Liu Xiaobo

It was just announced that Liu Xiaobo has received the Nobel Peace Prize 2010. Great news indeed – the world has not bowed to China and lived up to the common values of human mankind.

Liu’s reaction to it? “I dedicate the prize to those having died in the June 4 event.” And then he shed his tears, according to his wife Liu Xia who informed him about the news. It is a reaction that I would have expected from Liu, who keeps a low profile in his resilient fight for freedom of speech and democracy in China.

I wrote this post about Liu and his wife on 26 December 2009, and would like to copy here as my token of tribute to Liu:
 
“China’ most prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced by the court to 11 years in jail on Christmas Day.

This is the fourth time he has been imprisoned because of his political position and his writings. He was researching in the US while the student democratic movement broke out in China in 1989. He rushed back to China and gave support to the students. He was jailed afterwards by the Chinese government.

But that marked only the first sentencing he, as a dissident, received of a series to follow. Each time he was released, he kept on writing and speaking his mind about how to make China a better and democratic country, and each time he was sentenced to imprisonment or a labour camp.

How Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, supports him is touching. She married him when he was in the labour camp. She sent him books when he was in prison so that he knew what her thoughts were and it was a way of communication between them, Liu Xia said. They also wrote poems to each other.

After the latest jail sentence was announced, Liu Xia told reporters in a clam voice: “If he (Liu Xiaobo) can persevere in the face of the ordeal, so can I.” Liu will be over 60 years old when he is released, she said.

She has had her head shaved. She is such a strong and steel-willed woman, just like her husband. “