The Noble Peace Prize will go this year to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese political dissident who has been repeatedly jailed for his essays, the Nobel Committee announced Friday. Liu will be the first Chinese citizen to be awarded the prize. Chinese officials protested the decision.
The Nobel Committee rebuked China in its statement announcing Liu as the winner. Mentioning the freedoms in the Chinese constitution, the committee said, “In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens.”
“Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China,” the statement continued.
Liu, 54, is currently serving an 11-year prison term for subversion. He is the third person to have been given the award while in jail.
He was first arrested in 1989, when he was part of the famed demonstration in Tiananmen Square. He staged a hunger strike at the rally, and later helped negotiate the peaceful retreat of student demonstrators.
He was most recently arrested in 2008, shortly after helping to create a petition calling on Chinese rulers to commit themselves to human rights, judicial independence, and political reform that would open the door to competition for control of the country.
China termed the decision to award Liu the prize, “a blasphemy to the peace prize.” Liu “is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law,” officials said.
Officials had warned Norway not to give Liu the Nobel prize, saying that a victory for Liu would damage relations between Norway and China.
Analysts were split on how the prize could affect China's pro-democracy movement. While many felt the award would increase the movement's strength, some expressed concern that the prize could make Chinese youth feel that the West is challenging their government, leading them to rally around their leaders.
Last year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was United States President Barack Obama, who controversially won the prize during his first year in office. Other previous winners include the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed ElBaradei (2005), former US President Jimmy Carter (2002), and Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzchak Rabin (1994), the former Palestinian Authority Chairman and co-Prime Ministers of Israel respectively.