2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Encyclopedia
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights
activist "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The laureate, once an eminent scholar, was reportedly little-known inside the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the time of the award due to official censorship; he is a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
, and a co-author of the Charter 08
manifesto for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 25 December 2009. Liu, who was backed by Václav Havel
and Desmond Tutu
, received the award among a record field of more than 200 nominees.
The decision was widely praised by intellectuals and politicians, but was attacked by the PRC government
and the state-owned media, while a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, denounced the award and what they regarded as interference in China's domestic affairs. Following the announcement, official censorship was applied within China – on the internet, television, and in print media. The government strongly denounced the award, and summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to make a formal protest. The Chinese authorities arrested citizens who attempted to celebrate. Liu's wife was put under house-arrest before the decision of the Nobel Committee
was announced.
The PRC diplomatic machinery moved to pressure other countries not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December: Western missions in Oslo received warning letters from their Chinese counterpart; the deputy foreign minister also warned countries of "the consequences". In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued the rhetorical assault, claiming "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China's position". In the end, 46 countries attended of the 65 invited (China and 19 other nations declined invitations). China's official news agency, Xinhua, attacked the West for its "Cold-War or even colonial mentality", and for daring to "regard themselves as the judge, the teacher [who] assume that they can forever distort the fact and block the truth by using political maneuvers." Strong rhetoric and denunciations of the West continued from official sources until after the ceremony.
Liu is the first person of Chinese nationality (aside from the 14th Dalai Lama
, a Tibetan refugee) to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention; before him were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
read I Have No Enemies
, an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech.
, the International Space Station
, and three founders of the internet – Larry Roberts
, Vint Cerf
and Tim Berners-Lee
and the Internet itself – were among the nominees. Also on the list were Chinese dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia
, Gao Zhisheng
, Chen Guangcheng
, Bao Tong
, and Rebiya Kadeer
. Liu made his reputation as a literary critic. An article he published in 1986 that criticised Chinese writers' for their dependence on the state and their deficit in free-thinking caused a stir in the Chinese literary world. Having studied Western philosphy, his ideas were provocative, and attracted the attention of the intellectuals; he lectured all over China and abroad. He returned immediately to China from New York when the 1989 pro-democracy movement erupted in China, and spent most of his time amongst the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Since his involvement there, and his subsequent leadership role in Charter 08
pro-democracy manifesto for China, the Chinese authorities censor his views as a subversive. Liu, jailed for 11 years on 25 December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power", was nominated by International PEN
, the worldwide association of writers. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to [Liu]".
In January 2010, Václav Havel and others – including the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann
, Vartan Gregorian
, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg
, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky – published an article to lobby on his behalf. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Youyu
, and others, addressed an open letter "to the European People" in support of Liu, while 14 exiled dissidents urged the Nobel Committee to pass over Liu's nomination, arguing that Liu had maligned other dissidents, forsaken the oppressed Falun Gong
and that his stance against the Chinese leadership had become too "soft". The Chinese foreign ministry warned Norway that awarding Liu the prize would be against Nobel principles, and that it would damage ties between the two countries.
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights
activist "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The laureate, once an eminent scholar, was reportedly little-known inside the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the time of the award due to official censorship; he is a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
, and a co-author of the Charter 08
manifesto for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 25 December 2009. Liu, who was backed by Václav Havel
and Desmond Tutu
, received the award among a record field of more than 200 nominees.
The decision was widely praised by intellectuals and politicians, but was attacked by the PRC government
and the state-owned media, while a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, denounced the award and what they regarded as interference in China's domestic affairs. Following the announcement, official censorship was applied within China – on the internet, television, and in print media. The government strongly denounced the award, and summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to make a formal protest. The Chinese authorities arrested citizens who attempted to celebrate. Liu's wife was put under house-arrest before the decision of the Nobel Committee
was announced.
The PRC diplomatic machinery moved to pressure other countries not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December: Western missions in Oslo received warning letters from their Chinese counterpart; the deputy foreign minister also warned countries of "the consequences". In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued the rhetorical assault, claiming "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China's position". In the end, 46 countries attended of the 65 invited (China and 19 other nations declined invitations). China's official news agency, Xinhua, attacked the West for its "Cold-War or even colonial mentality", and for daring to "regard themselves as the judge, the teacher [who] assume that they can forever distort the fact and block the truth by using political maneuvers." Strong rhetoric and denunciations of the West continued from official sources until after the ceremony.
Liu is the first person of Chinese nationality (aside from the 14th Dalai Lama
, a Tibetan refugee) to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention; before him were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
read I Have No Enemies
, an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech.
, the International Space Station
, and three founders of the internet – Larry Roberts
, Vint Cerf
and Tim Berners-Lee
and the Internet itself – were among the nominees. Also on the list were Chinese dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia
, Gao Zhisheng
, Chen Guangcheng
, Bao Tong
, and Rebiya Kadeer
. Liu made his reputation as a literary critic. An article he published in 1986 that criticised Chinese writers' for their dependence on the state and their deficit in free-thinking caused a stir in the Chinese literary world. Having studied Western philosphy, his ideas were provocative, and attracted the attention of the intellectuals; he lectured all over China and abroad. He returned immediately to China from New York when the 1989 pro-democracy movement erupted in China, and spent most of his time amongst the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Since his involvement there, and his subsequent leadership role in Charter 08
pro-democracy manifesto for China, the Chinese authorities censor his views as a subversive. Liu, jailed for 11 years on 25 December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power", was nominated by International PEN
, the worldwide association of writers. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to [Liu]".
In January 2010, Václav Havel and others – including the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann
, Vartan Gregorian
, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg
, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky – published an article to lobby on his behalf. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Youyu
, and others, addressed an open letter "to the European People" in support of Liu, while 14 exiled dissidents urged the Nobel Committee to pass over Liu's nomination, arguing that Liu had maligned other dissidents, forsaken the oppressed Falun Gong
and that his stance against the Chinese leadership had become too "soft". The Chinese foreign ministry warned Norway that awarding Liu the prize would be against Nobel principles, and that it would damage ties between the two countries.
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights
activist "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The laureate, once an eminent scholar, was reportedly little-known inside the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the time of the award due to official censorship; he is a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
, and a co-author of the Charter 08
manifesto for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 25 December 2009. Liu, who was backed by Václav Havel
and Desmond Tutu
, received the award among a record field of more than 200 nominees.
The decision was widely praised by intellectuals and politicians, but was attacked by the PRC government
and the state-owned media, while a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, denounced the award and what they regarded as interference in China's domestic affairs. Following the announcement, official censorship was applied within China – on the internet, television, and in print media. The government strongly denounced the award, and summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to make a formal protest. The Chinese authorities arrested citizens who attempted to celebrate. Liu's wife was put under house-arrest before the decision of the Nobel Committee
was announced.
The PRC diplomatic machinery moved to pressure other countries not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December: Western missions in Oslo received warning letters from their Chinese counterpart; the deputy foreign minister also warned countries of "the consequences". In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued the rhetorical assault, claiming "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China's position". In the end, 46 countries attended of the 65 invited (China and 19 other nations declined invitations). China's official news agency, Xinhua, attacked the West for its "Cold-War or even colonial mentality", and for daring to "regard themselves as the judge, the teacher [who] assume that they can forever distort the fact and block the truth by using political maneuvers." Strong rhetoric and denunciations of the West continued from official sources until after the ceremony.
Liu is the first person of Chinese nationality (aside from the 14th Dalai Lama
, a Tibetan refugee) to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention; before him were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
read I Have No Enemies
, an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech.
, the International Space Station
, and three founders of the internet – Larry Roberts
, Vint Cerf
and Tim Berners-Lee
and the Internet itself – were among the nominees. Also on the list were Chinese dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia
, Gao Zhisheng
, Chen Guangcheng
, Bao Tong
, and Rebiya Kadeer
. Liu made his reputation as a literary critic. An article he published in 1986 that criticised Chinese writers' for their dependence on the state and their deficit in free-thinking caused a stir in the Chinese literary world. Having studied Western philosphy, his ideas were provocative, and attracted the attention of the intellectuals; he lectured all over China and abroad. He returned immediately to China from New York when the 1989 pro-democracy movement erupted in China, and spent most of his time amongst the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Since his involvement there, and his subsequent leadership role in Charter 08
pro-democracy manifesto for China, the Chinese authorities censor his views as a subversive. Liu, jailed for 11 years on 25 December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power", was nominated by International PEN
, the worldwide association of writers. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to [Liu]".
In January 2010, Václav Havel and others – including the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann
, Vartan Gregorian
, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg
, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky – published an article to lobby on his behalf. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Youyu
, and others, addressed an open letter "to the European People" in support of Liu, while 14 exiled dissidents urged the Nobel Committee to pass over Liu's nomination, arguing that Liu had maligned other dissidents, forsaken the oppressed Falun Gong
and that his stance against the Chinese leadership had become too "soft". The Chinese foreign ministry warned Norway that awarding Liu the prize would be against Nobel principles, and that it would damage ties between the two countries.
On 7 October 2010, Norwegian television networks reported that Liu Xiaobo was the front-running candidate for the Prize. Irish bookmaker Paddy Power
paid out two days before the announcement following an increase in bets. Shortly before the announcement, Liu's wife, Liu Xia
, declined telephone interviews, saying the police were at her home. Her telephone went unanswered once the announcement was made. Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland
made the announcement on 8 October 2010 in Oslo, mentioning that the choice of Liu had become clear early in the process. The monetary component of the prize would be 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1.5 million).
At 2 pm, a crowd of about 100 journalists, supporters, and friends who had gathered outside the main entrance to the Beijing housing estate where the Lius resided were denied entry. The South China Morning Post reported that policemen stationed inside their apartment at the time of the announcement prevented Liu Xia from meeting with journalists and other well-wishers. It was not immediately clear whether Liu Xiaobo was aware of the award. Liu Xia said she had been told she would be taken to Liaoning to see her husband in prison. Meetings and gatherings to celebrate in several cities were prevented or abruptly broken up by police; one such celebration dinner in Beijing attended by 20 people was broken up by police, and the attendees detained.
downplayed all but the literature prize, and most other mainland news portals followed the Xinhua lead; popular internet portals such as Sina.com
and NetEase
deleted pages dedicated to stories related to all five Nobel Prizes. According to a well-informed Twitter user cited by the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, the Information Office of the State Council issued a directive immediately after the announcement that "Liu Xiaobo" and "Peace Prize" would be prohibited search terms for microblog services across the country; fora, blogs and other interactive media were forbidden from releasing any information. At 6 pm, the source said that although the official news release had been issued, all media were ordered by the Central Propaganda Department not to publish it.
Major domestic newspapers in China had coverage on inner pages. Guangming Daily
, Economic Daily, Beijing Daily, Beijing News, and Shanghai's Wen Hui Bao
published the Xinhua-sanctioned report the following day. China Central Television's main evening news programme, Xinwen Lianbo
, did not report on it. Chinese journalists and dissidents said the Central Propaganda Department had instructed media not to re-run the news, including the government's official news release, and to censor or otherwise under-report on Liu Xiaobo and the peace prize.
In its editorial, the Communist Party–run Global Times
attacked the Nobel Peace Prize as a "political tool of Western interests" that was being used to foment "endless political strife in Chinese society, causing a Soviet-style breakup." The Chinese government ordered the deletion of all print and broadcast stories on the topic; the Global Times said the award was "nothing more than another expression of this prejudice, and behind it lies an extraordinary terror of China's rise and the Chinese model". It said the award was part of an ideological war on China's economic interests orchestrated by developed nations and waged by international organisations, foreign business interests and NGOs: "They hope to harass China's growth and press China to surrender more economic interests. They even hope that China will one day collapse under the West's ideological crusade", continued the article.
Foreign broadcast coverage, such as from the BBC and CNN, was blacked out whenever Liu was mentioned. In Guangdong, at the mention of the Nobel Peace Prize, signal carriers for Hong Kong TVB were blocked: an outage lasting approximately eight minutes occurred during the 6 pm evening news programme.
