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Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC)
ICPC is a nongovernmental, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization beyond borders based on free association of those who write, edit, translate, research and publish literature work in Chinese and dedicated to freedom of expression for the workers in Chinese language and literature, including writers, journalists, translators, scholars and publishers over the world.
ICPC is a member organization of International PEN, the global association of writers dedicated to freedom of expression and the defence of writers suffering governmental repression. Through the worldwide PEN network and its own membership base in China and abroad, ICPC is able to mobilize international attention to the plight of writers and editors within China attempting to write and publish with a spirit of independence and integrity, regardless of their political views, ideological standpoint or religious beliefs.
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Norwegian Nobel Committee awards Nobel Peace Prize 2010 to Liu Xiaobo
Oslo, October 8, 2010
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the "fraternity between nations" of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will.
Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world's second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened.
China's new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article 35 of China's constitution lays down that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration". In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens.
For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power". Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China's own constitution and fundamental human rights.
The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China. |
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Liu Xiaobo
Nobel Peace Prize 2010 |
Fighting with Words for Freedom of Expression
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| Photo: Amnesty International |
The first Chinese citizen to receive a Nobel Prize, Liu Xiaobo is a poet and literary critic who has come to prominence over the last two decades as one of the most visible leaders of China's pro-democracy movement. Currently serving an 11 year prison term, he is the third Nobel Peace Laureate to be under arrest at the time of the award, the others being Carl von Ossietzky and Aung San Suu Kyi.
In 1989, Liu Xiaobo cut short his visiting position at New York's Columbia University to return to China and take part in the student occupation of Tiananmen Square. In the face of the army crackdown, he was instrumental in maintaining the non-violent nature of the protest. Liu Xiaobo spent two years in prison for his role in the protests, and was then subject to a further 3 years of 're-education through labour' in the late 1990s for advocating an end to one party rule in China.
His current imprisonment, for "inciting subversion of state power", was imposed for statements in recently-published essays and the 2008 document he helped write, Charter 08. Modelled on Charter 77, a petition demanding the recognition of human rights in Czechoslovakia and drawn up by writers and intellectuals in 1977, Charter 08 is a declaration calling for political reforms and increased human rights in China. The declaration reiterates certain ‘universal values' such as freedom, equality, democracy and constitutional rule and makes recommendations for, among other things, a new constitution, an independent judiciary, the election of public officials and a guarantee of human rights.
Charter 08 has now collected several thousand signatures from Chinese citizens from all walks of life. Liu Xiaobo was arrested just before its official release and sentenced a year later, just over a month before the close of nominations for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, at a trial to which Chinese and foreign observers were denied access. Liu Xiaobo has continued to write from prison, releasing a statement through one of his lawyers, 10 days after sentencing, which read: "I have made sacrifices with no regrets. For an intellectual thirsty for freedom in a dictatorial country, prison is the very first threshold. Now I have stepped over the threshold, and freedom is near."
An article he wrote for the South China Morning Post in February 2010 contains the statement "Opposition is not equivalent to subversion". This sentiment was echoed by the Norwegian Nobel Committee's remarks, following this year's Nobel Peace Prize announcement, regarding the sign that they hope this award will send about the importance of supporting debate, and those who champion it, in all countries of the world.
By Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Nobelprize.org |
Dr. Liu Xiaobo (born on 28 December 1955), a renowned Chinese writer and human rights activist based in Beijing, is the Honorary President of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre and served as its President from 2003 to 2007. He had been a lecture at the Department of Chinese Literature, Beijing Normal University before his imprisonment in 1989.
On 8 December 2008, Dr. Liu was taken into custody once more by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau for his role in launching Charter 08, and then held under residential surveillance at an unknown location in Beijing until he was formally arrested. On 25 December 2009, he was sentenced by the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court to 11 years imprisonment and 2 years deprivation of political rights on "inciting subversion of state power". On 11 February 2010, his appeal was rejected by the Beijing Municipal High People's Court. Since 26 May 2010, he has been held in Jinzhou Prison.
Early life and work
Liu Xiaobo was born in Changchun, Jilin Province, on 28 December 1955. After middle school, he was sent to the countryside for farming until he became a worker at a construction company in Changchun City. In 1977, he was admitted to the Department of Chinese literature at Jilin University, and created with 6 schoolmates a poetry group, The Innocent Hearts (Chi Zi Xin). In 1982, he graduated with B.A. in literature and then admitted as a research student at the Department of Chinese Literature at Beijing Normal University. In 1984, He received M.A. in literature and became a teacher at the same Department. In 1986, started his doctoral study program and published his literary critiques at various magazines. He became well known as a "dark horse" for his radical opinions and sharp comments on the official doctrines and establishments to shock both of the literary and ideological circles, thus termed as Liu Xiaobo Shock or Liu Xiaobo Phenomenon. In 1987, his first book, Criticism of the Choice: Dialogues with Li Zehou, was published and soon became a bestseller non-fiction for his profound capacities in philosophy and aesthetics as a doctorate to comprehensively criticise the Chinese tradition of Confucianism and frankly challenge the Prof. Li Zehou, a rising ideological star with the most influence on young intellectuals in China at the time. In June of the same year, he received Ph.D. in literature, the very first under Communist role in China, with his doctoral thesis, Aesthetic and Human Freedom, which passed the examination unanimously and published as his second book making a new shock.
