Liu Xiaobo - Nobel Peace Laureate

[Eric]

This year's Nobel Peace Prizewinner, Liu Xiaobo also has a lot to do with literature. But he won't be collecting his prize as the Chinese authorities sentenced him to eleven (11) years in prison for evidently "fomenting the subversion of the state" or some such charge.

I read about him this morning in today's Upsala Nya Tidning, a liberal (in the European and British sense) Swedish daily. The article was a leader.

They had, in turn, received their information from American PEN. See: PEN American Center - China: Liu Xiaobo

A few excerpts from the Swedish article:

Liu has worked as a professor of literature at the University of Peking and as guest researcher at several foreign universities. He took part in demonstrations on Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989 and played a key role in preventing further bloodshed.

Liu was one of the authors of the Charta 08 manifesto which, apart from demanding freedom of expression and other normal human rights, also demanded an end to the one-party system in China. In December 2009 Liu was sentenced to eleven year's imprisonment for "fomenting the subversion of the state". He is today one of the most important symbols for another China to the one possible today. (...)

Today, it looks as if it will be impossible for Liu to come to Oslo or accept the prize in any other way, i.e. in China. The reactions of the Chinese r?gime yesterday say it all: Liu's wife, Liu Xia, was put in what amounts in practical terms to house arrest, CNN's news broadcasts were blocked, and a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs showered the laureate with insults. Earlier, the r?gime threatened Norway with worsened relations should Liu win the prize. The fact that the Nobel Committee is independent and not part of the Norwegian state apparatus is clearly a distinction that the totalitarian r?gime cannot allow itself to recognise.

Well, there you are, another Nobel prize involving literature, this time awarded in Oslo by the Norwegian branch of the Nobel organisation. But unlike Mario Vargas Llosa, he won't be able to collect his prize.

[lenz]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11511310

Liu's wife suddenly allowed to visit him in prison.

[Heteronym]

Do you think people will forget him as quickly as they've forgotten Gao Xingjian?

[Eric]

The PEN club, a worldwide organisation does not forget writers who are stuck in prison in countries with undemocratic r?gimes. It's like a kind of Amnesty International for writers.

Gao Xingjian is not in prison. That's a big difference. Whether Gao is any good as an author or deserves to be forgotten is not the point. He lives in French exile, presumably in a house or flat, not a cell. Liu, on the other hand, appears to have been landed with an eleven-year sentence for subversion or similar. I think that the various PEN clubs around the world, plus a lot of journalists, regard this sentence as unjust, given the fact that Liu is supposed to have helped stop further bloodshed on Tiananmen Square.

OK, he's been allowed a visit by his wife. Big deal. In normal countries that is a normal human right. I believe she has been put under guard afterwards to make sure she doesn't whizz off to Norway to collect the prize for him and make the Chinese authorities look fools in the eyes of the world media. The Chinese authorities censor the internet and other media so that Chinese people can't find out things like that. It was like that in that other one-party state the Soviet Union, which many people here are too young to remember. Censorship and imprisonment are a sign of weakness. In democratic countries like the ones we live in, the government doesn't do that kind of thing.

Next time you get arrested in Canada and Portugal, respectively, and get bunged up in a cell for subvers?on for a few years, have a heart for Liu. In the West, being put in prison for eleven years for undermining the state is not something that happens often, especially to professors of literature.

[Eric]

The latest on this issue (not only whingeing Westerners):

BBC News - Chinese veteran politicians call for reform

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...281065271.html

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/na...135/story.html

[Eric]

My advice to all you nice people on the WLF is - don't win the Nobel prize. And if you know anyone who has, don't go near them. Such activity only gets you into trouble:

Liu Xiaobo activists claim they have been assaulted and harassed - The Scotsman

Now you can go back to reading your postmodernist novels without full stops about democracy, racism, the exploitation and liberation of workers, and so on. Have fun! Bye for now!

[Eric]

The Empty Chair.

I notice the complete apathy on this forum regarding the freedom of speech involved when Liu Xiaobo gets put inside for eleven years. I saw in my newspaper this morning that the Norwegians have dared to defy the Chinese government, which is a self-appointed arbiter of freedom of speech for millions of ordinary Chinese, and which censors out all mention of this award and lots of other things, so that the Chinese are not corrupted by democratic Western values.

If only Julian Assange had managed to get hold of some embarrassing documents in Chinese showing what, for instance, those old Maoists thought. Remember it was very old people from Mao's era that told the young ones that censorship wasn't acceptable in modern day China. We've heard no more about that. Presumably because WikiLeaks, as I continue to claim, is only intent on Yank-bashing and doesn't really care about the truly repressive and dictatorial countries in this world. All this pious stuff about freedom off speech would ring more true if WikiLeaks would start attacking hard targets, countries that are repressive and undemocratic, instead of hitting soft targets like Yankie diplomats and their gossip. Because I don't believe that Wikileaks could operate in China, Iran, North Korea, and so on. They would be rounded up and put in prison for decades, just like in the case of Liu Xiaobo, or in places like Cuba.

[Galatea92]

If only Julian Assange had managed to get hold of some embarrassing documents in Chinese showing what, for instance, those old Maoists thought. Remember it was very old people from Mao's era that told the young ones that censorship wasn't acceptable in modern day China. We've heard no more about that. Presumably because WikiLeaks, as I continue to claim, is only intent on Yank-bashing and doesn't really care about the truly repressive and dictatorial countries in this world. All this pious stuff about freedom off speech would ring more true if WikiLeaks would start attacking hard targets, countries that are repressive and undemocratic, instead of hitting soft targets like Yankie diplomats and their gossip. Because I don't believe that Wikileaks could operate in China, Iran, North Korea, and so on. They would be rounded up and put in prison for decades, just like in the case of Liu Xiaobo, or in places like Cuba.

You don't like to let truth get in the way of a good rant, do you Eric? When WikiLeaks started it was so closely associated with the publication of information from Tibetan dissidents that the Chinese government accused it of being an arm of American intelligence. Nice irony, eh?

[lionel]

You don't like to let truth get in the way of a good rant, do you Eric? When WikiLeaks started it was so closely associated with the publication of information from Tibetan dissidents that the Chinese government accused it of being an arm of American intelligence. Nice irony, eh?

Oh, don't bother, you'll just encourage him.

BLOG

[Eric]

Thank-you for that bit of back-handed support, Lionel. I like to be encouraged to actually say what is bloody obvious to most people. I admire the Norwegians on this occasion, usually so keen to keep out of the fray like some of their neighbours, for actually having the guts to stand up against the Chinese authorities, whatever the consequences for their trade balance.

I repeat, the people on this website seem rather good at support for Wikileaks, but are blind to the follies of putting someone in prison for eleven years, and a literary lecturer at that. Galatea will have to expand his vocabulary to include more words of put-down than "rant".

[Ziggurat]

Eric, I don't think there is anything that could shock me if documents were leaked from China. Those guys (the Communist party) are capable of anything, even though the worst excesses were probably reached in the 1960s. I don't think they really care about being seen as consistent or reliable in the eyes of the world, as long as they "keep China strong".

Of course, it was grotesque to put Liu Xiaobo in jail for 11 years, that goes without saying.

[Heteronym]

I liked to see Liv Ullmann reading a speech in Xiaobo's behalf. With any other actor, this would look like shameless self-promotion (Angelina Jolie!); but this veteran actress has gravitas.