Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo is a former philosopher professor at Beijing university and the president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center. 


 * "Liu spent two years in prison after publicly defending the student-led democracy movement in June 1989. He was also sentenced to three years of reeducation through work in 1996 for questioning the role of the single party. In May of this year, the political police cut his Internet connection and his phone line after he wrote an essay criticising the use of the charge of "subversion" against journalists and dissidents. Now aged 49, he still lives in Beijing and the authorities systematically refuse to give him a passport despite repeated invitations from US universities. Liu is also the president of the Association of Independent Writers, the only one of its kind in China. Despite receiving threats, he organised a public meeting of pro-democracy intellectuals in Beijing in October 2004."


 * Winner of the 2004, Reporters Without Borders Award

Criticism

 * Tariq Ali, ""Bush Was Right to Go to War": Does Liu Xiaobo Really Deserve the Peace Prize?", Counterpunch, December 13, 2010.