After a week of denunciations in China's English-language media, with most journals silent about the award except for perfunctory quotes from the foreign ministry, the country's Chinese-language media launched a concerted assault on Liu and the award, accompanied by renewed attacks in the English-language media. Xinhua argued on 17 October that the Communist Party had made "unremitting efforts to promote and safeguard human rights", and questioned how Liu's actions had contributed to human rights progress for China's people. The agency cited a journal from Saudi Arabia and one from Russia that had denounced the award, and quoted the Pakistani Foreign Office as saying, "the politicization of the Nobel Peace Prize for the purposes of interference in the domestic affairs of states is not only contrary to the recognized principles of inter-State conduct but also a negation of the underlying spirit conceived by the founder of the Prize." In what was described by Chinese media–watchers as a surprise because of its historical professionalism, China Youth Daily
published an article containing Beijing students' expressions of anger and disbelief over the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu. The journal employed the traditionally hard-liner's phrase "people with ulterior motives" (别有用心的人) – attributed to one student, and possibly more. It further denounced the "farcical" Nobel decision to use the award as "a tool ... in their relentless effort to undermine China and frustrate its development".
On 18 October, the Global Times published the results of a telephone poll of 866 Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou residents, whom the journal said were chosen at random: 58.6 percent of respondents felt the committee owed the Chinese people an apology and should cancel the award to Liu; more than half agreed Liu should remain incarcerated until he is paroled. The survey also showed "a low recognition of Liu among the public in China, as more than 75 percent of respondents had no idea who the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was." The Beijing Daily published an editorial on the day of the award ceremony entitled "Why not give the peace prize to Julian Assange?". It suggested that Assange
, the head of WikiLeaks – a site blocked by China's 'Great Firewall' – was not awarded the prize because he could not "become a tool for Western forces in attacking countries with different ideologies ... even if this tool is serving out a prison sentence for violating the law."
China protested to Norway, saying that China–Norway relations
had been damaged. A planned meeting in Beijing between Norwegian Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen
and Chinese food control authorities was cancelled at the last minute, ostensibly because their counterparts had "other engagements"; Norwegian officials said that a meeting due to be held the same day between Berg-Hansen and the Chinese vice-minister for fisheries had been cancelled in reaction to the award. Elsewhere, performances of a Norwegian musical starring Alexander Rybak
scheduled for the following month also fell victim to the diplomatic fallout, according to the composer. In early December, Norway said its bilateral trade talks with China had been indefinitely put on hold. Haakon Hjelde, Norway's negotiator reported that the postponement was not directly linked to the award, but Henning Kristofferson, director of international relations of the BI Norwegian School of Management
, said it was fairly obvious that the PRC government would "never hold a high-level meeting with Norway shortly before or after the award ceremony", having made it plain that the award to Liu was "a big mistake."
Liu Xia was under house-arrest almost immediately after the announcement, and was escorted to Liaoning to visit her imprisoned husband. She reported that she was denied visitors, her telephones were repeatedly down, and complained that even her elderly mother had not been able to get through to her. Visitors were denied entrance to her residential compound, including Norwegian diplomats who had tried to visit her on 12 October; she was able to send out a few messages through Twitter
. Chinese police stationed there cordoned off the area. Thus, journalists and well-wishers were kept at bay for several hours after the announcement; as she was being taken away to see her husband, Reuters
heard her say "they are forcing me to leave Beijing". Dissident groups reported on 18 October that numerous supporters and associates of Liu may have been detained by police – that Tiananmen Mother Ding Zilin
and her husband Jiang Peikun had not been seen or heard of for four days, and that their phones were cut off. Writer Jiang Qisheng went missing just days after the Nobel announcement.
As exiled prominent activists and former activists were reportedly preparing to attend the award ceremony, some prominent individuals and activists inside China experienced travel problems. Economist Mao Yushi
(who had signed Charter 08), Ai Weiwei
, and the human-rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan were all barred from outbound travel at Beijing's airport, ostensibly because their departure from China could "endanger state security". Liu's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, and Peking University law professor He Weifang
were stopped from boarding their flight for London in November. The South China Morning Post reported that even the spouses and children of some outspoken intellectuals experienced outbound travel restrictions. Ai speculated that the refusal to let him board a flight for Korea may have been directly connected with the following week's prize-giving ceremony. Chinese Human Rights Defenders also believed that "officials are increasing their efforts to bar prominent members of Chinese civil society from travelling internationally as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony approaches." The BBC, citing the UN, said there was information that China had detained at least 20 activists prior to the ceremony; it reported sources saying that 120 more activists were subjected to house arrest, travel restrictions, forced relocations, or "other acts of intimidation" ahead of the ceremony; external Chinese sources put the figure of people so restricted at approximately 270.
– family members or representatives of those who were killed or had disappeared in the military crackdown of the protests of 4 June 1989
. She said, "The prize should belong to all who signed Charter 08 and were jailed due to their support".
Liu Xia informed the laureate of his award during a visit to Jinzhou Prison on 9 October 2010, one day after the official announcement. She reported that Liu wept and dedicated the award to those who suffered as a result of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, saying: "The award is first and foremost for the Tiananmen martyrs" After Ms. Liu returned home, she was put under house arrest and was watched by armed guards. She expressed the desire to attend the prize-giving in Norway in December, but was sceptical of her chances of being allowed to do so. Liu Xia wrote an open letter to 143 prominent figures, encouraging them to attend the award ceremony in Oslo.
of The Washington Post
said a wide spectrum of Chinese and foreigners believed that Liu's award "could actually resonate more deeply within China than any similar act in years". The open letter by Xu Youyu et al, which described Liu as "a splendid choice" because of his advancement of human rights causes and the peaceful fight against social injustice, amassed signatures from about 200 mainland intellectuals and activists; it was posted in Chinese, English, French and Japanese on websites hosted outside China. Artist and critic Ai Weiwei
said although the regime ought to feel the most shameful, "intellectuals who had drifted away from their public responsibilities" should bear some of that burden for betraying values they once strove for. Ai said that the Prize was a message from the international community to the Chinese government to respect universal human values, notwithstanding China's economic performance. Writer Liao Yiwu
, a close friend of Liu, described it as "a big moment in Chinese history". Another writer, Yu Jie
, said he spent the night awake with tears streaming down his face – "Twenty years ago Liu Xiaobo said that China needed someone with moral clarity about what China needs. Now he has become just that person, that he himself was looking for", he said. Former Chinese diplomat Yang Hengjun
described it as a strong signal to the Chinese government to speed up political reform "or you will have a lot of enemies around you and within you."
Exiled 1989 student leader Wang Dan
said he was "ecstatic". Human rights lawyer Li Heping called the award "huge encouragement for the Chinese people ... an affirmation that there are people around the world who really care about human rights and the legal system in China, that the world hasn't forgotten us." He added that others, such as Gao Zhisheng
, Chen Guangcheng
, and Hu Jia
, also deserved the prize. The Globe and Mail
said that while many activists agreed he was worthy of the award, some radical reformers within Chinese democracy movement
, such as Wei Jingsheng
, see the moderate Liu as the wrong choice due to his advocacy of a gradual path to constitutional democracy in China.
Renmin University professor Zhang Ming felt the award would not have much direct impact. However, economist Mao Yushi
believed that there were many factors affecting political reform in China. He stated that the prize was impetus from the international community for the process of reform that was already under way, and that the impact of the award to Liu would be felt by the current generation of leaders, and beyond.
probably had no idea that what he wrote would end up being the reality of China now." "Liu Xiaobo" and "Nobel Peace Prize" became the most searched terms among internet users in China. However, some time after the release of the official response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, government censors
screened the news item, and there were reports of searches in China using Chinese search engines returning error pages. Web searches using Chinese search engines for "Liu Xiaobo" in Chinese without attaching the words "Peace Prize," gave information about Liu. Yet most sites found "Liu" plus "Peace Prize" yield only the official foreign ministry response. CNN reported that any mentions of "Nobel Prize" on microblogging
sites were censored. One person claimed that his SIM card was deactivated after sending a text message to a relative about the Nobel Peace Prize. Accustomed to circumventing Chinese internet censorship
, bloggers and forum-users used variants of Liu's name and posted subtle or cryptic messages to express their elation about the award or sarcasm towards the state. The statement on 8 October by renowned blogger Han Han
consisted of only a pair of double quote marks.
Less than three weeks after the announcement of the award to Liu, the Nobel Peace Prize website came under a cyber attack. There was an attempt to hack into the computer of the secretary of the Nobel Committee, Geir Lundestad by a forged email on 3 November. A number of individuals received an email containing a trojan horse
purportedly disguised as a pdf-file invitation to the award ceremony from the Oslo Freedom Forum
. Investigators traced both the attack and the email to an intermediate server reportedly in a Taiwanese university. Experts say the address had been falsified, and the exact origin was unknown; it was emphasised that no link to any party in mainland China could be established. After activists posted photographs of a symbolic empty chair on Internet fora and noticeboards, censors responded by removing the images and making "empty chair" a banned search term.
and the Hong Kong Journalists Association
– welcomed the decision and congratulated Liu. The Journalists Association expressed their gratitude and encouragement for Liu's award, and their hope for the early unconditional release of Liu. Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang
, and government ministers Leung Chun-ying, and Gregory So
, all declined to comment to the press.
The South China Morning Post
in Hong Kong said Liu's courage to stand up for the rights of all people – for the fourth time since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests – made him worthy of joining the company of other similarly persecuted peace prize recipients such as Nelson Mandela
: "Liu is just one of a long line of like-minded Chinese citizens to be silenced. The award will be seen in many quarters as acknowledging their sacrifice for the values it upholds." Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television
, which transmits throughout China by satellite, limited its report to the foreign ministry's statement denouncing the honour.
About twenty activists held a celebration in front of the central government liaison office
. Their celebration was broken up and the activists were arrested for assault after a guard was accidentally sprayed with champagne. Human Rights Monitor, and a Democratic Party legislator, denounced the "absurd" reaction of the police. The loyalist Speaker of Hong Kong's legislature
turned down an adjournment motion on 15 October submitted by Leung Kwok-hung
that called for the release of Liu on grounds that such debate "lacked urgency and would not produce irreversible consequences". On 17 October, thirty supporters of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China – organisers of the annual commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen protests – held a march to the central government liaison office, calling on the central government to release Liu and allow him to attend the prize-giving in December. A candlelight ceremony was held in the city's central business district to coincide with the award ceremony; organisers said 1,000 people attended.
Chinese-language press reported on rumours that Chinese officials had approached high-level executives at TVB and CableTV
, asking them not to broadcast the ceremony live on their channels; executives affirmed their plans to broadcast scheduling for the event was immutable. TVB News and now TV
executives categorically denied having been contacted by Chinese authorities to pull the plug on coverage. An editorial in the South China Morning Post said: "this heavy-handed reaction [to Liu's award] is counterproductive to [China's] image and the respect it wants as a peaceful superpower. Liu's award did pose a dilemma, but having made its point at the outset Beijing had little further to gain. Attempts to meddle in the process did nothing to dignify its stand."
's office urged China to exercise greater tolerance of dissidents; the president himself pleaded for the release of Liu, to "solve major human rights incidents with honesty and confidence." Forty-eight non-governmental organisations jointly issued a two-page statement expressing optimism for political change in China. The statement said that the world “stands in solidarity with [the] Chinese people who share Liu’s vision for a strong, prosperous and above all, democratic, China.”
The Taipei Times
said the award suggested strong support for China’s democracy movement, and predicted the inevitability of change. "The CCP needs to decide whether to attempt to obstruct democracy or facilitate its development. If it chooses the former then history will pass it by, just as it did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
. If, however, the CCP decides to embrace change then it could ... remain a political force" like the Kuomintang
in Taiwan.
said that a Chinese complaint to the Norwegian government would be in vain, since the committee is independent of the Norwegian government, even though it is appointed by the Parliament of Norway. This official position was reiterated to the People's Republic of China by their Norwegian ambassador. After the announcement, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg
said the decision "directs a spotlight on the human rights situation in China, and underscores the links between development, democracy and universal human rights." Norway summoned the Chinese ambassador to Norway to express its regret at China's reaction, to urge for the release of Liu, and to remove restrictions on his wife. Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten
revealed that foreign minister Støre had a pre-emptive meeting with Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland
, about Liu as the expected recipient two weeks before the announcement. According to anonymous sources within both the Foreign Ministry and the Nobel Committee itself, Støre is said to have raised certain "concerns". The Norwegian press quoted Jagland as saying that this enquiry was of such a peculiar kind that he would have to present the Nobel Committee with the minutes of the meeting. Former Nobel Committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjøs
and a number of Norwegian researchers and politicians criticised Støre for breaching protocol and meddling in the work of the Committee.
