China will "try to block" Nobel prize for dissident

[Keiji Maeda]

Thursday October 7, 2010

China will "try to block" Nobel prize for dissident

By Lucy Hornby and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will try its best to block a Nobel Peace prize for jailed Chinese writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo, his wife told Reuters ahead of the Nobel Committee's announcement on Friday. <table align="right" border="0" width="20%"><tbody><tr><td>

</td></tr><tr><td>Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, holds a photo of Liu Xiaobo during an interview in Beijing October 3, 2010. China will try its best to block a Nobel Peace prize for jailed Chinese writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo, his wife told Reuters ahead of the Nobel Committee's announcement on Friday. (REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic)
</td></tr></tbody></table> Liu is considered one of the front-runners for the prize, although the Nobel Committee often confounds expectations. Czech politician and former dissident Vaclav Havel is one of those pushing for Liu to win the prize.

The Nobel Committee will announce the winner on Friday. "This government is one that has never given reasons for its actions. It is a government that thinks there is nothing it can't do," Liu's wife, Liu Xia, told Reuters in an interview. "To get what it wants, the Communist Party will spare no effort. It will use all types of methods to block the prize or anything else that would hurt the party. They will use their money and power to get others to support them."

Liu Xiaobo was jailed for 11 years in December 2009, more than a year after his detention as lead author of Charter 08, a manifesto issued by Chinese intellectuals and activists calling for free speech and multi-party elections. He was charged with subversion of state power. The former literature professor rose to prominence as one of the leaders of a hunger strike during student protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989.

He was later jailed for 20 months and then spent three years in a "labour re-education" camp during the 1990s, as well as months under virtual house arrest. Liu Xia said she had a feeling Liu would not get the prize. Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying warned the head of the Nobel Institute against granting the prize to Liu during a visit to Oslo this summer, saying it would hurt ties between China and Norway.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said last month that Liu's actions were "diametrically opposed to the aims of the Nobel prize".

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

Copyright © 2010 Reuters

 

[General Veers]

China's Liu leads Kohl, EU in Peace Nobel race: TV


China's Liu leads Kohl, EU in Peace Nobel race: TV

Liu Xia, the wife of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, holds a photo of her husband during an interview in Beijing, October 3, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Petar Kujundzic

By Gwladys Fouche and Wojciech Moskwa
OSLO | Thu Oct 7, 2010 4:34pm EDT

OSLO (Reuters) - Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is the leading candidate to win the Nobel Peace Prize with the European Union and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl also among the contenders, Norway's main television networks said on Thursday.

The broadcasters, NRK and TV2, have a history of naming the eventual laureate in their main news programmes the night before the announcement, which comes at 0900 GMT on Friday. The European Union and Kohl -- who helped unify Germany 20 years ago after the fall of the Berlin Wall -- were not previously seen as likely candidates for the prize handed out by a discreet five-member committee in non-EU Norway.

An award to a Chinese dissident would upset Beijing by shining a powerful light on the issue of human rights in the Asian economic superpower as it seeks to play a bigger role in international affairs. Another leading candidate is Afghan women's rights campaigner Sima Samar, the broadcasters said. Both also mentioned Chinese Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer as a potential winner, although Committee Chair Thorbjoern Jagland kept his cards close to his chest when interviewed by NRK.

"We have to try to capture what is happening in the world, identify what we want to encourage and I think we are able to achieve that (with this year's prize)," said Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister in charge of the committee since 2009. Last year's choice of U.S. President Barack Obama, less than nine months into his term, triggered sharp criticism.

Nobel watchers say the panel is likely to select a more traditional laureate this year. [ID:nLDE6951X4] "It will be an interesting prize this year, as well, and one that can set the agenda," said Jagland. Other hopefuls include Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the International Criminal Court, the Democratic Voice of Burma -- an Oslo-based radio and television station focused on beaming in news to military-ruled Myanmar -- and Argentine rights group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo.

(Additional reporting by Walter Gibbs; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

 

[Sauron]

Activists challenge Beijing over Nobel prisoner


Activists challenge Beijing over Nobel prisoner

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia pose in this undated photo released by his family on October 3, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Handout

By Chris Buckley and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING | Fri Oct 15, 2010 6:42am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - About 200 Chinese dissidents and rights advocates called the Nobel Peace Prize for jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo a "splendid choice" that should push China to embrace democratic reform, challenging a clampdown on dissent.

The statement urged authorities to "immediately release the people who have been illegally detained" after Liu, serving an 11-year jail term for advocating democratic reform, received the prize and the ruling Communist Party moved to squash any efforts to voice support for him and his demands.

"Liu Xiaobo is a splendid choice for the Nobel Peace Prize," said the statement. "He has persevered in pursuing the goals of democracy and constitutional government and has set aside anger even toward those who persecute him... "In a recent series of speeches, Premier Wen Jiabao has intimated a strong desire to promote political reform. We are ready to engage actively in such an effort."

Despite Wen's comments over the past few months, the government has shown little sign of loosening its tight controls or the rule of the stability-obsessed Communist Party. A group of retired Chinese reformist officials, including a former secretary to Mao Zedong, earlier this week in an open letter urged the government to respect freedom of speech.

A closed-door Party meeting which began in Beijing on Friday is expected to focus economic issues rather than specifically political ones. Several signers of the petition said it was unlikely to move the Chinese government. But the statement shows that Beijing, wary of any challenges to Party control, will continue facing troublesome protests from supporters of Liu.

"It may not have any impact on them, but we're signing it for the sake of our own conscience," said Li Datong, a former journalist who signed the petition. "That is also important, to show that we can stand by what we believe in." China says Liu is a criminal, and that giving him the prize was an "obscenity." The award has strained China's ties with Norway, home to the Nobel Peace Prize committee, even though the government there has no say in who receives it.

Xu Youyu, who helped write the statement, said some of the signers had already been warned or questioned by their employers. "I don't think we're expecting any concessions on this now, but in the long-term I'm more hopeful that acts like this can make a difference," Xu said by telephone.

Another signatory, the Beijing-based rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, said it was insulting for the government to cast foreign supporters of Liu as lacking respect for Chinese law. "In fact, it's the Communist Party that lacks respect for the law. For them to turn around and accuse others of that is absurd and shameless," Pu said.

Liu's wife, Liu Xia, has been held under virtual house arrest since the prize was announced. Other activists have complained of harassment, and world leaders have urged China to release Liu. "We ask that legal procedures aimed at freeing Liu Xiaobo be undertaken without delay, and that Liu and his wife be permitted to travel to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize," the dissidents wrote in their open letter, circulated on-line.

(Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by Nick Macfie)