Beijing denounces Nobel for Liu Xiaobo

A Chinese democracy activist serving an 11-year jail sentence for subversion has won the Nobel Peace Prize, an award that delivers a stinging criticism of the Chinese political system.

The Nobel committee said Liu Xiaobo, 54, who was sentenced last December, had demonstrated “a long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.

By awarding the prize to Mr Liu, the Nobel committee has reinvigorated the clash of ideas between the human rights and democracy agenda promoted by most developed countries and China’s authoritarian model that has produced rapid and sustained economic growth.

The decision to award Mr Liu the prize will be an embarrassment to the Chinese government, which lobbied hard against Mr Liu’s nomination and warned that China’s diplomatic relations with Norway could be damaged.

The Chinese foreign ministry called the decision an “obscenity”.

It said: “Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial authorities for violating Chinese law.”

Barack Obama, the US president, who was somewhat embarrassed to have won the peace prize last year, was one of many leaders to laud the committee’s decision.

Mr Liu “has been an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and non-violent means, including his support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law,” the president said.

Mr Obama said the award served as a reminder that political reform had not kept pace with economic change in China.

Aware that it would be accused of pushing western values on China, the Nobel committee said Mr Liu’s prison sentence was the most obvious example of Beijing failing to live up to its own commitments on human rights.

Article 35 of China’s constitution guaranteed freedom of speech, association and demonstration, the prize citation said.

“In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China’s citizens.”

Although the Nobel committee claims to be completely independent, the award comes at a time of increasing anxiety in many capitals at the way that China, now the second-largest economy, is attempting to expand its influence.

Pressure from Beijing has successfully downgraded the importance of human rights in diplomatic discussions with China.

A member of the Nobel committee revealed last week that Fu Ying, one of China’s deputy foreign ministers, had warned him about the potential consequences to Norway of giving the prize to Mr Liu, a move that appears to have backfired.

“China has become a big power in economic terms as well as political terms, and it is normal that big powers should be under criticism,” Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the prize committee, said.

In many parts of Beijing and Shanghai, news broadcasts about the prize on foreign channels were blocked.

Text messages mentioning Mr Liu’s name were difficult to send, while internet discussion of the announcement was tightly controlled.

Mr Liu was arrested for writing articles critical of the government and for his role in organising Charter 08, a pro-democracy petition signed by several thousand people.

A former literature professor, he spent 18 months in jail for his role in organising the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and three years in a labour camp in the 1990s after he continued to publish critical articles.

“It is a true honour for him and one for which I know he would say he is not worthy,” Liu Xia, his wife, said of the Nobel award.

It was not clear yesterday if Mr Liu was yet aware of the award or who would receive it in his name.