End repression of expression: Free Liu Xiaobo from AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 30JAN11

THE people of Egypt are on the verge of realizing true freedom and democracy for their country...but all around the world there are governments fighting to maintain their hold on power by denying their people their human rights......we can not forget these people. Please click the header to sign this petition from Amnesty International calling on the government of the prc to free Liu Xiaobo and end their repression of human rights for all their citizens.

Dr Liu Xiaobo, prominent Chinese literary scholar, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 8 October 2010 for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. He has dedicated the Nobel Peace Prize “to all those who have sacrificed their lives in non-violent struggle for peace, democracy and freedom”.

On 10 December, his seat at the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony remained empty because he is in prison for "inciting subversion".

This is the fourth time Liu Xiaobo has been detained as a prisoner of conscience.

He was first detained after the 1989 pro-democracy movement. For Liu Xiaobo, like many others of his generation, June 1989 was
a “major turning point”. Since then, he has written prolifically, criticizing corruption, censorship and one-party rule and advocating the development of a democratic multi-party political system in China.

He served as the President of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre from 2003 to 2007. He co-authored Charter 08, which calls for effective protection of universal human rights and democratic reform.

Although best known for his calls for political reform, Liu Xiaobo has also defended other human rights. He has spoken out against
discrimination faced by migrant workers and people living with HIV/AIDS. He has also defended workers protesting against corrupt
employers.

Sign a petition to the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, and Minister of Justice Wu Aiying.

We, the undersigned, are outraged that Dr Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, remains in prison in China. Following an unfair trial, a Beijing court sentenced Liu Xiaobo to 11 years’ imprisonment on 25 December 2009 on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.”

Liu Xiaobo was convicted for his role in drafting Charter 08, a proposal for legal and political reform in China, initially signed by 300 scholars, lawyers, and officials. More than 10,000 people have added their names to Charter 08 after it was published online on 9 December 2008. The court also said Liu Xiaobo engaged in “rumour mongering, slander and smear” that exceeded the limits of freedom of expression and constituted a criminal offence, citing six articles in which he criticized official corruption, censorship, and one-party rule.

Liu Xiaobo has consistently maintained that he is innocent. Whilst admitting writing the articles listed in the indictment and the verdict, he says he was simply exercising his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in China’s constitution. We agree.

We believe that the ongoing imprisonment of Liu Xiaobo runs counter to the spirit and letter of China’s Constitution. Article 35 grants Chinese citizens freedom of speech. Article 41 states that citizens have the right to criticize and make suggestions regarding any state organ or functionary. The Constitution also grants the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress power to grant special pardons. We urge you to use this power and release Liu Xiaobo immediately and unconditionally.   

Freedoms of expression, association and assembly are also guaranteed in international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which China has signed and repeatedly expressed an intention to ratify.

Image: Demonstration calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo in front of the Chinese embassy in Oslo, Norway, 9 December 2010. ©Greg Rødland Buick

Ahead of visit by China's Hu, Obama meets with advocates for human rights from WASHINGTON POST 13JAN11

PRES OBAMA needs to follow through and bring up human rights in china when meeting with pres hu next week. While the U.S. record on human rights is not lilly white (considering our recent record on torture, Gitmo, Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and Leonard Peltier to name a few) the increased repression of the Chinese, Tibetan and Uygur people, the repression of religious, political, social, environmental, labor and economic rights, the complete and total disregard for human rights by the regime in Beijing needs to be discussed honestly and openly. The prc needs to be told the lack of human rights by the government is unacceptable. Pres Obama also needs to tell the government of pres hu the U.S. supports human rights activist in the Chinese religious communities, that the U.S. supports Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and all the signers of Charter 08, that the U.S. supports the growing organized labor movement in China. If the regime in Beijing is offended so be it, the free world has been grossly offended by the government of the prc for years.....



