Demand that China free Liu Xiaobo

The Nobel Peace Prize is the only one of the Five Nobel Prizes awarded by Norway and the committee has a history of making controversial decisions which have been vindicated by history. The prizes have been awarded to (amongst others) the Burmese Leader Aung San Suu Kyi (as far back as 1991), the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), and the Irishman Sean McBride who has the distinction of being the only recipient of both the Nobel and Lenin Peace Prizes. Judging by the howling from the Chinese Dictatorship the committee have got it right again with the award of the 2010 prize to Chinese dissident and author of Declaration 08, Liu Xiaobo.


Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia

Naoto Kan, the Japanese prime minister, joined the US, Germany and several other European nations in criticising the imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo and calling for greater freedom in China. China accuses pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo of inciting a rebellion. Mr Kan called on China to respect universal human rights, adding that it would be “desirable” to release the 54-year-old former literature professor who was jailed for 11 years last December on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”.

China expressed outrage last week over the Nobel committee’s decision to award its prestigious Peace Prize to incarcerated Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. But the real outrage is China’s treatment of those who dare to speak truth to power. We should be thrilled for Liu and the spotlight the award places on his unrelenting fight for fundamental freedoms and human rights in China. But Liu won’t be able to celebrate his win with the rest of the world from the confines of his prison cell.



Adding insult to injury, Chinese authorities have placed Liu’s wife Liu Xia under house arrest, likely preventing her from receiving the award in Norway on Liu’s behalf. They’ve also cracked down on activists celebrating Liu’s achievement. Liu Xiaobo needs your help.

Liu, a 54-year old author and scholar, is a prominent government critic who has repeatedly called for human rights protections, political accountability and democratization in China. In 2009 Liu was charged with "inciting subversion of state power" and given an 11-year prison sentence after an unfair trial for co-authoring a proposal for political and legal reform in China.

Amnesty International has long called for Liu’s release. We need now more than ever to send a loud and clear plea for Liu’s release.


The tanks of Tiananmen Square

Urge Chinese authorities to release Liu Xiaobo immediately.

This award can only make a real difference if it prompts more international pressure on China to release Liu, along with the numerous other prisoners of conscience languishing in Chinese jails for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Now is the time to act.

Numerous human rights organizations maintain a litany of grievances against the Chinese government. Controversial human rights issues in China include policies such as capital punishment, the one-child policy, the social status of Tibetans, and lack of protections regarding freedom of press and religion. One of the foremost areas of concern is a lack of legal rights, for want of an independent judiciary, rule of law, and due process. Another prominent area of concern is lack of labour rights, which is related to the hukou system, the absence of independent unions, and discrimination against rural workers and ethnic minorities. Yet another area of concern is the lack of religious freedom, highlighted by state clashes with Christian, Tibetan Buddhist, and Falun Gong groups.

See also;

Tiananmen Square – Nothing Happened Here

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/06/tiananmen-square-nothing-happened-here.html

Tiananmen Square – Nothing Happened Here

Much has already been said in the 20 years since the Chinese government’s heavy crackdown on a series of student-led demonstrations in and around the area of the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. June 4, 1989 was the day when tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square crushing bodies underneath them, and the military fired at the protesters made up mostly of unarmed students and workers. Until now, 20 years after, the death toll remains a mystery. The Chinese Red Cross initially reported that 2,600 died, but retracted allegedly under pressure from the government. Some journalists estimated that the number could be as high as 7,000. The official tally, however, concluded that less than 300 died and 7,000 were injured.

Dozens of protesters are still languishing in Chinese prisons after unfair trials and many more activists have since been arrested for questioning the government's actions in 1989.



Amnesty International has called for the Chinese authorities to:

• Grant an amnesty to those imprisoned in connection with the 1989 protests;
• Allow the Tiananmen Mothers to mourn their children publicly without harassing them;
• Respect the right to peaceful protest - whether it is in Tibet or mainland China;
• Allow an independent investigation into what happened at Tiananmen Square in1989;
• Honour the promises made when bidding for the Olympic Games to improve human rights.

China has relied on the complicity of the World to look the other way whilst it desecrates the memory of the brave students who opposed dictatorship and protested for democracy. Like most dictatorships the self appointed Communist Party tried to control Freedom of Speech and information flows to its people by raising The Great Firewall of China. Here are the views of two Chinese Bloggers;

TECHCRUNCH

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/06/02/china-shuts-down-twitter-and-bing-in-lead-up-to-tiananmen-anniversary/

“It’s widely known that China runs a pretty tight ship - to put it mildly - on what its citizens get to see online, especially that content which exists outside of China. YouTube has been blocked for some time and although Wikipedia was blocked for a while, it’s gradually become more available. However today Chinese authorities have come down like a tonne of bricks on a number of services including Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Live.com, Hotmail.com, Blogger and a number of other sites. And that’s no joke, given that we’re talking about the Great Wall of China here.”



MissXu

"Since many of the sites don’t actually have Chinese versions, it’s hard to know how many people will be affected by this, but for those brave and resourceful business people, entrepreneurs and social commentators with strong links to the world outside China, it’s a crushing blow.

Having travelled to China last year I have a number of contacts there now who have all now confirmed the shutdown (all agreed to be named in this post). The shut-down is almost certainly related to the date. The Tiananmen Square Massacre happened in June 4, and the lead-up to any date like this is usually a time when the Firewall is tightened. The API to Twitter, used by clients like TweetDeck, Twhirl and Seesmic Desktop, has also been affected. [Update: News is coming in that the Twitter API has not been affected as badly as the Web site, making API based Twitter applications better placed in China].

Kaiser Kuo, a Chinese-American writer and consultant in Beijing working with Youku told me via direct message after the system shut down completely using a VPN (which, like proxies, are commonplace in China) that “My only surprise in this matter is that it took ‘em so long.”

Ryan McLaughlin, an ex-pat American writer and web designer/developer based outside Beijing, said [updated:] that VPNs, which many Chinese use to get around the Great Firewall, are not being affected by the shutdown. He also blogs “Undoubtedly the blocks are in an effort to curb online commentary and the dissemination of information about the massacre, which on celebrates its 20th anniversary.”

Mimi Xu, a China/San Francisco based product dev and entrepreneur who Tweets as MissXu, summed it up: “The 3 web services I can’t live without - Twitter, Flickr, YouTube - are all blocked in China. Cheers, motherf#@#s!”