possible". Continue reading the main storyCountries boycotting Nobel ceremony- China, Vietnam, Kazakhstan
- Russia
- Venezuela, Cuba
- Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Algeria
- Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Egypt
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka
The Chinese government has been furious about the award ever since it was announced in October that Liu Xiaobo had won it. Beijing says that Mr Liu is a criminal, and insists that giving him a prize is an insult to China's judicial system. As well as putting Liu Xia, the Nobel laureate's wife, under house arrest, the authorities have put pressure on other activists and dissidents. Some have been prevented from leaving the country, while others have been forced to leave their homes for the next few days, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders. One of those to disappear, it said, was Zhang Zuhua, the man who co-wrote Charter 08. The BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from the prison holding Liu Xiaobo Meanwhile, the BBC website appears to have been blocked in China. Users in several parts of the country have reported that they are unable to access the BBC's internet site, while the BBC has noticed a steep drop in traffic from China. It is the first time the BBC's English-language website has been blocked since the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Access to other international news sites such as CNN also appears to be restricted. (Required)Name(Required)Your E-mail address(Required)Town & Country(Required)Your telephone number(Required)In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Terms and conditions Send
Posted by biginla
at 12:04 PM GMT
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Nobel panel may not hand out Liu's peace prize
Topic: nobel peace prize, bbc news, bio
by Natalie de Vallieres and Xian Wan, BBC News Analysts, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla. Natalie reported from Oslo, and Xian reported from Beijing. OSLO, Norway – The Nobel Peace Prize may not be handed out this year because no one from imprisoned award-winner Liu Xiaobo's family is likely to attend the ceremony, the award committee's spokesman said Thursday. The prestigious 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) award can only be collected by the laureate or close family members. Liu, a Chinese dissident, is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion after co-authoring an appeal calling for reforms to China's one-party political system. His wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest and subject to police escort since the award was announced last month. Norwegian Nobel Committee secretary Geir Lundestad told The Associated Press that no other relatives have announced plans to come to Oslo for the Dec. 10 ceremony. "The way it looks now, it is not likely that someone from his close family will attend," Lundestad said. "Then we will not give out the medal and the diploma during the ceremony." If that happens it will be the first time since 1936, when there was no one present to accept the medal and diploma for German journalist Carl von Ossietzky, who was seriously ill and refused permission to leave Nazi Germany. However, a representative of Ossietzky received the prize money, Lundestad said. The Nobel committee has skipped selecting a winner altogether in some years, including during World War II. Lundestad said the committee has not yet ruled out that someone from Liu's family can attend the ceremony. "If someone shows up at the last minute, it will not be a problem to change plans," he said. Liu Xiaobo has three brothers, the most publicly known being Liu Xiaoxuan, who is the youngest. A Hong Kong-based human rights group has reported that two of the brothers, as well as Liu Xiaobo's brother-in-law Liu Tong, have been unable to visit Liu in prison despite repeated requests. Friends of the couple say all of Liu's closest family members are under tight police surveillance aimed at preventing them from attending the ceremony. Liu Xiaoxuan has also been told by his employer not to go, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. When reached by phone Thursday, Liu Xiaoxuan said he was not allowed to accept interviews. China has called Liu a criminal and has pressured countries not to send representatives to the ceremony at Oslo's City Hall. Lundestad said ambassadors from Russia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Iraq have declined invitations, but didn't specify the reasons. Russian Embassy spokesman Vladimir Isupov said the Russian ambassador would not be in Norway at the time of the award ceremony. "It is not politically motivated and we do not feel we are pressured by China," he said. Lundestad said 36 ambassadors have accepted the invitation to the ceremony and 16 ambassadors have not yet replied. Some of them have asked for more time to decide, he said. Besides the award ceremony, the peace prize program includes a banquet on Dec. 10 and a concert held in the laureate's honor the next day. Organizers said Thursday that the concert will be co-hosted by actors Anne Hathaway and Denzel Washington and feature performances by Barry Manilow, Jamiroquai, A.R. Rahman and Elvis Costello among others. ___
Posted by biginla
at 3:10 PM GMT
Updated: Thursday, 18 November 2010 3:17 PM GMT
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Wife of Chinese Nobel winner detained in Beijing: US group
Topic: nobel peace prize, bbc news, bio
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The wife of the Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, is being detained in her Beijing home, the spokeswoman for a US based rights group said Sunday, citing a reliable source in Beijing. "She is currently under de facto house arrest back in her apartment in Beijing," said Beth Schwanke, legislative counsel for the US-based group Freedom Now, speaking of the dissident's wife, Liu Xia. Schwanke said that she learned of the arrest of Liu Xia, whom she said is being held incommunicado, from a reliable source in China. "We have a source who is able to confirm that this is absolutely accurate," she said. A second group, Human Rights in China, announced Sunday that it also had received word of Liu Xia's arrest and said in a statement that it "strongly urges the international community to press the Chinese authorities to immediately release Liu Xia from house arrest, free Liu Xiaobo, and free all prisoners of conscience incarcerated as a result of exercising their right of freedom of expression." Schwanke told AFP that after it was announced Friday that her husband had been awarded the Nobel prize, Liu's phone was taken away by Chinese authorities and she was detained. The detention took place after Liu Xia had been taken to see her husband in prison and permitted to tell him that he had won the Nobel. "She was taken there on Saturday and she was allowed to see him on Sunday," the spokeswoman said. "After she returned to Beijing they told her that she would not be allowed to leave her apartment," Schwanke said. "I understand that he cried and said that this is for the martyrs of Tiananmen Square," said Schwanke. "After that, she was taken back to Beijing and she was put under de facto house arrest," she said. "She's not allowed to leave her apartment and her phone has actually been destroyed. Liu, the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize, is a 54-year-old writer imprisoned since December after authoring Charter 08, a manifesto signed by thousands seeking greater rights in the communist nation.
Posted by biginla
at 9:45 PM BST
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