In the same year, he became a lecture at the same Department, and soon went on studying abroad as a visiting scholar at several universities beyond China, including the University of Oslo, the University of Hawaii, and Columbia University in New York City until he returned home for the student movement broke out in Beijing in 1989. This year saw also the publication of his third book, The Fog of Metaphysics, a comprehensive review on Western philosophies, and soon the banning of all of his works.
Human rights activism
On 27 April 1989, Dr. Liu Xiaobo returned home in Bejing and immediately took part in the popular movement to support the student protests. When bloodshed was likely near to happen for the students persistently occupying the Tiananmen (TAM) Square to challenge the government and army enforcing the martial law, he initiated a four-man 3-day hunger strike on 2 June, later referred as Tiananmen Four Gentelmen Hunger Strike, to earn the trust from the students, and published a joint statement, June 2 Hunger Strike Declaration. He called on both the government and the students to abandon the ideology of class struggle and to adopt a new kind of political culture for dialogue and compromise. Although it was too late to prevent the massacre from occurring beyond the TAM Square starting from the night of 3 June, he and his colleagues succeeded to negotiate with both of the student leaders and the army commander to let the several thousand students withdraw peacefully and completely from the Square, thus avoiding a possible bloodshed in much larger scale. On 6 June, Dr. Liu was arrested for his alleged role in the movement, and 3 months later expelled from his university. The governmental media issued numerous publications to condemn him as a “mad dog” and “black hand” to have incited and manipulated the student movement to overthrow the government and socialist. All of his publications were banned, including his fourth book in press, Going Naked Toward God. In Taiwan However, his first and third books were republished with some additions as Criticism of the Choice: Dialogues with Leading Thinker LI Zehou (1989), and Mysteries of Thought and Dreams of Mankind (2 volumes, 1990).
In January 1991, 19 months since his arrest, Dr. Liu Xiaobo was convicted on the offence of "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement" but he was exempt from criminal punishment for his “major meritorious action” to have avoid the possibly blooding confrontation on the TAM Square. After his release, he resumed his writing, mostly on human rights and political issues though he has not been allowed to publish in China mainland. In 1992, he published in Taiwan his first book after his imprisonment, The Monologues of a Doomsday’s Survivor, a controversial memoir with his confessions and political criticism on the popular movement in 1989.
On 18 May 1995, the police took Dr. Liu into custody for launching a petition campaign on the eve of the sixth anniversary of June 4th massacre, calling on the government to reassess the event and to initiate political reform. He was held under residential surveillance in the suburbs of Beijing for 9 months. After his release in February, he married Liu Xia, but on 8 October 1996, he was arrested again for an October Tenth Declaration, co-authored by him and another prominent dissident Wang Xizhe, mainly on Taiwan issue that advocated the peaceful unification to oppose Chinese Communist Party's forceful treats toward the island. He was ordered to serve three years of reeducation-through-labour on "disturbing public order” for that statement.
After his release on 7 October 1999, Dr. Liu Xiaobo resumed his freelance writing again. In 2000, he published 3 different books in three different Chinese territories, in Taiwan A Nation That Lies to Conscience, a 400-paged political criticism; in Hong Kong Selection of Poems by Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia, a 450-paged collection of the poems as correspondences between him and his wife during his imprisonment; and in Mainland The Beauty Offers Me Drug: Literary Dialogues between Wang Shuo and Lao Xia, a 250-paged collection of literary critiques co-authored a popular young writer and by him under his unknown penname of Lao Xiao. In the same year, Dr. Liu participated in founding the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) and was elected to its Board of Directors as well as its President in November 2003, re-elected two years later. In 2007, he did not seek for the re-election of the president but hold his position of the board member until detained by the police. In 2005, he published in USA two more books, Future of Free China Exists in Civil Society, and Single-Blade Poisonous Sword: Criticism of Chinese Nationalism.
