On Oct. 8th it was announced that imprisoned and dissident Chinese Scholar Liu Xiaobo was to be awarded the 2010 nobel Peace Prize. Soon after it was announced ajoke made the rounds among Chinese twitter users able to syrmount the Great Firewall that usually blocks the website: "I don't know who this Mr.Liu is," went the gag, "but as a Chinese, I'm very happy for a fellow citizen to win the Nobel Prize. He must be one of our great party members, a great official... and a great leader who does great deeds for his people." Liu Xiaobo is of course nothing like the joke claimed, he is not even a Communist Party member. He is a literary critic, poet, and one of China's most vocal and persistent dissidents. In 1989 he helped lead the Tiananmen Square democracy movement that ended in bloodshed. Liu, now 54, has spent nearly his entire life since that incident either under surveilance or in jail. This article is especially timely because yesterday in Oslo, Norway he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absence, an empty chair was placed on the stage there was no family member there to accept the award on his behalf. His wife too, Liu Xia and some of his friends are under house arrest in China. (Para 1)
Unlike many other Tiananmmen-era activist and dissidents who have fled China in exile, Liu has stayed in his homeland and has been like some relentless human-rights robot. In 2008, he co-authored Charter 08, a pro-democracy manifesto that managed to gather 303 signatures befor the autorities stepped in. According to the Nobel Committee, Liu deserves the Peace Prize "for his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China," but in the Chinese government's perspective he is a criminal seving a prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power." (Para 2)
In a counntry as vast and populated as China, few of its citizens are even aware of the fact that he has been awarded the prize. Live feeds of CNN and the BBC were cut when Liu's name was announced by the Nobel Committee.The front page of the Communist Party run- Peoples Daily had nothing of the award. Text messages with Liu's name too, were quickly expunged by censors. Tsinghua University in Beijing took an informal poll and of the 23 respondants polled only 4 had known he had been awarded the Peace Prize. Liu has spent much time in recent years jailed, in 1996 he spent 3 years in a forced labor camp for his continued criticism of the nation's closed political system. After two decades of surveilance by the Chinese police there was little that he did that the authorities didn't know about. Again he was arrested on Dec 8, 2008 before the Chapter 08 was released and given an 11 year prison sentence, which shocked his fans both inside and outside of China, it is the longest sentence ever handed down for political dissidence.(Para 5,6) It begs the question, when will China's human rights record ever improve?
Human rights advocate Ai Wei-wei, who himself was beaten badly by Chinese Police last year stated that, "the Nobel sends a signal to the young generation, to people who dont know the history, to remind them that the world is still concerned about China and common values." The equation the Chinese Communist Party uses is simple: economics trumps politics, prosperity precedes polls, and social stability prevails over indidual expression. China's economic rise to the world's second largest economy which is unparalleled, is easy to buy into the idea that a country can accelerate into the future with one foot on the economic accelerator and one foot on the political brake. That makes an for an interesting analogy that could be a blemish on an otherwise stellar record. The Nobel Committee has rejected the idea that China's spectacular economic record gives it a free pass to put activist in jail. Thorbjoern Jagland, the Nobel Committee chairman, who also delivered the speech at the award ceremony on behalf of Liu Xiaobo stated, " China's new status must entail uncreased responsibility." (Para 9,10)
In the coming days, as the news of Liu's award spreads across the country, it is the opinion of the ordinary Chinese people that will matter most nad not that of the political hierarchy. Will the people buy the government line that he is a troublemaker and criminal? Or will they secretly thrill to the fact that a Chinese living in his homeland has been so honored? At least the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo, gives the Chinese people a chance to imagine a country not defined by rulers whose instinct is to denounce anyone seen as a threat to their power. "Millions of Chinese, both inside China and around the world, see and feel more clearly that China can be much more than the Chinese Communist Party." said Perry Link, a China expert at the University of Califonia at Riverside. Perry helped Liu translate Charter 08 into english so it could be greater heard around the world. (Para 14) So again I ask will China's human rights record improve only time will tell?
Beech, Hannah and Austin Ramzy/ Beijing as reported in Time Magizine article, dated 25 October 2010, Pgs. 40-43
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