A few hours ago, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
It is a moment of great joy for concerned Chinese citizens as Liu Xiaobo represents human rights activists’ determination in struggling for the peaceful transformation of China's political system. He was arrested in June 2009 and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment under the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” after Charter 08, a proposal for constitutional reform, was published.
The Jailed Nobel Peace Award Winners
However, the Chinese government, in response to the Nobel Committee's decision,claimed that [zh] Liu is a criminal who has been found guilty in a Chinese court and that the Committee's decision has violated the mission of the Nobel Peace Prize.
A tweet from Akiranns is probably the best response to the Chinese government spokesperson's statement:
你知道上一位，获得诺贝尔和平奖的坐牢人士是谁么？卡尔·冯·阿希厄茨基。那时他的国家谁在执政？希特勒。
Netizens Arrested for Having Dinner Party
As if to assert Akiranns’ association of the two Nobel Peace Prize winners’ backgrounds, Chinese police officers have chosen to crack down on Chinese netizens’ spontaneous dinner celebrations of this memorable event in both Shanghai and Beijing. Hanlu1911 reports from one dinner on Twitter:
上海饭醉活动取消，关注被带走的石扉客和其他不知名草泥马，警察拿着围脖上头像来对人，一只年青的草泥马被认出，目前广场警察和便衣四处出没。
Teng Biao has identified at least 8 Chinese netizens who have been taken away by police in Beijing's Dongcheng:
王荔蕻、天天刚刚被东城区警察带到景山派出所。“十几个人连踢带打,满嘴脏话,骂骂咧咧”。阿尔、小路、屠夫被带到和平里派出所。许志永、何杨、@pengmomo等都被警察带走。饭醉还没开始，就都被抓了。请关注！
因聚会庆祝和平奖被带到派出所的推友有：@wlh8964 @pengmomo @leewua @heyang519 @zhiyongxu @tufuwugan @xiaolu8964 @renjiaqi 等。请关注。
Twitterers who has been taken to police station for celebrating the Peace Award result are @wlh8964 @pengmomo @leewua @heyang519 @zhiyongxu @tufuwugan @xiaolu8964 @renjiaqi and etc. Please pay attention.
Censorship
Apart from the arrest action, the propaganda machine has continued to keep the news from spreading to the general public by imposing strict censorship on the Internet.
First of all, all special feature on the Nobel Prize from major portal websites have been taken down today, including the special feature from 163.com, Sohu.com, Tencent and Sina.com.
Secondly, the Chinese term “Nobel Prize” (諾貝爾) and “Peace Prize” (和平獎) became unsearchable in major search engines.
Third, soon after the announcement was made, twitterers, such as @haojinsong reported that mobile text messages with sensitive term “Liu Xiaobo” (劉曉波) could not be sent out.
Creative expression
Despite all these censorship measures, words still spread around the Chinese internet. For example, on Sina's microblog site, bloggers used pictures and English to avoid censorship. SongLingge#2 posted a picture of Liu Xiaobo and wrote:
分享图片： 这位越来越像圣雄甘地的家伙，就是刚刚获得2010年度the Nobel Peace Prize 的“中国圣僧”。
Fan Zhixing, a reporter urged his colleagues to record the history made today:
记者同仁们，键盘在你手下，你们准备怎样来记录这一天，让这一天在被提起的时候，光芒与阴影交相反映呢？
Huang Yangda wrote (post since deleted):
聽說拿了和平獎的是個中國人，卻不是黨人啊！因為他好像被奪去了政治權利。忘了他叫什麼名字，怎樣寫都寫不出來。
Chongtou Yip retold the news with an allegory:
从前有一位蛮不讲理、暴力的父亲，因为儿子不听话，所以把他毒打及关在房间內。可是，学校老师同学都表扬他，邻里都赞许他，这位父亲能不看到自己的过失吗？
廖偉棠 posted a poem and dedicated it to all political detainees:
致一个被囚禁者（116°46′E ，39°92′N） 莫须有的罪也莫须判 他们想把你在每一篇檄文中删除 使你成为真正的莫须有先生。 他们从永定河中捞出空气冻成的白骨 给你做了莫须有的铁窗、莫须有的枷锁， 却没想到你从白骨里蘸墨 画出了梦里人焚烧的春闺余烬。
13 comments
It is about time that the word “Peace” is banned in Chinese internet. I hope the world will now realize that there China does not mean “Peace” when their government says “Peace”.
Total support from NED 2003-2009 for Liu Xiaobo’s two organizations is $1.674.800. $759 800 is for “Independent Chinese PEN Centre, Inc.” where he was the president, and $915 000 is for “Democratic China, Inc.” where he was the founder. In Chinese currency it is approximately 11 million yuan – a huge sum of money in China. It is easy to understand that a foreign power has been involved in the case of Liu Xiaobo. He has by receiving the NED-money in many peoples eyes lost his innocence and become an American agent. The authorities in US has, since he for years has been working to discredit and harm China, been very satisfied with his work, and the NED has therefore every year since 2003 renewed its payment and even in some years increased it.