Norwegian peace activist and author, Fredrik S. Heffermehl criticized the Nobel Committee for failing to follow Alfred Nobel
's dying wish to promote disarmament, by giving the award to Liu. Heffermehl said that less than 50 percent of the awards made after World War II had been made in accordance with Nobel's will.
recognised China's "remarkable economic advances [that have] lifted millions out of poverty", and said he hoped "any differences on this decision will not detract from advancement of the human rights agenda globally or the high prestige and inspirational power of the award". President Obama
lauded Liu's eloquence and courage, while his government called for his immediate release.
The European Union and member governments praised the decision, and also called on China to release Liu. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso stated that "the decision of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is a strong message of support to all those around the world who, sometimes with great personal sacrifice, are struggling for freedom and human rights." The Polish foreign ministry said it was appreciative of the decision to award Liu. Japan greeted the award and emphasised the need for respect of human rights, but did not call for Liu's release; Premier Naoto Kan
told a parliamentary committee Liu's release was "desirable". The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard
, said Australia was strongly against Liu's imprisonment, and "welcome[d] the fact that his work has been recognised internationally now with the Nobel Peace Prize", while the Australian Greens leader Bob Brown
described the decision as "inspiring". However, Brown contrasted Norway's courage with the "sheer ignorance and gutlessness of most of Australia's politicians on the plight of campaigning democrats in China". The Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper
expressed his delight, and said he hoped the award "would cause our friends in the Chinese government to look seriously at that issue of his release from prison."
However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
sided with China, saying the award should be given to those who "have done the most for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and promotion of peace congresses". Pakistan and Cuba denounced the choice, saying Liu was exactly "the type of 'dissident' that the United States has been designing for decades to use ... as fifth columns in those countries that they disagree with because those countries dissent from [American] hegemony." The United Arab Emirates expressed regret at the "politically motivated" decision to award Liu which it said was "against the UAE's fundamental belief in respecting other nations' sovereignty and non-interference."
On 8 December, the United States House of Representatives
voted by 402 to 1 to congratulate Liu and honour his "promotion of democratic reform in China, and the courage with which he has borne repeated imprisonment ... and [call] on the government of China to cease censoring media and internet reporting of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo and to cease its campaign of defamation against Liu Xiaobo." The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded by accusing US lawmakers of possessing an "arrogant and unreasonable attitude" and "lacking respect for China's judicial sovereignty." Ahead of the award ceremony, Barack Obama said "Mr Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was ... [He] reminds us that human dignity also depends upon the advance of democracy, open society, and the rule of law ... The values he espouses are universal, his struggle is peaceful, and he should be released as soon as possible."
said he was "very satisfied", describing the award as "a challenge for China and the entire world, [which] must declare whether it is ready to help China enter a zone where there is respect for the principles and values".
However, Andre Geim
and Konstantin Novoselov
, who were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics
, attacked the Nobel committee as "retired Norwegian politicians who have spent all their careers in a safe environment, in an oil-rich modern country. They try to extend their views of the world, how the world should work and how democracy works in another country." They also felt that China should be given due credit for undisputed improvements in human rights and the economy over the last 10 years. Novoselov questioned: "What is a dictatorship? It is not as if people are being constantly killed there," The pair were rebutted by 2010 Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa
, who said it was a timely reminder that China was still a dictatorship and quite monolithic regarding politics, and that the award was "a tribute to all Chinese dissidents and all Chinese who want not just economic but also political growth and progress in China."
Human Rights Watch
said the 2010 award honours "all those in China who struggle daily to make the government more accountable" and "shatter[s] the myth where the Communist Party presents itself as the voice of the Chinese people". Canadian academic Professor Josephine Chiu-Duke believed that many Communist Party members were "hoping that China can be free, democratic and civilized", and hoped that the award would "encourag[e] more Chinese to speak up." Former British diplomat in Beijing, Kerry Brown, lamented that, economically powerful though China is, its sole Nobel laureate languished in prison.
The Secretary General of Amnesty International
, said: "the Chinese government might see this is as a victory, but they would be mistaken ... Because, while the other chairs in the packed hall on the day of the awards ceremony will each hold only one person, Liu's empty chair will hold ... the thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience [who were] victims of prosecution and persecution simply for having the courage to voice their views." On the other hand, in an article appearing in China Daily
, David Gosset of the China Europe International Business School
said the award was "a sad paradox, a prize without any real winner, which generates mistrust and perplexity when understanding and clarity are most needed". Gosset believed that only citizens were able to define the exact terms and pace of democratisation in their own country, and lamented the "fallacy" of implicitly associating the PRC with German Nazism
or South African apartheid, and emphasised that China, a developing country with a per capita GDP
of $3,700, could hardly adopt the socio-political standards of the developed world without attenuating its development. He also argued that the choice of Liu was divisive in view of China's memory of Western imperialism, and of Alfred Nobel's dying wish to reward a person "who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations". Professor Sidney Rittenberg
said: "One does not have to approve of Mr Liu's imprisonment in order to disapprove of his choice as a Nobel laureate ... Not only have courageous, intelligent individuals like Mr Liu made no tangible contribution to China's advance, not only have their activities and his choice for a Nobel Prize made life more difficult for China's dissidents – but the main point is that his advocacy of a multiparty system for the China of today would almost certainly lead to disaster, if carried out. To wit, Iran after the overthrow of the shah."
(in Russia) planned to hold a public rally in support of Liu in Saint Petersburg
, but the authorities refused permission. In the end, 10 activists staged a protest outside the Chinese consulate there.
In an editorial, The Guardian
said "to many western ears, the clamour of China's markets is louder than the pleas of its dissidents. The Nobel committee is one of few institutions with sufficient status to be heard around the world. Its most coveted prize can now amplify Mr Liu's voice." The Telegraph
said that the award was justified not only by Liu’s own courage, but was "a rebuke to Western governments, so hypnotised by China's riches and cowed by self-interest that they have shut their eyes and ears to the regime's abuses of human rights."
The New York Times
applauded the award: "Beijing is used to throwing its weight around these days – on currency, trade, the South China Sea and many other issues. Too many governments, and companies, are afraid to push back. Maybe someone in China’s leadership will now figure out that bullying is not a strategy for an aspiring world power." The French daily, Libération
, referred to Liu as "the Chinese Havel
", saying "the Chinese government wanted to show the world that nothing would stop it from silencing its critics. However, China is today a part of the international community, and must respect the norms it accepted when it signed up for UN membership. The pressure it exerted upon the Nobel prize committee not to award Liu is unacceptable."
On the other hand, an article in The Guardian pointed out Liu's support for "the total westernisation of China" amongst other policies, such as the US invasion of Iraq, and on the tenor of the debate in the West: "Liu Xiaobo's politics have been reduced to a story of a heroic individual who upholds human rights and democracy. His views are largely omitted to avoid a discussion about them, resulting in a one-sided debate." Its survey of 500 press articles published in Hong Kong about Liu showed "only 10 were critical of the man or peace prize."
News agencies reported the Confucius Peace Prize
, established at the suggestion of Global Times in response to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed dissident. The organiser denied any involvement of the Chinese government in the award and the Minister of Culture said they only became aware of the prize due to the press coverage. Hong Kong's Ming Pao
, which had obtained a copy of the letter from the organisers of the Confucius award to the 'winner', suggested that this was indeed unofficial – the letter did not bear the Ministry of Culture's official seal. Die Welt
said the rival award was "stupid".
The Economist recalled how the Soviet Union prevented Andrei Sakharov
from accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, and suggested that Chinese leadership would probably have expected such a comparison. Both it and Die Welt made direct reference to the creation of a similar German National Prize for Art and Science
by Nazi Germany after von Ossietzky was prohibited from leaving the country to collect the 1935 prize.
on 10 December and refrain from issuing any statements of support for Liu. At least two European embassies in Norway were sent letters by their Chinese counterparts, denouncing the prize for being an interference in China's internal affairs and reaffirming their stance that Liu had committed crimes in China. One diplomat said his embassy's letter from the Chinese embassy requested obliquely that they "refrain from attending any activity directed against China." The Norwegian Nobel Committee said its invitation to the Chinese ambassador to attend the prize-giving was returned unanswered. The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister also warned countries supporting Liu's award that they would have to "take responsibility for the consequences".
In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued to denounce the award as "interference by a few clowns". It said "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China’s position opposing this year's peace prize." However, according to the Nobel Committee, only the 65 countries with diplomatic missions were invited; acceptances had been received from 46 countries, including the previously non-committal India, while China and 19 others – Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela and Vietnam – declined invitations to the award ceremony "for various reasons". On the eve of the award ceremony, China continued the rhetoric against the Nobel Committee and the West. A spokesman said: "We hope that those countries who have received invitations can tell right from wrong and uphold justice. It's not an issue of human rights. It's an issue of interfering in other countries' internal affairs"; the Nobel committee continued to be criticised for "encouraging crime"; the Global Times repeated earlier suggestions that the award was a Western conspiracy against Beijing, a "charge against China's ideology, aiming to undermine the benign surroundings for China's future development."
Colombia, Serbia, the Philippines and Ukraine initially announced they would not attend the ceremony, but later accepted the invitation. The Philippines ultimately did not attend: President Benigno Aquino III
defended the Philippine non-attendance as "in our national interest"; the Philippine government, which had been heavily criticised in its national press for its decision, revealed its hope that China would show clemency to five Filipinos on death row for drug trafficking.
on the afternoon of 10 December, was attended by about 1,000 VIPs, diplomats and guests. Representing Norway were King Harald V, Queen Sonja and a number of politicians and officials; among the 48 foreign dignitaries was the US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi
. The Chinese group was 46-strong, and included astrophysicist Professor Fang Lizhi
, Yang Jianli
, and exiled former Tiananmen student leaders Chai Ling
, Wu'erkaixi
, Feng Congde
, and Fang Zheng, whose legs were crushed by a tank; the Hong Kong delegation comprised Albert Ho
, Emily Lau
, and Lee Cheuk-yan. Outside the hall, pro-democracy and human rights activists demonstrated; about 50 China supporters held a protest outside the Norwegian Parliament.
The hall was decked with an immense portrait of Liu for the event. During the ceremony, the Nobel committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland credited China's leaders with the "extraordinary" economic transformation that has lifted millions of people out of poverty, but said they "must regard criticism as positive" considering the nation's new status as a world power. Liu's award marks the third occasion that the Prize has been bestowed upon a person in prison or detention, after Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Aung San Suu Kyi (1991); Liu and Ossietzky were the only ones not to be present or represented by close family at the awards ceremony. The Nobel diploma and the prize were symbolically placed by Jagland on an empty chair meant for the absent laureate. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
read I Have No Enemies
, an essay by Liu written for his trial in December 2009.
The proceedings were televised by the international media, but broadcast signals of CNN and BBC inside China were reportedly blocked. Images of and references to 'empty chair' also became the target of official censorship. After the ceremony, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, continued the rhetoric against the award:
Following the ceremony, an evening rally of more than 1,000 people in Oslo called for Liu's release. The marchers headed for the Grand Hotel
, where laureates traditionally greet the crowd from the balcony. Assembled Chinese activists and dissidents said they were inspired by the award, that it was a much-needed morale-booster, and expressed hope that it would be a catalyst to resurrect the moribund Chinese pro-democracy movement. Yang Jianli
said: "The most important change is the change in people's hearts ... this is the greatest achievement [of this award]," The Global Times said of the ceremony: "It’s unimaginable that such a farce, the like of which is more commonly seen in cults, is being staged on the civilised continent of Europe". On the other hand, a huge image with three empty chairs and five cranes adorned the front page the 12 December edition of the Southern Metropolis Daily; ambiguously, the headline read: "2010 Asian Para Games Are Ready to Start Tonight in Guangzhou". China Digital Times offered the interpretation that 'crane' in Chinese (he) is a homonym for 'congratulations' and the first character of 'peace'.
