Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize
The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo should serve as a message to China Beijing it must respect fundamental values, Poland’s Nobel laureate Lech Walesa said on Friday.
“I am very satisfied by the decision of the Nobel committee. I consider it a challenge for China and the entire world,” – Walesa, the legendary leader of Poland’s anti-communist Solidarity trade union, told AFP in a phone interview.
“The world must declare whether it is ready to help China enter a zone where there is respect for the principles and values” of democracy, Walesa said.
“China is a great state and we must respect it, but it must also observe the norms and values respected in the world at large,” – he added.
- Liu Xiaobo.
Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for championing reform and human rights in a move that is certain to anger Beijing.
The writer and university professor was honoured “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China,” – Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said in his announcement.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace,” – he added.
China offered no immediate reaction to the award which is sure to infuriate the country’s communist rulers who jailed 54-year-old Liu for 11 years for subversion last year.
That followed the 2008 release of ‘Charter 08′, a manifesto for reform signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals, academics and writers sponsored by Liu.
The prize puts China’s human rights record in the spotlight at a time when it is starting to play a bigger role on the global stage as a result of its growing economic might.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Liu for his ‘long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China’ and reiterated its belief in a ‘close connection between human rights and peace.’
Liu is serving an 11-year jail term for helping to draw up a manifesto calling for free speech and multi-party elections.
China said the award went against the aims of Alfred Nobel and would hurt ties between China and Norway, which are currently negotiating a bilateral trade agreement.
“This is an obscenity against the peace prize,” – Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement.