House praises Chinese Nobel laureate

Agence France Presse: House praises Chinese Nobel laureate – Olivier Knox
Wed 8 Dec 2010
Filed under: International
WASHINGTON — In a move sure to stoke China’s anger, US lawmakers voted overwhelming Wednesday to honor Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and called on Beijing to free the jailed champion of democratic reforms.
The House of Representatives approved the symbolic message by a 402-1 margin, congratulating Liu and honoring his “promotion of democratic reform in China, and the courage with which he has borne repeated imprisonment.”

The measure also urged President Barack Obama — due to host his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, for a state visit next month — to keep pushing Beijing to free Liu from prison and release his wife Liu Xia from house arrest.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in October to Liu, who was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring “Charter 08,” a manifesto calling for democratic reform in one-party China.

China has accused Norway, the Nobel committee’s home, of undermining relations and encouraging a “criminal.” China has also pressured nations not to attend the Nobel ceremony.

The US resolution also “calls on the government of China to cease censoring media and Internet reporting of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo and to cease its campaign of defamation against Liu Xiaobo.”

And it asserts that “in honoring Liu Xiaobo, it also honors all those who have promoted democratic reform in China, including all those who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration for democratic reform.”

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Representative Chris Smith, who crafted the resolution, were expected to attend the Nobel prize ceremony in Norway on Friday.

Pelosi, a frequent critic of China’s rights record, urged Liu’s “immediate and unconditional release” on Tuesday and said Washington must keep up pressure on Beijing over expanding political and religious freedoms.

“We have many issues where we have common ground or where should seek common ground. But all of that is better served by candor in our friendship and not ignoring sore spots,” she said in a speech in support of the resolution.

Other leading lawmakers fired harsh criticism at China on Tuesday, noting it was joining Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and Myanmar’s military junta among countries that have blocked a Nobel peace prize winner from receiving their award in person.

“China should be ashamed and China should be embarrassed to be in the company of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Burma,” Republican Representative Frank Wolf said at a press conference with other lawmakers.

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the incoming Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Beijing must listen to critics of its “warped political system” and demanded Liu and his wife be set free “at once.”

She noted that Nazi Germany blocked the 1935 laureate, Carl von Ossietzky, from attending his award ceremony, while Moscow barred Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, and Myanmar’s military rulers stopped democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from attending hers in 1991.

“Beijing now joins the ranks of the infamous Nazi regime and the repressive Burmese junta in locking up a Nobel Peace prize winner,” she said, demanding “rulers of Beijing, have you no shame?”