The Nobel Peace Prize Concert to commemorate the 2010 prize was held on 11 December, the night following the award ceremony as is the tradition. It was hosted by Denzel Washington
and Anne Hathaway
. The roster of confirmed performers announced before the award included Herbie Hancock
, Florence and the Machine
, Colbie Caillat
, Elvis Costello
. Those who were confirmed later included Barry Manilow
, Jamiroquai
, A. R. Rahman
, India.Arie
, Robyn
and Sivert Høyem
.
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights
Human rights in the People's Republic of China
Human rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government, other countries, international NGOs, and dissidents inside the country. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese...
activist "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The laureate, once an eminent scholar, was reportedly little-known inside the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the time of the award due to official censorship; he is a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, and a co-author of the Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
manifesto for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 25 December 2009. Liu, who was backed by Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
and Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, received the award among a record field of more than 200 nominees.
The decision was widely praised by intellectuals and politicians, but was attacked by the PRC government
Government of the People's Republic of China
All power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...
and the state-owned media, while a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, denounced the award and what they regarded as interference in China's domestic affairs. Following the announcement, official censorship was applied within China – on the internet, television, and in print media. The government strongly denounced the award, and summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to make a formal protest. The Chinese authorities arrested citizens who attempted to celebrate. Liu's wife was put under house-arrest before the decision of the Nobel Committee
Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...
was announced.
The PRC diplomatic machinery moved to pressure other countries not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December: Western missions in Oslo received warning letters from their Chinese counterpart; the deputy foreign minister also warned countries of "the consequences". In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued the rhetorical assault, claiming "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China's position". In the end, 46 countries attended of the 65 invited (China and 19 other nations declined invitations). China's official news agency, Xinhua, attacked the West for its "Cold-War or even colonial mentality", and for daring to "regard themselves as the judge, the teacher [who] assume that they can forever distort the fact and block the truth by using political maneuvers." Strong rhetoric and denunciations of the West continued from official sources until after the ceremony.
Liu is the first person of Chinese nationality (aside from the 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
, a Tibetan refugee) to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention; before him were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
read I Have No Enemies
I Have No Enemies
"I have no enemies: My final Statement" was an essay written by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo intended to be read at his trial in December 2009.Liu was charged with the crime of "inciting subversion of state power"...
, an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech.
Nomination and announcement
The Nobel Committee disclosed there were a record number of nominations in 2010 – a total of 237, of which 38 were organisations. Although the committee has a policy to keep nominations confidential for 50 years, some nominators made announcements. It was reported that Russian human rights activist, Svetlana GannushkinaSvetlana Gannushkina
Svetlana Gannushkina is human rights activist in Russia, who was reported to have been a contender for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. According to Amnesty International, she is a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights under the President of Russia...
, the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, and three founders of the internet – Larry Roberts
Lawrence Roberts (scientist)
Lawrence G. Roberts received the Draper Prize in 2001 and the Principe de Asturias Award in 2002 "for the development of the Internet" along with Leonard Kleinrock, Robert Kahn, and Vinton Cerf....
, Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...
and Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
and the Internet itself – were among the nominees. Also on the list were Chinese dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia
Hu Jia (activist)
Hu Jia is an activist and dissident in the People's Republic of China. His work has focused on the Chinese democracy movement, Chinese environmentalist movement, and HIV/AIDS in the People's Republic of China...
, Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting alleged human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times and released...
, Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng is a blind civil rights activist in the People's Republic of China who drew international attention to human rights issues in rural areas. He was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006 after talking to Time magazine about the forced abortion cases he...
, Bao Tong
Bao Tong
Bao Tong was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support for...
, and Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
. Liu made his reputation as a literary critic. An article he published in 1986 that criticised Chinese writers' for their dependence on the state and their deficit in free-thinking caused a stir in the Chinese literary world. Having studied Western philosphy, his ideas were provocative, and attracted the attention of the intellectuals; he lectured all over China and abroad. He returned immediately to China from New York when the 1989 pro-democracy movement erupted in China, and spent most of his time amongst the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Since his involvement there, and his subsequent leadership role in Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
pro-democracy manifesto for China, the Chinese authorities censor his views as a subversive. Liu, jailed for 11 years on 25 December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power", was nominated by International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
, the worldwide association of writers. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to [Liu]".
In January 2010, Václav Havel and others – including the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann is a French philosopher and writer, and member of the French new philosophers.-Early years:André Glucksmann was born in 1937, in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents from Romania and Czechoslovakia. He studied in Lyon, and later enrolled at École normale...
, Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian is an Armenian-American academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is an ethnic Armenian, born in Iran....
, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg or Karel, Prince of Schwarzenberg , 7...
, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky – published an article to lobby on his behalf. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Youyu
Xu Youyu
Xu Youyu , is a Chinese philosopher, public intellectual and proponent of Chinese liberalism.Xu was a teenage Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and also was a witness to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 He is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Philosophy of the...
, and others, addressed an open letter "to the European People" in support of Liu, while 14 exiled dissidents urged the Nobel Committee to pass over Liu's nomination, arguing that Liu had maligned other dissidents, forsaken the oppressed Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
and that his stance against the Chinese leadership had become too "soft". The Chinese foreign ministry warned Norway that awarding Liu the prize would be against Nobel principles, and that it would damage ties between the two countries.
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights
Human rights in the People's Republic of China
Human rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government, other countries, international NGOs, and dissidents inside the country. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese...
activist "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The laureate, once an eminent scholar, was reportedly little-known inside the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the time of the award due to official censorship; he is a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, and a co-author of the Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
manifesto for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 25 December 2009. Liu, who was backed by Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
and Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, received the award among a record field of more than 200 nominees.
The decision was widely praised by intellectuals and politicians, but was attacked by the PRC government
Government of the People's Republic of China
All power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...
and the state-owned media, while a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, denounced the award and what they regarded as interference in China's domestic affairs. Following the announcement, official censorship was applied within China – on the internet, television, and in print media. The government strongly denounced the award, and summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to make a formal protest. The Chinese authorities arrested citizens who attempted to celebrate. Liu's wife was put under house-arrest before the decision of the Nobel Committee
Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...
was announced.
The PRC diplomatic machinery moved to pressure other countries not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December: Western missions in Oslo received warning letters from their Chinese counterpart; the deputy foreign minister also warned countries of "the consequences". In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued the rhetorical assault, claiming "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China's position". In the end, 46 countries attended of the 65 invited (China and 19 other nations declined invitations). China's official news agency, Xinhua, attacked the West for its "Cold-War or even colonial mentality", and for daring to "regard themselves as the judge, the teacher [who] assume that they can forever distort the fact and block the truth by using political maneuvers." Strong rhetoric and denunciations of the West continued from official sources until after the ceremony.
Liu is the first person of Chinese nationality (aside from the 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
, a Tibetan refugee) to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention; before him were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
read I Have No Enemies
I Have No Enemies
"I have no enemies: My final Statement" was an essay written by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo intended to be read at his trial in December 2009.Liu was charged with the crime of "inciting subversion of state power"...
, an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech.
Nomination and announcement
The Nobel Committee disclosed there were a record number of nominations in 2010 – a total of 237, of which 38 were organisations. Although the committee has a policy to keep nominations confidential for 50 years, some nominators made announcements. It was reported that Russian human rights activist, Svetlana GannushkinaSvetlana Gannushkina
Svetlana Gannushkina is human rights activist in Russia, who was reported to have been a contender for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. According to Amnesty International, she is a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights under the President of Russia...
, the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, and three founders of the internet – Larry Roberts
Lawrence Roberts (scientist)
Lawrence G. Roberts received the Draper Prize in 2001 and the Principe de Asturias Award in 2002 "for the development of the Internet" along with Leonard Kleinrock, Robert Kahn, and Vinton Cerf....
, Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...
and Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
and the Internet itself – were among the nominees. Also on the list were Chinese dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia
Hu Jia (activist)
Hu Jia is an activist and dissident in the People's Republic of China. His work has focused on the Chinese democracy movement, Chinese environmentalist movement, and HIV/AIDS in the People's Republic of China...
, Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting alleged human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times and released...
, Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng is a blind civil rights activist in the People's Republic of China who drew international attention to human rights issues in rural areas. He was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006 after talking to Time magazine about the forced abortion cases he...
, Bao Tong
Bao Tong
Bao Tong was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support for...
, and Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
. Liu made his reputation as a literary critic. An article he published in 1986 that criticised Chinese writers' for their dependence on the state and their deficit in free-thinking caused a stir in the Chinese literary world. Having studied Western philosphy, his ideas were provocative, and attracted the attention of the intellectuals; he lectured all over China and abroad. He returned immediately to China from New York when the 1989 pro-democracy movement erupted in China, and spent most of his time amongst the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Since his involvement there, and his subsequent leadership role in Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
pro-democracy manifesto for China, the Chinese authorities censor his views as a subversive. Liu, jailed for 11 years on 25 December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power", was nominated by International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
, the worldwide association of writers. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to [Liu]".
In January 2010, Václav Havel and others – including the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann is a French philosopher and writer, and member of the French new philosophers.-Early years:André Glucksmann was born in 1937, in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents from Romania and Czechoslovakia. He studied in Lyon, and later enrolled at École normale...
, Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian is an Armenian-American academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is an ethnic Armenian, born in Iran....
, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg or Karel, Prince of Schwarzenberg , 7...
, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky – published an article to lobby on his behalf. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Youyu
Xu Youyu
Xu Youyu , is a Chinese philosopher, public intellectual and proponent of Chinese liberalism.Xu was a teenage Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and also was a witness to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 He is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Philosophy of the...
, and others, addressed an open letter "to the European People" in support of Liu, while 14 exiled dissidents urged the Nobel Committee to pass over Liu's nomination, arguing that Liu had maligned other dissidents, forsaken the oppressed Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
and that his stance against the Chinese leadership had become too "soft". The Chinese foreign ministry warned Norway that awarding Liu the prize would be against Nobel principles, and that it would damage ties between the two countries.
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights
Human rights in the People's Republic of China
Human rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government, other countries, international NGOs, and dissidents inside the country. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese...
activist "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The laureate, once an eminent scholar, was reportedly little-known inside the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the time of the award due to official censorship; he is a veteran of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
, and a co-author of the Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
manifesto for which he was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 25 December 2009. Liu, who was backed by Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
and Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, received the award among a record field of more than 200 nominees.
The decision was widely praised by intellectuals and politicians, but was attacked by the PRC government
Government of the People's Republic of China
All power within the government of the People's Republic of China is divided among three bodies: the People's Republic of China, State Council, and the People's Liberation Army . This article is concerned with the formal structure of the state, its departments and their responsibilities...
and the state-owned media, while a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, denounced the award and what they regarded as interference in China's domestic affairs. Following the announcement, official censorship was applied within China – on the internet, television, and in print media. The government strongly denounced the award, and summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing to make a formal protest. The Chinese authorities arrested citizens who attempted to celebrate. Liu's wife was put under house-arrest before the decision of the Nobel Committee
Norwegian Nobel Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Nobel Peace Prize each year.Its five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body.-History:...
was announced.
The PRC diplomatic machinery moved to pressure other countries not to attend the award ceremony on 10 December: Western missions in Oslo received warning letters from their Chinese counterpart; the deputy foreign minister also warned countries of "the consequences". In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued the rhetorical assault, claiming "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China's position". In the end, 46 countries attended of the 65 invited (China and 19 other nations declined invitations). China's official news agency, Xinhua, attacked the West for its "Cold-War or even colonial mentality", and for daring to "regard themselves as the judge, the teacher [who] assume that they can forever distort the fact and block the truth by using political maneuvers." Strong rhetoric and denunciations of the West continued from official sources until after the ceremony.
Liu is the first person of Chinese nationality (aside from the 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
, a Tibetan refugee) to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. Liu is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention; before him were Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). As the laureate was absent, Liu's place on the podium was unoccupied; Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
read I Have No Enemies
I Have No Enemies
"I have no enemies: My final Statement" was an essay written by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo intended to be read at his trial in December 2009.Liu was charged with the crime of "inciting subversion of state power"...
, an essay that Liu had written for his trial in December 2009, in place of the acceptance speech.
