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Liu Xiaobo was, in a sense, the leader of China. He was the country’s foremost proponent of freedom, democracy, and human rights. He thought that Communism was a gross imposition on China and that it could not last indefinitely, if enough Chinese stood up against it. Liu has now died at 61. Apparently, the cause was liver cancer, plus years of torture and abuse in prison. He died surrounded by state agents, as he had lived much of his life. He was born in 1955. An intellectual, he became a scholar of literature. In 2008, he was a founder of...

Apple is a great American success story and we can say of the late Steve Jobs: You did build that. But there’s a problem with Apple in China. The Beijing government’s forced abortion policy is worming its way into the factories of Apple, Inc. Twenty-four of these factories, it is reported, have helped the Communist government’s brutal efforts to prevent so-called unauthorized births to Chinese mothers. Exiled human rights champion Chen Guangcheng is reporting on the collaboration of Apple in compulsory pregnancy testing of Apple’s Chinese employees. Chen told Bloomberg news agency that Apple should refuse to comply with such...

Senate Democrats on Thursday for a second time blocked a proposal from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington for a Chinese dissident. Cruz, who is running for president, tried to get unanimous consent to pass a resolution that would name the street in front of the embassy "Liu Xiaobo Plaza" after Liu Xiaobo, a human rights activist currently imprisoned in China. It would also change the embassy's address to "1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza." "Standing together with a wrongfully imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate, we should say to the wrongfully imprisoned dissidents...

For the past several years, the buzz among those who take more than passing interest in world affairs has been about the meteoric rise of Communist-controlled China as the new global power. There are those around the world who view China’s emergence as a certainty, long anticipated, and deserving celebration. For them, this historic development is also indicative in some ways of the diminishing importance of the West, and in particular the decline of the U.S. from its pre-eminent superpower status. Among the many voices who have thrown caution to the wind in embracing China’s rise as inevitable and good...

China's Nobel Fury Backlash Parameswaran Ponnudurai 2010-12-11 Beijing's aggressive blitz to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize and its recipient may boomerang, analysts say. A portrait of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo is projected on the wall of a hotel during a torch parade in Oslo, Dec. 10, 2010. China may have shot itself in the foot by its radical clampdown at home and aggressive diplomacy abroad over the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed pro-democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo. By barring Liu and his wife from collecting the award, coming down hard on his supporters, and muzzling debate on the subject, Beijing's...

Beijing lashes out as dissident gets Nobel By Keith B. Richburg Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, December 10, 2010; A01 BEIJING - Chinese authorities displayed growing frustration Thursday with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned intellectual Liu Xiaobo, tightening their grip on activists and blocking some Web sites and broadcasts. China has prohibited Liu and his family members from leaving China to attend Friday's ceremony in Oslo. Nobel committee organizers said he would be represented by an empty chair - the first time the award will not be presented to a laureate in person since 1936, when...

Foreign media websites apparently blocked in China BEIJING (AFP) - The websites of several foreign media outlets appeared to be blocked in China on Thursday on the eve of the award ceremony in Oslo honouring the 2010 Nobel peace laureate, jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo. AFP attempts to access the websites of television networks CNN, the BBC and Norwegian public broadcaster NRK were unsuccessful, with the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page" appearing on the screen. China on Thursday stepped up its criticism of the Oslo-based Nobel committee that in October chose Liu -- who was jailed in December...

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Egypt and 18 other countries will not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, officials said in an announcement that followed a Chinese campaign to dissuade diplomats from showing up. Representatives of different embassies, including those of Egypt, Russia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Colombia have turned down the invitation to the event, scheduled to take place in Oslo on 10 December, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee said. At least 44 of the 65 embassies that have been invited have accepted the invitation, the committee claims, adding that the Chinese boycott...

The refusals, which included several key Chinese allies and trading partners such as Pakistan and Sudan, came after weeks of intense lobbying by China to stop countries showing support for Mr Liu, a Chinese pro-democracy activist serving an 11-year jail sentence. The refusals have sparked acrimonious exchanges between Beijing and Oslo and highlighted growing international fault-lines between an authoritarian rising China and the liberal democracies of America, Europe and its historical allies. "I would like to say to those at the Nobel committee, they are orchestrating an anti-China farce by themselves," said a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman. "We are not...