President Obama met for more than an hour Thursday at the White House with five advocates for greater civil liberties and human rights in China, just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao's arrival in Washington for a state visit.
The meeting - which lasted 75 minutes in the Roosevelt Room - was part of Obama's preparation for his meetings with the Chinese leader, two senior administration officials said.
It was the first time Obama has met with advocates for human rights in China at the White House.
In a September address at the U.N. General Assembly, the president emphasized the centrality of human rights in U.S. foreign policy. But the administration has been cautious in raising the issue publicly with China, which has traditionally reacted harshly to criticism of its rights record.
On Thursday, Obama questioned the advocates - three of whom were born in China - about how, in the words of one administration official, "the arbitrary exercise of power is felt in the everyday lives of the Chinese people." Obama recalled his own childhood in Indonesia, then governed by dictatorship.
"One thing he kept coming back to was, how does the omnipresence of the state, how does corruption, affect the lives of real people," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And he asked how we should use our leverage. Where should we use our leverage?"
"There was a lot of talk about how to reach into China to be heard," the official continued. "He was very, very interested in that."
While economic and security issues are likely to be the focus of much of Hu's visit, how Obama manages the topic of human rights will likely help define the summit and provide clues to how the president intends to speak about the contentious subject with China in the years ahead.
By hosting Hu, who arrives Wednesday, Obama will achieve the distinction of becoming the first U.S. president to host a head of state who is currently holding a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in prison.
The Chinese writer and democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo was awarded the prize in October, and it was presented to his empty chair in Oslo two months later. Obama, who won the prize the previous year, "welcomed" the Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to Liu. China condemned it.
At their summit, Obama and Hu are expected to announce the resumption of the U.S.-China "human rights dialogue" after a roughly half-year hiatus. The forum allows U.S. officials to raise with the Chinese government concerns over specific political prisoners, among other issues.
But the subject also holds the most potential to disrupt a visit that Hu views as important to his legacy. He is scheduled to leave the presidency in 2012.
A second senior administration official who attended Thursday's meeting with the human rights advocates said Obama will speak about human rights in his public appearance with Hu and also bring up the issue during their private meetings.
The two will also take questions at a news conference, something U.S. officials insisted on.
"The president's style in talking about human rights is different than others have used," the official said. "His convictions come through strongly, but he is not interested in hectoring, or lecturing, or embarrassing them. He's interested in affecting how people think."
Administration officials said Obama also sought the human rights advocates' assessment of the rising nationalism expressed by young people in China, and what effect it might have on outside efforts to expand civil liberties inside the country.
The human rights advocates who attended the meeting with Obama were Andrew Nathan of Columbia University; Zha Jianying, a Chinese writer and expert on the country's youth culture; Paul Gewirtz, founder of the China Law Center at Yale University; Bette Bao Lord, a Chinese-born writer, democracy advocate and wife of former U.S. ambassador to China Winston Lord; and Li Xiarong, a Chinese human rights advocate since the 1980s now living in exile in the United States.
All have worked extensively inside China. Zha is also a signer of Charter 08, a petition for greater civil liberties and a constitutional democracy that Liu, the imprisoned Nobel laureate, helped write and circulate.
"The meeting was very pluralistic, many different opinions were shared," said the first official. "But the consensus was that human rights has to be on the agenda even if it is awkward. And it makes a difference when it is."

For China's Absent Nobel Winner, A Lasting Reward 10DEZ10

THE WHOLE WORLD IS SEEING THE PRC CHINA FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS

PEACE TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY LIU XIAOBO

Clapping solemnly, dignitaries in Norway celebrated this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo — with an empty chair — as Beijing blocked broadcasts of the ceremony in China.
Friday's presentation marked the first time in 74 years that the award was not handed over. Liu wasn't able to collect the prestigious $1.4 million award in Oslo because he is being held in a Chinese prison.
The 54-year-old writer and democracy activist (his name is pronounced LEE-o SHAo-boh) is serving an 11-year prison sentence on subversion charges for urging sweeping changes to Beijing's one-party communist political system. His wife is under house arrest.

Liu Xiaobo: At A Glance

A 54-year-old poet, literary critic and activist. A look at the human-rights efforts of the first Chinese citizen to receive a Nobel Prize.