Nomination and announcement
The Nobel Committee disclosed there were a record number of nominations in 2010 – a total of 237, of which 38 were organisations. Although the committee has a policy to keep nominations confidential for 50 years, some nominators made announcements. It was reported that Russian human rights activist, Svetlana GannushkinaSvetlana Gannushkina
Svetlana Gannushkina is human rights activist in Russia, who was reported to have been a contender for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. According to Amnesty International, she is a member of the Council for the Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights under the President of Russia...
, the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, and three founders of the internet – Larry Roberts
Lawrence Roberts (scientist)
Lawrence G. Roberts received the Draper Prize in 2001 and the Principe de Asturias Award in 2002 "for the development of the Internet" along with Leonard Kleinrock, Robert Kahn, and Vinton Cerf....
, Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf
Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf is an American computer scientist, who is recognized as one of "the fathers of the Internet", sharing this title with American computer scientist Bob Kahn...
and Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...
and the Internet itself – were among the nominees. Also on the list were Chinese dissidents Liu Xiaobo, Hu Jia
Hu Jia (activist)
Hu Jia is an activist and dissident in the People's Republic of China. His work has focused on the Chinese democracy movement, Chinese environmentalist movement, and HIV/AIDS in the People's Republic of China...
, Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting alleged human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times and released...
, Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng is a blind civil rights activist in the People's Republic of China who drew international attention to human rights issues in rural areas. He was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006 after talking to Time magazine about the forced abortion cases he...
, Bao Tong
Bao Tong
Bao Tong was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support for...
, and Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
. Liu made his reputation as a literary critic. An article he published in 1986 that criticised Chinese writers' for their dependence on the state and their deficit in free-thinking caused a stir in the Chinese literary world. Having studied Western philosphy, his ideas were provocative, and attracted the attention of the intellectuals; he lectured all over China and abroad. He returned immediately to China from New York when the 1989 pro-democracy movement erupted in China, and spent most of his time amongst the protesters in Tiananmen Square. Since his involvement there, and his subsequent leadership role in Charter 08
Charter 08
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in...
pro-democracy manifesto for China, the Chinese authorities censor his views as a subversive. Liu, jailed for 11 years on 25 December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power", was nominated by International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
, the worldwide association of writers. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said "It would be completely wrong for the Nobel Prize committee to award the prize to [Liu]".
In January 2010, Václav Havel and others – including the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann
André Glucksmann is a French philosopher and writer, and member of the French new philosophers.-Early years:André Glucksmann was born in 1937, in Boulogne-Billancourt, the son of Ashkenazi Jewish parents from Romania and Czechoslovakia. He studied in Lyon, and later enrolled at École normale...
, Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian
Vartan Gregorian is an Armenian-American academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is an ethnic Armenian, born in Iran....
, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg
Karel Schwarzenberg or Karel, Prince of Schwarzenberg , 7...
, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky – published an article to lobby on his behalf. A professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xu Youyu
Xu Youyu
Xu Youyu , is a Chinese philosopher, public intellectual and proponent of Chinese liberalism.Xu was a teenage Red Guard at the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and also was a witness to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 He is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Philosophy of the...
, and others, addressed an open letter "to the European People" in support of Liu, while 14 exiled dissidents urged the Nobel Committee to pass over Liu's nomination, arguing that Liu had maligned other dissidents, forsaken the oppressed Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
and that his stance against the Chinese leadership had become too "soft". The Chinese foreign ministry warned Norway that awarding Liu the prize would be against Nobel principles, and that it would damage ties between the two countries.
On 7 October 2010, Norwegian television networks reported that Liu Xiaobo was the front-running candidate for the Prize. Irish bookmaker Paddy Power
Paddy Power
Paddy Power is Ireland’s largest bookmaker. Offline it conducts business through a chain of licensed betting offices and by operating Ireland's largest telephone betting service. Online it offers sports betting, online poker, online bingo, online casino games and spread betting...
paid out two days before the announcement following an increase in bets. Shortly before the announcement, Liu's wife, Liu Xia
Liu Xia (intellectual)
Liu Xia is a Chinese painter, poet, and photographer who resides in Beijing, China. She is best known as the wife of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.-Biography:...
, declined telephone interviews, saying the police were at her home. Her telephone went unanswered once the announcement was made. Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland
Thorbjørn Jagland
is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party, currently serving as the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe...
made the announcement on 8 October 2010 in Oslo, mentioning that the choice of Liu had become clear early in the process. The monetary component of the prize would be 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1.5 million).
At 2 pm, a crowd of about 100 journalists, supporters, and friends who had gathered outside the main entrance to the Beijing housing estate where the Lius resided were denied entry. The South China Morning Post reported that policemen stationed inside their apartment at the time of the announcement prevented Liu Xia from meeting with journalists and other well-wishers. It was not immediately clear whether Liu Xiaobo was aware of the award. Liu Xia said she had been told she would be taken to Liaoning to see her husband in prison. Meetings and gatherings to celebrate in several cities were prevented or abruptly broken up by police; one such celebration dinner in Beijing attended by 20 people was broken up by police, and the attendees detained.
Chinese media
The Chinese media avoided the story of Liu's Peace Prize, in marked contrast with their previous announcements of other recipients of Nobel Prizes. The official Xinhua News AgencyXinhua News Agency
The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
downplayed all but the literature prize, and most other mainland news portals followed the Xinhua lead; popular internet portals such as Sina.com
Sina.com
SINA is an online media company for China and Chinese communities around the world. SINA operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, SINA Mobile, SINA Online, and SINA.net. SINA has over 100 million registered users worldwide...
and NetEase
NetEase
NetEase is a Chinese internet company that operates 163.com, a popular web portal which received over 546 million page views in June of 2005. The company has grown rapidly since its founding in June 1997, thanks in part to its investment in search engine technology and massively multiplayer...
deleted pages dedicated to stories related to all five Nobel Prizes. According to a well-informed Twitter user cited by the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, the Information Office of the State Council issued a directive immediately after the announcement that "Liu Xiaobo" and "Peace Prize" would be prohibited search terms for microblog services across the country; fora, blogs and other interactive media were forbidden from releasing any information. At 6 pm, the source said that although the official news release had been issued, all media were ordered by the Central Propaganda Department not to publish it.
Major domestic newspapers in China had coverage on inner pages. Guangming Daily
Guangming Daily (China)
The Guangming Daily was launched on June 16, 1949 by the China Democratic League, and is a nationwide comprehensive newspaper based in Beijing. Its sponsorship was shifted to various democratic parties in China and the China Federation of Industry and Commerce in 1953...
, Economic Daily, Beijing Daily, Beijing News, and Shanghai's Wen Hui Bao
Wen Hui Bao
Wenhui Bao is a major Chinese daily newspaper, published in Shanghai.-History:Wenhui Bao was founded in Shanghai in 1938 by leftist leaning intellectuals centred around writer and journalist Ke Ling...
published the Xinhua-sanctioned report the following day. China Central Television's main evening news programme, Xinwen Lianbo
Xinwen Lianbo
Xinwen Lianbo is a daily news programme produced by China Central Television . It is shown simultaneously by most terrestrial television channels in mainland China, making it one of the world's most watched television programmes...
, did not report on it. Chinese journalists and dissidents said the Central Propaganda Department had instructed media not to re-run the news, including the government's official news release, and to censor or otherwise under-report on Liu Xiaobo and the peace prize.
In its editorial, the Communist Party–run Global Times
Global Times
The Global Times is a daily Chinese tabloid under the auspices of the official Chinese Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, focusing on international issues...
attacked the Nobel Peace Prize as a "political tool of Western interests" that was being used to foment "endless political strife in Chinese society, causing a Soviet-style breakup." The Chinese government ordered the deletion of all print and broadcast stories on the topic; the Global Times said the award was "nothing more than another expression of this prejudice, and behind it lies an extraordinary terror of China's rise and the Chinese model". It said the award was part of an ideological war on China's economic interests orchestrated by developed nations and waged by international organisations, foreign business interests and NGOs: "They hope to harass China's growth and press China to surrender more economic interests. They even hope that China will one day collapse under the West's ideological crusade", continued the article.
Foreign broadcast coverage, such as from the BBC and CNN, was blacked out whenever Liu was mentioned. In Guangdong, at the mention of the Nobel Peace Prize, signal carriers for Hong Kong TVB were blocked: an outage lasting approximately eight minutes occurred during the 6 pm evening news programme.
After a week of denunciations in China's English-language media, with most journals silent about the award except for perfunctory quotes from the foreign ministry, the country's Chinese-language media launched a concerted assault on Liu and the award, accompanied by renewed attacks in the English-language media. Xinhua argued on 17 October that the Communist Party had made "unremitting efforts to promote and safeguard human rights", and questioned how Liu's actions had contributed to human rights progress for China's people. The agency cited a journal from Saudi Arabia and one from Russia that had denounced the award, and quoted the Pakistani Foreign Office as saying, "the politicization of the Nobel Peace Prize for the purposes of interference in the domestic affairs of states is not only contrary to the recognized principles of inter-State conduct but also a negation of the underlying spirit conceived by the founder of the Prize." In what was described by Chinese media–watchers as a surprise because of its historical professionalism, China Youth Daily
China Youth Daily
The China Youth Daily is the official newspaper of Communist Youth League of China , and is a popular official daily newspaper and the first independently operated central government news media portal in the People's Republic of China.In 1980s it was regarded as the best newspaper in mainland...
published an article containing Beijing students' expressions of anger and disbelief over the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu. The journal employed the traditionally hard-liner's phrase "people with ulterior motives" (别有用心的人) – attributed to one student, and possibly more. It further denounced the "farcical" Nobel decision to use the award as "a tool ... in their relentless effort to undermine China and frustrate its development".
On 18 October, the Global Times published the results of a telephone poll of 866 Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou residents, whom the journal said were chosen at random: 58.6 percent of respondents felt the committee owed the Chinese people an apology and should cancel the award to Liu; more than half agreed Liu should remain incarcerated until he is paroled. The survey also showed "a low recognition of Liu among the public in China, as more than 75 percent of respondents had no idea who the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was." The Beijing Daily published an editorial on the day of the award ceremony entitled "Why not give the peace prize to Julian Assange?". It suggested that Assange
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
, the head of WikiLeaks – a site blocked by China's 'Great Firewall' – was not awarded the prize because he could not "become a tool for Western forces in attacking countries with different ideologies ... even if this tool is serving out a prison sentence for violating the law."
Central government
Following the announcement on 8 October 2010, Xinhua relayed the Russian state-owned news agency's denunciation of the prize. China summoned the Norwegian ambassador in Beijing "to officially share their opinion, their disagreement and their protest." A PRC foreign ministry spokesman accused politicians from "some countries" for using the award to further their own political agendas: "This is not only disrespect for China's judicial system but also puts a big question mark on their true intention." The ministry's statement, labelling the decision "a blasphemy", was carried on Chinese state television.China protested to Norway, saying that China–Norway relations
People's Republic of China – Norway relations
People's Republic of China – Norway relations officially started on 7 October 1950 and shortly after established diplomatic missions on 5 October 1954-Timeline:2010...
had been damaged. A planned meeting in Beijing between Norwegian Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen
Lisbeth Berg-Hansen
Lisbeth Berg-Hansen is a Norwegian businessperson and politician for the Labour Party.She chaired the Norwegian Seafood Federation from 2002 to 2005, and was Vice President of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise from 2004 to 2008...
and Chinese food control authorities was cancelled at the last minute, ostensibly because their counterparts had "other engagements"; Norwegian officials said that a meeting due to be held the same day between Berg-Hansen and the Chinese vice-minister for fisheries had been cancelled in reaction to the award. Elsewhere, performances of a Norwegian musical starring Alexander Rybak
Alexander Rybak
Alexander Igoryevich Rybak or in Belarusian Alyaksandr Igaravich Rybak , born 13 May 1986 in Byelorussian SSR is a Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pianist, writer, and actor...
scheduled for the following month also fell victim to the diplomatic fallout, according to the composer. In early December, Norway said its bilateral trade talks with China had been indefinitely put on hold. Haakon Hjelde, Norway's negotiator reported that the postponement was not directly linked to the award, but Henning Kristofferson, director of international relations of the BI Norwegian School of Management
Norwegian School of Management
BI Norwegian Business School former name BI Norwegian School of Management is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe. BI has in total 6 campuses with the main one located in Oslo.-History:...