Seoul sending envoy to Nobel event December 07, 2010 Korea’s government has decided to attend a ceremony to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed Chinese dissident later this week, a diplomatic source said yesterday, despite China’s opposition to countries supporting the honoree. China’s protest against the decision to give the prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo had put Korea in a diplomatic quandary over whether to attend the Dec. 10 ceremony in Oslo, Norway, amid concern that the move could have negative effects on relations with Beijing. The conundrum demonstrated China’s rising influence in the region. China is...

China warns Western envoys off Nobel ceremony: diplomats by Pierre-Henry Deshayes Fri Nov 5, 12:17 pm ET OSLO (AFP) – China has warned other countries against attending the award ceremony in Oslo for Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, diplomats said Friday, in the latest sign of Beijing's irritation at the Norwegian Nobel Committee's pick this year. Diplomats from several countries said China's embassy in Oslo had sent letters to Western missions more or less implicitly cautioning them not to attend the prize ceremony on December 10 in the Norwegian capital. The decision to award the prize to Liu, a veteran...

Nobel Peace Prize award 'encouraging crime', China claims Awarding the Nobel Peace prize to Liu Xiaobo is tantamount to encouraging crime, according to China. By Peter Foster, Beijing Published: 10:42AM BST 14 Oct 2010 “Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Awarding the Nobel Prize to him is equivalent to encouraging crime,” said Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman, in the latest denunciation of the decision to honour the author of the Charter 08 petition calling for greater freedom in China. His remarks came after Naoto Kan, the Japanese prime minister, joined the US, Germany and several other European nations in...

The contrast between the Nobel Committee's choice for its Peace Prize a year ago and today couldn't be more stark. In 2009, the Norwegian group tapped President Obama for its prestigious award. On Friday, they chose a genuine hero: Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.Mr. Obama was nominated within days of taking office, and the committee ridiculously claimed it awarded him the prize not for his accomplishments, but for the promise of what he might achieve. Mr. Liu was selected "for his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Such is the distinction between style and substance.Mr. Obama...

Liu dedicates Nobel prize to Tiananmen victims by Robert Saiget Mon Oct 11, 9:45 am ET BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has tearfully dedicated his award to victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, activists said, as his wife was held under house arrest on Monday. "This award is for the lost souls of June Fourth," the US-based group Human Rights in China quoted Liu Xiaobo as telling his wife Liu Xia, referring to the bloody June 4, 1989 crackdown on democracy protests at the vast Beijing square. The 54-year-old writer, who was jailed for 11...

US President Barack Obama has called for the release of this year's Nobel peace prize winner – jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Obama has praised Xiaobo as an eloquent and courageous supporter of human rights and democracy. A poet and literature professor, Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009. He's the co-author of Charter 08, a call for political reform and human rights. He had played a leading role in the Tianan-men Square student’s protest of 1989. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel, despite China warning the Nobel committee not to give him the prize saying it...

President Obama on Friday praised Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for his Nobel Peace Prize win and called on the Chinese government to release Liu from prison. He is serving an 11-year sentence for "subversion" related to his authoring of a treatise demanding broad political reform in the country. Obama, who won last year's Peace Prize, noted in a statement that "many others who have received the award [have] sacrificed" much more than he has. "That list now includes Mr. Liu, who has sacrificed his freedom for his beliefs," he said. "By granting the prize to Mr. Liu, the Nobel Committee...

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been named the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. The award, announced in Norway's capital Oslo, is certain to anger Beijing, which had earlier warned against the move. Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said Mr Liu was "the foremost symbol of the wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China". Mr Jagland earlier admitted he knew the choice would be controversial.

OSLO, Norway – Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights" — a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him. Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu Xiaobo (LEE-o SHAo-boh) was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China and the government should expect that its policies face scrutiny

Liu Xiaobo, a pro-democracy activist, won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for his decades of non-violent struggle for human rights in China. Beijing was not impressed. Mr. Liu is currently in a Chinese prison serving out an 11-year sentence as the lead author of Chapter 08, a manifesto calling for free speech and multi-party elections.