AN EMPTY chair marked the absence of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo at the ceremony in Oslo to mark the award of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, while police remained on guard outside his family home in downtown Beijing.
On a chilly night in the Chinese capital, there were plain-clothes and uniformed police in evidence outside the apartment where Mr Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, is said to be under house arrest.
Mr Liu has dedicated the award to the “lost souls” of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators, while the Beijing government has condemned the award as an “obscenity” and part of a conspiracy against China.
There was increased security around Tiananmen Square, focal point of the 1989 pro-democracy movement where Mr Liu faced down the troops in a bid to stop the bloodshed that followed in June and which ended the dreams of democracy of many young Chinese.
Since then, China has become an economic superpower and the Communist Party has tightened its grip on the reins.
Most people in Beijing do not know who Mr Liu is, as efforts to keep a lid on the story spreading too widely online have been successful, although many young people and students do know of him.
Norwegian Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland gave his speech to an audience of around 1,000 people in the Norwegian capital, standing beside a large portrait of Mr Liu, a shaven-headed figure wearing glasses and smiling. Irish ambassador to Norway Gerald Ansbro was present.
It was the first time that a laureate under detention had not been formally represented since Nazi Germany barred pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from attending in 1935.
Mr Jagland received a standing ovation when he called for Mr Liu’s release from prison, where he is serving an 11-year sentence on subversion charges. Mr Jagland told the ceremony the award was not meant to anger China, which was, to a certain degree, carrying mankind’s fate on its shoulders.
“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,” he said.
After his speech, Mr Jagland placed the Nobel award on the chair.
US president Barack Obama, who won the peace prize last year, called on China to release Mr Liu.
China reiterated its angry response to the decision to award the peace prize to Mr Liu, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China’s position “has won the understanding and support of over 100 countries and major international organisations”.
“We are firmly against attempts by any country or individual to use the Nobel Peace Prize to interfere in China’s internal affairs and infringe on China’s judicial sovereignty,” she said.
“Facts have fully shown that the decision of the Norwegian Nobel committee does not represent the wish of the majority of the people in the world, particularly that of the developing countries,” Ms Jiang added.
“This political farce will in no way shake the resolve and confidence of the Chinese people to follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics . . . the scheme by some people will get nowhere,” she said.
There was increased security around Beijing, and police have in recent weeks stepped up a clampdown on China’s dissident community, with many key figures and allies of Mr Liu under house arrest or close surveillance, or warned to stay away from the city.
Western news websites, including the BBC and CNN, appeared to have been blocked.
Using its economic impact, China brought pressure to bear on a number of other countries to boycott the event, and among those that responded were Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Tunisia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan, Cuba, Morocco and Algeria.
Many of those choosing not to attend were similarly authoritarian governments to that of China, although others were major trading partners.
Gao Mingxuan, a Chinese criminal law expert, told the state-run Xinhua news agency that Mr Liu’s activities were aimed at inciting people to “subvert the legitimate state power of the people’s democratic dictatorship that is under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and overthrow the socialist system”.
“If Chinese people do act according to his desire, the country will surely suffer from wars and conflicts, destroying the present peace which China has gained with great efforts,” Mr Gao said.