, said it was fairly obvious that the PRC government would "never hold a high-level meeting with Norway shortly before or after the award ceremony", having made it plain that the award to Liu was "a big mistake."
Law enforcement
In the days immediately preceding the award ceremony, foreign media reported that Liu's home was under tight security. By what a correspondent for The Guardian called "a peculiar coincidence", construction barriers were erected on both sides of the road at the southern entrance of the residential complex which obscured the estate. Police cars were positioned on every nearby street corner; uniformed and plain-clothes police officers patrolled outside the apartment block, and a radio surveillance vehicle was stationed at the entrance to the compound. Neighbouring businesses were affected: the owner of a nearby restaurant was quoted as saying government officials had told him to close the business temporarily.Liu Xia was under house-arrest almost immediately after the announcement, and was escorted to Liaoning to visit her imprisoned husband. She reported that she was denied visitors, her telephones were repeatedly down, and complained that even her elderly mother had not been able to get through to her. Visitors were denied entrance to her residential compound, including Norwegian diplomats who had tried to visit her on 12 October; she was able to send out a few messages through Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. Chinese police stationed there cordoned off the area. Thus, journalists and well-wishers were kept at bay for several hours after the announcement; as she was being taken away to see her husband, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
heard her say "they are forcing me to leave Beijing". Dissident groups reported on 18 October that numerous supporters and associates of Liu may have been detained by police – that Tiananmen Mother Ding Zilin
Ding Zilin
Professor Ding Zilin is currently the leader of the political pressure group Tiananmen Mothers.-Biography:...
and her husband Jiang Peikun had not been seen or heard of for four days, and that their phones were cut off. Writer Jiang Qisheng went missing just days after the Nobel announcement.
As exiled prominent activists and former activists were reportedly preparing to attend the award ceremony, some prominent individuals and activists inside China experienced travel problems. Economist Mao Yushi
Mao Yushi
Mao Yushi is a Chinese economist. Mao graduated at Jiautong University in 1950 and was labeled as a rightist in 1958...
(who had signed Charter 08), Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008...
, and the human-rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan were all barred from outbound travel at Beijing's airport, ostensibly because their departure from China could "endanger state security". Liu's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, and Peking University law professor He Weifang
He Weifang
He Weifang is a professor at Peking University of China and an activist striving to reform the Chinese judicial system.He earned a B.A. at Southwest University of Political Science & Law, and an LL.M at Peking College of Political Science and Law .He was an associate professor in China University...
were stopped from boarding their flight for London in November. The South China Morning Post reported that even the spouses and children of some outspoken intellectuals experienced outbound travel restrictions. Ai speculated that the refusal to let him board a flight for Korea may have been directly connected with the following week's prize-giving ceremony. Chinese Human Rights Defenders also believed that "officials are increasing their efforts to bar prominent members of Chinese civil society from travelling internationally as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony approaches." The BBC, citing the UN, said there was information that China had detained at least 20 activists prior to the ceremony; it reported sources saying that 120 more activists were subjected to house arrest, travel restrictions, forced relocations, or "other acts of intimidation" ahead of the ceremony; external Chinese sources put the figure of people so restricted at approximately 270.
Liu Xia and Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xia expressed her gratitude to the Nobel Committee, Liu's proposers, and those who have been supporting him since 1989, including the Tiananmen MothersTiananmen Mothers
The Tiananmen Mothers is a group of Chinese democracy activists promoting a change in the government's position over the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989...
– family members or representatives of those who were killed or had disappeared in the military crackdown of the protests of 4 June 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. She said, "The prize should belong to all who signed Charter 08 and were jailed due to their support".
Liu Xia informed the laureate of his award during a visit to Jinzhou Prison on 9 October 2010, one day after the official announcement. She reported that Liu wept and dedicated the award to those who suffered as a result of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, saying: "The award is first and foremost for the Tiananmen martyrs" After Ms. Liu returned home, she was put under house arrest and was watched by armed guards. She expressed the desire to attend the prize-giving in Norway in December, but was sceptical of her chances of being allowed to do so. Liu Xia wrote an open letter to 143 prominent figures, encouraging them to attend the award ceremony in Oslo.
Intellectuals
John PomfretJohn Pomfret (journalist)
John Pomfret is an American journalist and writer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised in New York. He attended Stanford University, receiving his B.A. and M.A. in East Asian Studies. In 1980, he was one of the first American students to go to China and study at Nanjing University...
of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
said a wide spectrum of Chinese and foreigners believed that Liu's award "could actually resonate more deeply within China than any similar act in years". The open letter by Xu Youyu et al, which described Liu as "a splendid choice" because of his advancement of human rights causes and the peaceful fight against social injustice, amassed signatures from about 200 mainland intellectuals and activists; it was posted in Chinese, English, French and Japanese on websites hosted outside China. Artist and critic Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008...
said although the regime ought to feel the most shameful, "intellectuals who had drifted away from their public responsibilities" should bear some of that burden for betraying values they once strove for. Ai said that the Prize was a message from the international community to the Chinese government to respect universal human values, notwithstanding China's economic performance. Writer Liao Yiwu
Liao Yiwu
Liao Yiwu , is a Chinese author, reporter, musician, and poet. He is acritic of China's Communist regime, for which he has been imprisoned...
, a close friend of Liu, described it as "a big moment in Chinese history". Another writer, Yu Jie
Yu Jie
Yu Jie , he is a writer and vice-president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center , coming from Chengdu, Sichuan, China. He is actively participating in China's human rights activities, and openly expresses his own views related.-Biography:...
, said he spent the night awake with tears streaming down his face – "Twenty years ago Liu Xiaobo said that China needed someone with moral clarity about what China needs. Now he has become just that person, that he himself was looking for", he said. Former Chinese diplomat Yang Hengjun
Yang Hengjun
Yang Hengjun is an Australian novelist, born in Hubei Province, central China in 1965. After graduating from Fudan University in 1987, he worked in the Foreign Affairs Department in Beijing. From 1992 to 1997, he worked in Hong Kong as the manager of a mainland Chinese company. He then went to the...
described it as a strong signal to the Chinese government to speed up political reform "or you will have a lot of enemies around you and within you."
Exiled 1989 student leader Wang Dan
Wang Dan
Wang Dan , a leader of the Chinese democracy movement, was one of the most visible of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Wang holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. From August 2009 to February 2010, Wang taught cross-strait history at Taiwan's National...
said he was "ecstatic". Human rights lawyer Li Heping called the award "huge encouragement for the Chinese people ... an affirmation that there are people around the world who really care about human rights and the legal system in China, that the world hasn't forgotten us." He added that others, such as Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng
Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting alleged human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times and released...
, Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng is a blind civil rights activist in the People's Republic of China who drew international attention to human rights issues in rural areas. He was placed under house arrest from September 2005 to March 2006 after talking to Time magazine about the forced abortion cases he...
, and Hu Jia
Hu Jia (activist)
Hu Jia is an activist and dissident in the People's Republic of China. His work has focused on the Chinese democracy movement, Chinese environmentalist movement, and HIV/AIDS in the People's Republic of China...
, also deserved the prize. The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
said that while many activists agreed he was worthy of the award, some radical reformers within Chinese democracy movement
Chinese democracy movement
The Chinese democracy movement refers to a series of loosely organized political movements in the People's Republic of China against the continued one-party rule by the Communist Party. One such movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and was taken up again in the Tiananmen Square...
, such as Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng is a Chinese activist known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement, most prominent for authoring the document Fifth Modernization on the "Democracy Wall" in Beijing in 1978. He is generally known for getting arrested and spending 15 years in prison due to the document...
, see the moderate Liu as the wrong choice due to his advocacy of a gradual path to constitutional democracy in China.
Renmin University professor Zhang Ming felt the award would not have much direct impact. However, economist Mao Yushi
Mao Yushi
Mao Yushi is a Chinese economist. Mao graduated at Jiautong University in 1950 and was labeled as a rightist in 1958...
believed that there were many factors affecting political reform in China. He stated that the prize was impetus from the international community for the process of reform that was already under way, and that the impact of the award to Liu would be felt by the current generation of leaders, and beyond.
Internet community
Although relatively unknown in China through the efforts of the authorities, those who had heard about Liu had mixed views about him. Some clearly supported the government position and one university student was quoted as saying "George OrwellGeorge Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
probably had no idea that what he wrote would end up being the reality of China now." "Liu Xiaobo" and "Nobel Peace Prize" became the most searched terms among internet users in China. However, some time after the release of the official response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, government censors
Censorship in the People's Republic of China
Censorship in the People's Republic of China is implemented or mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Communist Party of China . The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau have their own legal systems and are largely self-governing, so these censorship policies do not apply...
screened the news item, and there were reports of searches in China using Chinese search engines returning error pages. Web searches using Chinese search engines for "Liu Xiaobo" in Chinese without attaching the words "Peace Prize," gave information about Liu. Yet most sites found "Liu" plus "Peace Prize" yield only the official foreign ministry response. CNN reported that any mentions of "Nobel Prize" on microblogging
Microblogging
Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...
sites were censored. One person claimed that his SIM card was deactivated after sending a text message to a relative about the Nobel Peace Prize. Accustomed to circumventing Chinese internet censorship
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China
Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China is conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations. There are no specific laws or regulations which the censorship follows...
, bloggers and forum-users used variants of Liu's name and posted subtle or cryptic messages to express their elation about the award or sarcasm towards the state. The statement on 8 October by renowned blogger Han Han
Han Han
Han Han is a Chinese professional rally driver, best-selling author, singer, creator of Party and China's most popular blogger—indeed, possibly the most popular blogger in the world. He has published five novels to date, and is represented by the Hong Kong based . He is also involved in music...
consisted of only a pair of double quote marks.
Less than three weeks after the announcement of the award to Liu, the Nobel Peace Prize website came under a cyber attack. There was an attempt to hack into the computer of the secretary of the Nobel Committee, Geir Lundestad by a forged email on 3 November. A number of individuals received an email containing a trojan horse
Trojan horse (computing)
A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.-Malware:A destructive program that masquerades as a benign...
purportedly disguised as a pdf-file invitation to the award ceremony from the Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum is a conference about human rights first held in May 2009 in Oslo, Norway. Founded by the Human Rights Foundation. According to Thor Halvorssen , "the Oslo Freedom Forum is an intimate gathering where leaders who are transforming the world present effective solutions and...
. Investigators traced both the attack and the email to an intermediate server reportedly in a Taiwanese university. Experts say the address had been falsified, and the exact origin was unknown; it was emphasised that no link to any party in mainland China could be established. After activists posted photographs of a symbolic empty chair on Internet fora and noticeboards, censors responded by removing the images and making "empty chair" a banned search term.
Hong Kong
Many political groups – including the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (Hong Kong)
The Democratic Party is a pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong. It was established on 2 October 1994. The party is currently the second largest party in the Legislative Council, headed by Chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan and, following the November 2008 merger with the Frontier, had around 745...
and the Hong Kong Journalists Association
Hong Kong Journalists Association
The Hong Kong Journalists Association was established in 1968 for practising journalists in Hong Kong "to enhance press freedom and the integrity of news coverage"...
– welcomed the decision and congratulated Liu. The Journalists Association expressed their gratitude and encouragement for Liu's award, and their hope for the early unconditional release of Liu. Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang
Donald Tsang
Sir Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, GBM, KBE is the current Chief Executive and President of the Executive Council of the Government of Hong Kong....
, and government ministers Leung Chun-ying, and Gregory So
Gregory So
Gregory So Kam-leung is the current Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong.-Education:So holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Carleton University and a double degree of Master of business administration and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa.-Early...
, all declined to comment to the press.
The South China Morning Post
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
in Hong Kong said Liu's courage to stand up for the rights of all people – for the fourth time since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests – made him worthy of joining the company of other similarly persecuted peace prize recipients such as Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
: "Liu is just one of a long line of like-minded Chinese citizens to be silenced. The award will be seen in many quarters as acknowledging their sacrifice for the values it upholds." Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television
Phoenix Television
Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Ltd or Phoenix Television is a Hong Kong-based Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese television broadcaster that serves the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong along with other markets with substantial Chinese viewers...
, which transmits throughout China by satellite, limited its report to the foreign ministry's statement denouncing the honour.
