OSLO: Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in an Oslo ceremony derided by Beijing as a farce, and dedicated it from his prison cell to the “lost souls” of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
In Beijing, police stepped up patrols at key points on Friday, including Tiananmen Square, where witnesses say hundreds or thousands were killed when troops crushed reform protests, and Liu’s apartment where his wife is believed to be under house arrest. Authorities tightened a clampdown on dissidents.
Western news websites, including the BBC and CNN, appeared to have been blocked. But there were no signs of trouble in the Chinese capital where memories of Tiananmen have faded for many as China has risen as a global economic and political power, while guarding the Communist Party’s tight hold on society.
“We can to a certain degree say that China with its 1.3 billion people is carrying mankind’s fate on its shoulders,” Norwegian Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in the text of a speech prepared for the ceremony before 1,000 guests in the richly decorated City Hall. “If the country proves capable of developing a social market economy with full civil rights, this will have a huge favourable impact on the world. If not, there is a danger of social and economic crises arising in the country, with negative consequences for us all.”
The absence of the laureate, sentenced last year to 11 years jail for subversion, was symbolised at the ceremony by an empty chair and a large portrait. It was the first time that a laureate under detention has not been formally represented since Nazi Germany barred pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from attending in 1935.
US President Barack Obama said he regretted Liu had been denied the chance to attend the ceremony. He said he respected Beijing’s economic accomplishments but urged China to recognise the importance of human rights. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was due to read out an address made by Liu, 54, who was closely involved in Tiananmen and more recently helped found the reform group Charter 08, to a court during his trial for subversion in December 2009.
“Hatred can rot away at a person’s intelligence and conscience. (The) enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation’s progress toward freedom and democracy,” the address said. But the former literature professor saw cause for hope. “I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme.”
