Quashing a voice, attacking a Nobel
When Chinese government officials heard jailed Communist Party critic Liu Xiaobo was on the short list for the Nobel Peace Prize, they wasted no time in lobbying the Norwegian prize committee to reconsider. When Liu was named the recipient in October, China censored the announcement, blocking Internet searches and text messages that included Liu’s name. And on Dec. 10, at the Nobel ceremony, Liu was represented not even by a family member or colleague — all of whom were barred from traveling — but by an empty chair, marking the first time since 1936 that a Nobel Peace Prize had gone physically unclaimed. The Chinese response seems overly defensive to many Americans, said Bao Pu, a prominent human rights activist and Hong Kong-based publisher whose New Century Press recently published a collection of Liu’s essays. “Sometimes it looks ridiculous,” Bao said at a talk at Harvard on Dec. 15, citing China’s new Confucius...