About twenty activists held a celebration in front of the central government liaison office
Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
The Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an organ of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.-Description:...
. Their celebration was broken up and the activists were arrested for assault after a guard was accidentally sprayed with champagne. Human Rights Monitor, and a Democratic Party legislator, denounced the "absurd" reaction of the police. The loyalist Speaker of Hong Kong's legislature
President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
The President of the Legislative Council is the speaker of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. In the absence of the President, the chairman of the House Committee serves as deputy to the President....
turned down an adjournment motion on 15 October submitted by Leung Kwok-hung
Leung Kwok-hung
Leung Kwok-hung , also known as Long Hair , is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong , a founding member of the League of Social Democrats and a democratic political activist.-Biography:Leung is a self-proclaimed Trotskyist and a member of April Fifth Action, a radical socialist...
that called for the release of Liu on grounds that such debate "lacked urgency and would not produce irreversible consequences". On 17 October, thirty supporters of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China – organisers of the annual commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen protests – held a march to the central government liaison office, calling on the central government to release Liu and allow him to attend the prize-giving in December. A candlelight ceremony was held in the city's central business district to coincide with the award ceremony; organisers said 1,000 people attended.
Chinese-language press reported on rumours that Chinese officials had approached high-level executives at TVB and CableTV
Cable TV Hong Kong
Cable TV Hong Kong , previously known as Wharf Cable before October 1998, is owned and operated by i-CABLE Communications Limited...
, asking them not to broadcast the ceremony live on their channels; executives affirmed their plans to broadcast scheduling for the event was immutable. TVB News and now TV
Now TV
Now TV is a 24-hour pay-TV service provider in Hong Kong.It is transmitted through the company's Netvigator broadband network via an IPTV service...
executives categorically denied having been contacted by Chinese authorities to pull the plug on coverage. An editorial in the South China Morning Post said: "this heavy-handed reaction [to Liu's award] is counterproductive to [China's] image and the respect it wants as a peaceful superpower. Liu's award did pose a dilemma, but having made its point at the outset Beijing had little further to gain. Attempts to meddle in the process did nothing to dignify its stand."
Taiwan
One day after the award announcement, President Ma Ying-jeouMa Ying-jeou
Ma Ying-jeou is the 12th term and current President of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, and the Chairman of the Kuomintang Party, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party. He formerly served as Justice Minister from 1993 to 1996, Mayor of Taipei from 1998 to 2006, and Chairman...
's office urged China to exercise greater tolerance of dissidents; the president himself pleaded for the release of Liu, to "solve major human rights incidents with honesty and confidence." Forty-eight non-governmental organisations jointly issued a two-page statement expressing optimism for political change in China. The statement said that the world “stands in solidarity with [the] Chinese people who share Liu’s vision for a strong, prosperous and above all, democratic, China.”
The Taipei Times
Taipei Times
The Taipei Times is one of the three major English-language newspapers in the Republic of China the other two being the Taiwan News and The China Post...
said the award suggested strong support for China’s democracy movement, and predicted the inevitability of change. "The CCP needs to decide whether to attempt to obstruct democracy or facilitate its development. If it chooses the former then history will pass it by, just as it did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
. If, however, the CCP decides to embrace change then it could ... remain a political force" like the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
in Taiwan.
Norway
In advance of an official Chinese response to the Nobel Committee's decision, Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr StøreJonas Gahr Støre
Jonas Gahr Støre is the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having been appointed to Jens Stoltenberg's second cabinet on 17 October 2005. He represents the Norwegian Labour Party.-Personal life:...
said that a Chinese complaint to the Norwegian government would be in vain, since the committee is independent of the Norwegian government, even though it is appointed by the Parliament of Norway. This official position was reiterated to the People's Republic of China by their Norwegian ambassador. After the announcement, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg
is a Norwegian politician, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and the current Prime Minister of Norway. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg previously served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001....
said the decision "directs a spotlight on the human rights situation in China, and underscores the links between development, democracy and universal human rights." Norway summoned the Chinese ambassador to Norway to express its regret at China's reaction, to urge for the release of Liu, and to remove restrictions on his wife. Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten
Aftenposten
Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...
revealed that foreign minister Støre had a pre-emptive meeting with Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland
Thorbjørn Jagland
is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party, currently serving as the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe...
, about Liu as the expected recipient two weeks before the announcement. According to anonymous sources within both the Foreign Ministry and the Nobel Committee itself, Støre is said to have raised certain "concerns". The Norwegian press quoted Jagland as saying that this enquiry was of such a peculiar kind that he would have to present the Nobel Committee with the minutes of the meeting. Former Nobel Committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjøs
Ole Danbolt Mjøs
Ole Danbolt Mjøs is a Norwegian physician and politician for the Christian Democratic Party. A professor and former rector at the University of Tromsø, he is known worldwide as the leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee from 2003 to 2008....
and a number of Norwegian researchers and politicians criticised Støre for breaching protocol and meddling in the work of the Committee.
Norwegian peace activist and author, Fredrik S. Heffermehl criticized the Nobel Committee for failing to follow Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
's dying wish to promote disarmament, by giving the award to Liu. Heffermehl said that less than 50 percent of the awards made after World War II had been made in accordance with Nobel's will.
Governments and politicians
While the Cuban and Venezuelan governments were notably critical, leading politicians in the Western world welcomed the news and called for the release of Liu. Non-aligned and developing countries such as Russia, Brazil and India, many Asian and Middle Eastern countries were silent. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonBan Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
recognised China's "remarkable economic advances [that have] lifted millions out of poverty", and said he hoped "any differences on this decision will not detract from advancement of the human rights agenda globally or the high prestige and inspirational power of the award". President Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
lauded Liu's eloquence and courage, while his government called for his immediate release.
The European Union and member governments praised the decision, and also called on China to release Liu. European Commission President José Manuel Barroso stated that "the decision of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is a strong message of support to all those around the world who, sometimes with great personal sacrifice, are struggling for freedom and human rights." The Polish foreign ministry said it was appreciative of the decision to award Liu. Japan greeted the award and emphasised the need for respect of human rights, but did not call for Liu's release; Premier Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...
told a parliamentary committee Liu's release was "desirable". The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...
, said Australia was strongly against Liu's imprisonment, and "welcome[d] the fact that his work has been recognised internationally now with the Nobel Peace Prize", while the Australian Greens leader Bob Brown
Bob Brown
Robert James Brown is an Australian senator, the inaugural Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens and was the first openly gay member of the Parliament of Australia...
described the decision as "inspiring". However, Brown contrasted Norway's courage with the "sheer ignorance and gutlessness of most of Australia's politicians on the plight of campaigning democrats in China". The Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
expressed his delight, and said he hoped the award "would cause our friends in the Chinese government to look seriously at that issue of his release from prison."
However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
sided with China, saying the award should be given to those who "have done the most for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and promotion of peace congresses". Pakistan and Cuba denounced the choice, saying Liu was exactly "the type of 'dissident' that the United States has been designing for decades to use ... as fifth columns in those countries that they disagree with because those countries dissent from [American] hegemony." The United Arab Emirates expressed regret at the "politically motivated" decision to award Liu which it said was "against the UAE's fundamental belief in respecting other nations' sovereignty and non-interference."
On 8 December, the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
voted by 402 to 1 to congratulate Liu and honour his "promotion of democratic reform in China, and the courage with which he has borne repeated imprisonment ... and [call] on the government of China to cease censoring media and internet reporting of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo and to cease its campaign of defamation against Liu Xiaobo." The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded by accusing US lawmakers of possessing an "arrogant and unreasonable attitude" and "lacking respect for China's judicial sovereignty." Ahead of the award ceremony, Barack Obama said "Mr Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was ... [He] reminds us that human dignity also depends upon the advance of democracy, open society, and the rule of law ... The values he espouses are universal, his struggle is peaceful, and he should be released as soon as possible."
Human rights groups and academics
The Dalai Lama expressed confidence that China would one day enjoy responsible governance through the efforts of Liu and others calling for democracy and freedom. He praised the award as "the international community's recognition of the increasing voices among the Chinese people in pushing China towards political, legal and constitutional reforms." Former Polish president Lech WałęsaLech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
said he was "very satisfied", describing the award as "a challenge for China and the entire world, [which] must declare whether it is ready to help China enter a zone where there is respect for the principles and values".
However, Andre Geim
Andre Geim
Andre Konstantin Geim, FRS is a Dutch-Russian-British physicist working at the University of Manchester. Geim was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Konstantin Novoselov for his work on graphene...
and Konstantin Novoselov
Konstantin Novoselov
Konstantin Sergeevich Novoselov FRS is a Russo-British physicist, most notably known for his works on graphene together with Andre Geim, which earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. Novoselov is currently a member of the mesoscopic physics research group at the University of Manchester as...
, who were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
, attacked the Nobel committee as "retired Norwegian politicians who have spent all their careers in a safe environment, in an oil-rich modern country. They try to extend their views of the world, how the world should work and how democracy works in another country." They also felt that China should be given due credit for undisputed improvements in human rights and the economy over the last 10 years. Novoselov questioned: "What is a dictatorship? It is not as if people are being constantly killed there," The pair were rebutted by 2010 Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
, who said it was a timely reminder that China was still a dictatorship and quite monolithic regarding politics, and that the award was "a tribute to all Chinese dissidents and all Chinese who want not just economic but also political growth and progress in China."
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
said the 2010 award honours "all those in China who struggle daily to make the government more accountable" and "shatter[s] the myth where the Communist Party presents itself as the voice of the Chinese people". Canadian academic Professor Josephine Chiu-Duke believed that many Communist Party members were "hoping that China can be free, democratic and civilized", and hoped that the award would "encourag[e] more Chinese to speak up." Former British diplomat in Beijing, Kerry Brown, lamented that, economically powerful though China is, its sole Nobel laureate languished in prison.
The Secretary General of Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, said: "the Chinese government might see this is as a victory, but they would be mistaken ... Because, while the other chairs in the packed hall on the day of the awards ceremony will each hold only one person, Liu's empty chair will hold ... the thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience [who were] victims of prosecution and persecution simply for having the courage to voice their views." On the other hand, in an article appearing in China Daily
China Daily
The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...
, David Gosset of the China Europe International Business School
China Europe International Business School
China Europe International Business School is one of the three international business schools affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University located in Shanghai, China. The school was established in 1994 in Beijing as a joint venture between the European Commission, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign...
said the award was "a sad paradox, a prize without any real winner, which generates mistrust and perplexity when understanding and clarity are most needed". Gosset believed that only citizens were able to define the exact terms and pace of democratisation in their own country, and lamented the "fallacy" of implicitly associating the PRC with German Nazism
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
or South African apartheid, and emphasised that China, a developing country with a per capita GDP
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
of $3,700, could hardly adopt the socio-political standards of the developed world without attenuating its development. He also argued that the choice of Liu was divisive in view of China's memory of Western imperialism, and of Alfred Nobel's dying wish to reward a person "who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations". Professor Sidney Rittenberg
Sidney Rittenberg
Sidney Rittenberg is an American journalist, interpreter and scholar who lived in China from 1944 to 1979. He worked closely with People's Republic of China founder Mao Zedong, military leader Zhu De, statesman Zhou Enlai, and other leaders of the Chinese Communist Party during the war, and was...
said: "One does not have to approve of Mr Liu's imprisonment in order to disapprove of his choice as a Nobel laureate ... Not only have courageous, intelligent individuals like Mr Liu made no tangible contribution to China's advance, not only have their activities and his choice for a Nobel Prize made life more difficult for China's dissidents – but the main point is that his advocacy of a multiparty system for the China of today would almost certainly lead to disaster, if carried out. To wit, Iran after the overthrow of the shah."
Media
State-owned Russian news agency RIA Novosti immediately criticised the prize as a "political tool" – a denunciation swiftly picked up and relayed by Xinhua. Radio Free Europe reported SolidarnostSolidarnost
Solidarnost is a Russian liberal democratic political movement founded on 13 December 2008 by a number of well-known members of the liberal democratic opposition, including Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and others from the Yabloko and Union of Right Forces Solidarnost (Солидарность, Russian for...
(in Russia) planned to hold a public rally in support of Liu in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, but the authorities refused permission. In the end, 10 activists staged a protest outside the Chinese consulate there.
