Jailed Dissident Wins Nobel Peace Prize; Rights Groups Applaud as China Fumes
By SHERISSE PHAM
Oct. 8, 2010 —
China is fuming about imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, but the international individual rights neighborhood, along with a considerable number of Chinese language citizens, is celebrating tonight.
“It’s a substantial boost for that individual rights cause in China,” explained Carroll Bogert of Individual Rights View. “The Nobel Prize committee has stood up for individual rights in a way that Western governments are now hesitant to do simply because with the growing economic clout of China.”
Liu, 54, has spent the final 20 years in and out of Chinese prisons and re-education camps. Prior to that, he was a professor and intellectual writer, frequently traveling abroad as a scholar.
Andrew Nathan, a professor at Columbia University in New York, helped Liu secure a fellowship there, a post he left inside spring of 1989 to take portion within the democratic uprising in Beijing. Nathan instructed ABC Information that Liu’s recognition is often a lengthy overdue.
“It’s surprising how long it has taken and how difficult it has been for that Chinese democracy human rights community to carve out the amazing position that Liu did, which was Gandhi-like or Mandela-like,” he said.
Liu is currently serving an 11-year prison term for co-authoring Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democratic reform in China. His wife traveled to your prison nowadays to tell him the news of his award. Despite the outcry from China’s government, which referred to as the committee’s selection a “desecration” and described Liu like a “criminal,” Nathan mentioned the timing with the prize is excellent.
“There are strong forces contending to move the region in both the best, and within the incorrect, path,” Nathan told ABC Reports. “This is really a great time for the Nobel committee to give a small push to the right side.”
Normal Chinese citizens agreed. Fired up Chinese supporters were posting the beneficial news on Twitter.
Other people sent text messages in Beijing and Shanghai attempting to organize celebratory dinners, just before authorities began blocking texts containing Liu’s name in Chinese. They couldn’t erase what had already been sent, on the other hand.
Activists Applaud Nobel Winner Even though China Fumes
“Finally the day has come,” tweeted Wang Dan, a Chinese language citizen plus a dissident himself, “Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize. Thrilled!!!”
Winning this prize, supporters say, ensures Liu’s message will likely be heard around the globe and, more importantly, within his home region.
“Millions and tens of millions of Chinese individuals will hear the title Liu Xiaobo these days,” explained Bogert. ” message is going to react exponentially more folks currently than it has ever reached ahead of.”
Click here to look at Liu’s interview with ABC’s David Kerley in August 2008, one of his last TV appearances just before he was imprisoned four months later.
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