Dr. Liu's human rights work has received international recognition. In 2004, Reporters Without Borders awarded him the Foundation de France Prize as a defender of press freedom. He received the Hong Kong's Annual Human Rights Press Awards for his articles published there in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
Current Imprisonment
Dr. Liu Xiaobo participated in drafting and signed, along with more than three hundred Chinese citizens,
Charter 08, a manifesto released on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 2008), written in the style of the Czechoslovak Charter 77 calling for greater freedom of expression, human rights, rule of law and constitutional democracy. The Charter has collected over 10,000 signatures from Chinese of various walks of life.
Arrest and detention
At about 11:00 p.m. on 8 December 2008, police from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau arrived at Liu Xiaobo’s home in Beijing, showed him a search warrant and a decision on interrogation through forced appearance, took him away almost at once, and then searched his home in presence of his wife Liu Xia, confiscating three computers and other materials. Since then, he had been held incommunicado without charge at an unknown location in Beijing until he was formally arrested on 23 June 2009.
On 15 December 2008, Liu's wife Liu Xia and her attorney Mo Shaoping approached the police for Liu’s whereabouts and the reasons to hold him, but they were only told that the decision to hold him had been ordered from the top, but denied of any other information.
On 1 January 2009, the police orally notified Liu Xia that Liu Xiaobo had been held under "residential surveillance", but did not show her any written notice nor told her of any reason and his whereabouts, while she was arranged to meet her husband at a so-called "middle place".
On 20 March 2009, when they were allowed to meet for the second time, Liu Xiaobo told Lia Xia that he had been held in solitary confinement in a small windowless room of a few square meters, worse than the general conditions in a detention center or prison.
On 24 June 2009, Liu Xia received a formal notice that Liu was formally arrested for "suspicion of inciting subversion of state power" and so transferred to No. 1 Detention Center of Beijing City on June 23.
In August, September and November, 2009, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau extended thrice the time limit with the approval of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate to hold Liu Xiaobo for the reason that its investigation could not concluded within the previous time limit.
On 1 December 2009, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau officially completed the investigation of the case against Liu Xiaobo, transferred the case files to the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate, and submitted the "Prosecution Recommendations" on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power", alleging that "Liu Xiaobo together with others drafted "Charter 08", clamoring to overthrow the socialist system, as a major crime". However, Liu's lawyer did not until 9 December receive the "Prosecution Recommendations" with 20 files of relevant evidentiary documents, more than 100 pages each.
On 10 December 2009, the First Branch of Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate filed the public Indictment to the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court in the Criminal Indictment No. 247 (2009) of Beijing First Branch Procuratorate that charged the defendant Liu Xiaobo on "offence of inciting subversion of state power".
Trials
On 23 December 2009, the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court started the trial to hear the case of Liu Xiaobo on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power", presided over by the Judge Jia lianchun. The First Branch of Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate assigned Prosecutor Zhang Rongge and Deputy Prosecutor Pan Xuechu to sustain the prosecution while the defendant Liu Xiaobo and his defense counsels Ding Xikui and Shang Baojun came to the trial and participated in the process. About 20 persons were allowed to attend the hearing, including Liu's brother and brother-in-law, but his wife Liu Xia was denied being present as she had been forced as a prosecution witness. Many people arrived outside the court and requested to attend it, including a dozen of the diplomats from the embassies of United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand Sweden (then EU presidency), United Kingdom, Germany and other European countries and many overseas journalists in Beijing. The hearing last more than two hours. Liu Xiaobo and his counsels made defence of not guilty plea (read his counsels' defense statement), but Liu was only allowed to speak for 15 minutes. He had prepared two drafts, "My Self-defense" and "I have No Enemies: My Last Statement" but was interrupted by the presiding judge not to read them over due to the time limit.
On 25 December 2009, the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People's Court finalized its trial by reading its Verdict: "1，The defendant Liu Xiaobo is guilty for the crime of inciting subversion of state power, and sentenced to eleven years imprisonment and two years deprivation of political rights. (The sentence is counted from the day of executing the sentence, setting off against the sentence in detention on a day for day basis, that is, serving from June 23, 2009 to June 21, 2020.) 2，All of the materials handed in this case that Liu Xiaobo used to commit the crime shall be confiscated.” (quoted from the unofficial translation of the Verdict). A few day later, Dr. Liu decided to appeal against the verdict.
On 28 January 2010, Liu Xiaobo's counsels summitted the Defense Appeal Statement that concluded: "Liu Xiaobo is innocent, and any verdict that finds Liu Xiaobo guilty cannot withstand the trial of history!"
On 11 February 2010, the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court opened its trial to read its Final Ruling: "dismissing Liu Xiaobo’s appeal and upholding the conviction."
On 26 May 2010, Dr. Liu Xiaobo was transferred from No. 1 Detention Center of Beijing City to Jinzhou Prison, Liaoning Province, to serve his sentence.
Liu Xiaobo
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