In an editorial, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
said "to many western ears, the clamour of China's markets is louder than the pleas of its dissidents. The Nobel committee is one of few institutions with sufficient status to be heard around the world. Its most coveted prize can now amplify Mr Liu's voice." The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
said that the award was justified not only by Liu’s own courage, but was "a rebuke to Western governments, so hypnotised by China's riches and cowed by self-interest that they have shut their eyes and ears to the regime's abuses of human rights."
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
applauded the award: "Beijing is used to throwing its weight around these days – on currency, trade, the South China Sea and many other issues. Too many governments, and companies, are afraid to push back. Maybe someone in China’s leadership will now figure out that bullying is not a strategy for an aspiring world power." The French daily, Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
, referred to Liu as "the Chinese Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
", saying "the Chinese government wanted to show the world that nothing would stop it from silencing its critics. However, China is today a part of the international community, and must respect the norms it accepted when it signed up for UN membership. The pressure it exerted upon the Nobel prize committee not to award Liu is unacceptable."
On the other hand, an article in The Guardian pointed out Liu's support for "the total westernisation of China" amongst other policies, such as the US invasion of Iraq, and on the tenor of the debate in the West: "Liu Xiaobo's politics have been reduced to a story of a heroic individual who upholds human rights and democracy. His views are largely omitted to avoid a discussion about them, resulting in a one-sided debate." Its survey of 500 press articles published in Hong Kong about Liu showed "only 10 were critical of the man or peace prize."
News agencies reported the Confucius Peace Prize
Confucius Peace Prize
The Confucius Peace Prize is a prize of the People's Republic of China established in 2010 in response to a proposal by business person Liu Zhiqin on November 17, 2010, although members of the award committee said the prize had been around much longer...
, established at the suggestion of Global Times in response to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed dissident. The organiser denied any involvement of the Chinese government in the award and the Minister of Culture said they only became aware of the prize due to the press coverage. Hong Kong's Ming Pao
Ming Pao
Ming Pao is a Chinese language newspaper published by Ming Pao Group in Hong Kong. In the 1990s, Ming Pao established four overseas branches in North America, each provides independent reporting on local news and collect local advertisements. Currently, only the two Canadian editions remain: Ming...
, which had obtained a copy of the letter from the organisers of the Confucius award to the 'winner', suggested that this was indeed unofficial – the letter did not bear the Ministry of Culture's official seal. Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...
said the rival award was "stupid".
The Economist recalled how the Soviet Union prevented Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
from accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, and suggested that Chinese leadership would probably have expected such a comparison. Both it and Die Welt made direct reference to the creation of a similar German National Prize for Art and Science
German National Prize for Art and Science
The German National Prize for Art and Science was an award created by Adolf Hitler in 1937 as a replacement for the Nobel Prize . The award was designed by Müller-Erfurt and created in the form of a pendant studded with diamonds...
by Nazi Germany after von Ossietzky was prohibited from leaving the country to collect the 1935 prize.
Diplomatic pressure
In the lead-up to the award ceremony, the Chinese authorities began a campaign through state media to criticise both Liu and the prize; the Chinese foreign service in Beijing and abroad targeted Western government officials, urging them to stay away from the award ceremony in OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
on 10 December and refrain from issuing any statements of support for Liu. At least two European embassies in Norway were sent letters by their Chinese counterparts, denouncing the prize for being an interference in China's internal affairs and reaffirming their stance that Liu had committed crimes in China. One diplomat said his embassy's letter from the Chinese embassy requested obliquely that they "refrain from attending any activity directed against China." The Norwegian Nobel Committee said its invitation to the Chinese ambassador to attend the prize-giving was returned unanswered. The Chinese Vice Foreign Minister also warned countries supporting Liu's award that they would have to "take responsibility for the consequences".
In December, the Chinese foreign ministry continued to denounce the award as "interference by a few clowns". It said "more than 100 countries and international organisations [had] expressed explicit support of China’s position opposing this year's peace prize." However, according to the Nobel Committee, only the 65 countries with diplomatic missions were invited; acceptances had been received from 46 countries, including the previously non-committal India, while China and 19 others – Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela and Vietnam – declined invitations to the award ceremony "for various reasons". On the eve of the award ceremony, China continued the rhetoric against the Nobel Committee and the West. A spokesman said: "We hope that those countries who have received invitations can tell right from wrong and uphold justice. It's not an issue of human rights. It's an issue of interfering in other countries' internal affairs"; the Nobel committee continued to be criticised for "encouraging crime"; the Global Times repeated earlier suggestions that the award was a Western conspiracy against Beijing, a "charge against China's ideology, aiming to undermine the benign surroundings for China's future development."
Colombia, Serbia, the Philippines and Ukraine initially announced they would not attend the ceremony, but later accepted the invitation. The Philippines ultimately did not attend: President Benigno Aquino III
Benigno Aquino III
Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III , also known as Noynoy Aquino or PNoy, is a Filipino politician who has been the 15th and current President of the Philippines since June 2010....
defended the Philippine non-attendance as "in our national interest"; the Philippine government, which had been heavily criticised in its national press for its decision, revealed its hope that China would show clemency to five Filipinos on death row for drug trafficking.
Award ceremony
The award ceremony, held as planned in Oslo City HallOslo City Hall
Oslo City Hall houses the city council, city administration, and art studios and galleries. The construction started in 1931, but was paused by the outbreak of World War II, before the official inauguration in 1950. Its characteristic architecture, artworks and the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, held...
on the afternoon of 10 December, was attended by about 1,000 VIPs, diplomats and guests. Representing Norway were King Harald V, Queen Sonja and a number of politicians and officials; among the 48 foreign dignitaries was the US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
. The Chinese group was 46-strong, and included astrophysicist Professor Fang Lizhi
Fang Lizhi
Fang Lizhi is a professor of astrophysics and former vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986-87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989...
, Yang Jianli
Yang Jianli
Yang Jianli is a Chinese dissident with United States residency.Yang, a Tiananmen Square activist in 1989, came to the United States, earned two Ph.D.s , and then founded the Foundation for China in the 21st Century...
, and exiled former Tiananmen student leaders Chai Ling
Chai Ling
Chai Ling was one of the student leaders in the Tian'anmen Square protests of 1989. Today she is Founder of All Girls Allowed, a humanitarian organization working to restore value to girls in China.-Education and protest:Chai Ling's parents were members of the Communist Party...
, Wu'erkaixi
Wu'erkaixi
Wu'erkaixi was a Mainland Chinese student leader of Uyghur ethnicity in the Tiananmen protests of 1989. He was born in Beijing, but listed as a native of Yili, Xinjiang Autonomous Region. He achieved prominence while studying at Beijing Normal University as a hunger striker who rebuked Chinese...
, Feng Congde
Feng Congde
Feng Congde is a Chinese dissident. He was a student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. He was on the Chinese Government's list of the 21 most wanted leaders of the protests....
, and Fang Zheng, whose legs were crushed by a tank; the Hong Kong delegation comprised Albert Ho
Albert Ho
Albert Ho Chun-yan . He is currently secretary general of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China and chairman of the Democratic Party. He is a solicitor and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong....
, Emily Lau
Emily Lau
Emily Lau Wai-hing JP is one of two vice-chairmen of Democratic Party.She was the convenor of The Frontier...
, and Lee Cheuk-yan. Outside the hall, pro-democracy and human rights activists demonstrated; about 50 China supporters held a protest outside the Norwegian Parliament.
The hall was decked with an immense portrait of Liu for the event. During the ceremony, the Nobel committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland credited China's leaders with the "extraordinary" economic transformation that has lifted millions of people out of poverty, but said they "must regard criticism as positive" considering the nation's new status as a world power. Liu's award marks the third occasion that the Prize has been bestowed upon a person in prison or detention, after Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Aung San Suu Kyi (1991); Liu and Ossietzky were the only ones not to be present or represented by close family at the awards ceremony. The Nobel diploma and the prize were symbolically placed by Jagland on an empty chair meant for the absent laureate. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann
Liv Johanne Ullmann is a Norwegian actress and film director, as well as one of the "muses" of the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman...
read I Have No Enemies
I Have No Enemies
"I have no enemies: My final Statement" was an essay written by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo intended to be read at his trial in December 2009.Liu was charged with the crime of "inciting subversion of state power"...
, an essay by Liu written for his trial in December 2009.
The proceedings were televised by the international media, but broadcast signals of CNN and BBC inside China were reportedly blocked. Images of and references to 'empty chair' also became the target of official censorship. After the ceremony, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, continued the rhetoric against the award:
Following the ceremony, an evening rally of more than 1,000 people in Oslo called for Liu's release. The marchers headed for the Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel (Oslo)
Grand Hotel is a hotel in Oslo, Norway. The hotel is best known as is the annual venue of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.Grand Hotel is situated in a very central location on the main thoroughfare, the Karl Johans gate, between the Norwegian Parliament building and the Royal Palace. It is...
, where laureates traditionally greet the crowd from the balcony. Assembled Chinese activists and dissidents said they were inspired by the award, that it was a much-needed morale-booster, and expressed hope that it would be a catalyst to resurrect the moribund Chinese pro-democracy movement. Yang Jianli
Yang Jianli
Yang Jianli is a Chinese dissident with United States residency.Yang, a Tiananmen Square activist in 1989, came to the United States, earned two Ph.D.s , and then founded the Foundation for China in the 21st Century...
said: "The most important change is the change in people's hearts ... this is the greatest achievement [of this award]," The Global Times said of the ceremony: "It’s unimaginable that such a farce, the like of which is more commonly seen in cults, is being staged on the civilised continent of Europe". On the other hand, a huge image with three empty chairs and five cranes adorned the front page the 12 December edition of the Southern Metropolis Daily; ambiguously, the headline read: "2010 Asian Para Games Are Ready to Start Tonight in Guangzhou". China Digital Times offered the interpretation that 'crane' in Chinese (he) is a homonym for 'congratulations' and the first character of 'peace'.
The Nobel Peace Prize Concert to commemorate the 2010 prize was held on 11 December, the night following the award ceremony as is the tradition. It was hosted by Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
and Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway (actress)
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. After several stage roles, she appeared in the 1999 television series Get Real. She played Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries...
. The roster of confirmed performers announced before the award included Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Florence and the Machine
Florence and the Machine
Florence and the Machine is the recording name of English musician Florence Welch and a collaboration of other artists who provide music for her voice. Florence and the Machine's sound has been described as a combination of various genres, including rock and soul...
, Colbie Caillat
Colbie Caillat
Colbie Marie Caillat is an American pop singer-songwriter and guitarist from Malibu, California. She debuted in 2007 with Coco, which included hit singles "Bubbly", "Realize", and "The Little Things". In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, "Lucky", which won a Grammy. Caillat released her...
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
. Those who were confirmed later included Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...
, Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
, A. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and philanthropist. Described as the world's most prominent and prolific film composer by Time, his works are notable for integrating eastern classical music with electronic music sounds, world music genres and...
, India.Arie
India.Arie
India.Arie is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer . She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.-Background:Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado...
, Robyn
Robyn
Robin Miriam Carlsson , better known by her stage name Robyn, is a Swedish recording artist, singer, and songwriter. Robyn became known in the late nineties for her worldwide dance-pop hit "Do You Know " from her debut album Robyn Is Here . She co-wrote the song "Du gör mig hel igen" for...
and Sivert Høyem
Sivert Høyem
Sivert Høyem is a Norwegian singer, best known as the vocalist of the rock band Madrugada. After the band broke up due to the death of Robert Burås in 2007, he has enjoyed success as a solo artist and is also a member of The Volunteers with whom he released the album Exiles in 2006.-With...
.
External links
- Official Nobel page
- Norwegian Nobel Committee (8 October 2010). The Nobel Peace Prize for 2010. Press release.
- "Who is Liu Xiaobo?". Xinhua News Agency. 28 October 2010.
- "Profile: Liu Xiaobo". Al Jazeera. Reuters. 8 October 2010.
- Eimer, David (8 October 2010). "Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize: a profile". The Daily Telegraph.
- Coonan, Clifford (9 October 2010). "A champion of basic rights who refuses to be silenced". The Irish Times.
- China Faces International Criticism at Nobel Ceremony – video report by Democracy Now!