1989: Left post at Columbia University in New York to return to China to take part in the pro-democracy movement; jailed for two years for his role.
1996: Publicly questioned China's one-party system and called for a dialogue between the government and the Dalai Lama of Tibet; spent three years in "re-education through labor" for his acts.
2004: Wrote essay criticizing the government's use of "subversion" charges to silence journalists and activists; in response, had his Internet and phone connections cut.
2008: Helped write "Charter 08," a document calling for "universal values" in China, including freedom, equality, democracy and constitutional rule; detained and later formally arrested and charged for "inciting subversion of state power."
2009: Sentenced to 11 years in prison.
2010: Continues to write from jail. An article he wrote for the South China Morning Post in February contains the statement, "Opposition is not equivalent to subversion."
Sources: The Nobel Prize; The PEN American Center

The award to Liu infuriated Beijing, which sees it as an attack on China's political and legal system. Both CNN and BBC TV went black at 8 p.m. local time, exactly when the ceremony was taking place.
Some 1,000 guests, including ambassadors, royalty and other VIPs took their seats in Oslo's modernist City Hall for the two-hour ceremony, among them U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Ambassador Barry White. About 100 Chinese dissidents in exile and some activists from Hong Kong were also attending.
Chinese dissident Wan Yanhai, the only one on a list of 140 activists in China invited by Liu's wife to attend the ceremony, said the jubilation felt by many at Liu's honor will be tinged with sadness.
"I believe many people will cry, because everything he has done did not do any harm to the country and the people in the world. He just fulfilled his responsibility," Wan told The Associated Press. "But he suffered a lot of pain for his speeches, journals and advocacy of rights."
Training A Lens On China
But there's nothing like a Nobel Peace Prize to focus the world's attention on human-rights abuses The award represents an ongoing public relations headache for China over its human-rights record, while potentially turning Liu into a symbol with likely resonance well beyond this week's events.
The Nobel citation calls Liu the "foremost symbol" of the human-rights struggle in China. By giving him the prize — Liu was named the winner in October — the Norwegian Nobel Committee made its own words come true, focusing international attention on his case and potentially elevating him to a status akin to 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last month leaves Liu as the sole Nobel Peace Prize winner currently serving time in prison. He becomes the first winner not to be allowed to collect his award since Nazi Germany precluded pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from going in 1935.

Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images A man walks in front of a poster of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo at an exhibition in Oslo. Liu remains in a Chinese prison, and the ceremony has infuriated China's authoritarian government, while presenting it with public relations problems over its human-rights record.

China clearly does not want to be lumped in with such oppressive regimes as Myanmar and Nazi Germany. Yet its handling of Liu's award demonstrates some awkwardness for the country as it continues to grow into its role as a major world power, says Stewart M. Patrick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
"For those fighting for change in China, the award becomes a symbol of the fact that although China has brought huge economic gains to its population — probably the greatest poverty alleviation in world history — it still has a long way to go when it comes to exercising fundamental human rights," Patrick says.
The country detained hundreds of other dissidents and warned other countries of potential repercussions if they sent representatives to the ceremony in Norway. China also blocked access to the websites of the BBC, Norway's NRK and other news organizations ahead of the ceremony.
Liu In Context
Before being selected for the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu was not especially well-known.
Liu took part in a hunger strike during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Liu has dedicated his award to his fellow protesters.

Read the statement Liu Xiaobo delivered in a Chinese court in 2009 before he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion. In his absence from the Nobel award ceremony Friday, actress Liv Ullman read the speech.

Liu Xiaobo: I Have No Enemies Dec. 10, 2010

Two years ago, Liu helped write "Charter 08," a document calling for freedom of speech and the press. "We must abolish the special privilege of one party to monopolize power and must guarantee principles of free and fair competition among political parties," the document states.
Liu was sentenced to prison for 11 years last December on subversion charges.
The award has brought him greater fame — within China, as well as on the international scene.
"The Chinese people are going to be interested about what got Mr. Liu locked up — his writings and particularly Charter 08," says Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch. "Over time, against the government's wishes, Mr. Liu, within China, will have an increasingly high profile."
Kine predicts that Liu's writings "are going to go viral." That remains to be seen. China has kept close control of political discourse on the Internet, through its so-called Great Firewall.
"The Chinese have reacted very harshly to this award," notes Bonnie Glaser, an expert on Chinese foreign and security policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "What they care about primarily is the implications domestically. They don't want to hear the Chinese people commenting favorably in the blogosphere or on Twitter about Liu Xiaobo."
Another Dalai Lama?
Glaser is skeptical that Liu will be able to achieve enough lasting prominence and importance within China to be a threat to its regime. But it's clear that the Nobel — and China's response — have brought Liu and the Chinese dissident movement to greater prominence on the international stage.

Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images Protesters in Oslo demonstrate outside the Chinese Embassy demanding the release of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident in jail in China and honored Friday with this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

At one time, the Nobel Peace Prize was generally granted to people who helped put an end to specific wars. In recent decades, its reach has been broader, honoring individuals and organizations in such areas as human rights and even the environment.
The question looking ahead is whether Liu's status as a Nobel laureate will continue to grant him a continuing platform as a powerful symbol, as had been the case for earlier dissidents such as Lech Walesa of Poland and Andrei Sakharov of the old Soviet Union.
Over the years, China has sought — without great success — to isolate the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, who was awarded the prize in 1989.
Foreign leaders visiting China will now frequently, if not inevitably, be asked questions about Liu by their own traveling press corps.
"China really craves soft power — respect for what the country stands for," says Kine, the Human Rights Watch researcher. "For the Chinese government, this is and will continue to be a running sore."
Attempting Coercive Diplomacy
But the prominent role of cash-flush China in the global economy has, so far, made it seemingly immune to the pressures of international public opinion.
"The possibility exists that Liu could become somebody that is seen by various interest groups around the world for advancing human rights in China," says Glaser, the CSIS scholar.
"But I think the Chinese government will work very hard to prevent that from happening," she continues. "There is already considerable pressure being put on companies, not just from Norway, who are actively supporting the award to Liu Xiaobo."
China continues to call Liu a criminal, and its Foreign Ministry spokesman said any country who sent representatives to the ceremony in Oslo were "clowns."
Beijing put pressure on foreign diplomats to avoid the ceremony. China and some 18 other countries — including Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba — declined to attend.
At least 45 of 65 embassies in Oslo accepted invitations.
"My sense is that the Chinese are coming off as extraordinarily heavy-handed and that their effort at trying to extract promises from countries that they actually won't send participants to Oslo is really counterproductive in terms of their global image," says Patrick, who served a six-month stint as a researcher with the Nobel Peace Committee in 1993.
"It illustrates so starkly that the Chinese government is, frankly, afraid of their own people," he says, "as opposed to being a responsible global power that can stand a little internal criticism of its policies."
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Liu Xiaobo Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony Goes Ahead With Empty Chair 10DEZ10

THE prc shows the world it is still a repressive totalitarian regime, one the world hypocritically condemns for the government's refusal to allow Liu Xiaobo or a family member or representative to be in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize while investing heavily in china and so in fact funding the prc's human rights violations in china proper, Tibet, Xinjiang and their support of repression, genocide and war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, Burma / myanmar, and n korea. The American government's hypocrisy is especially glaring because of the attacks against Wikileaks for the release of diplomatic cables exposing U.S. manipulation, deception and propaganda campaigns and questional actions around the world.

OSLO, Norway — With his Nobel Peace Prize diploma and medal placed in his empty chair, imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was given a standing ovation at the award ceremony Friday as dignitaries demanded his release.
It was the first time in 74 years the prestigious $1.4 million award was not handed over, because Liu is serving an 11-year sentence in China on subversion charges for urging sweeping changes to Beijing's one-party communist political system.
China was infuriated when the 54-year-old literary critic won, describing the award as an attack on its political and legal system. Authorities have placed Liu's supporters, including his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize.
In China, both CNN and BBC TV channels went black at 8 p.m. local time for nearly an hour, exactly when the Oslo ceremony took place. Security outside Liu's Beijing apartment was heavy and several dozen journalists were herded by police to a cordoned-off area.
In his speech, Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland called for Liu's release, receiving an unusual standing ovation at the international gathering.
"He has not done anything wrong. He must be released," Jagland said. He noted that neither Liu nor his closest relatives were able to attend the ceremony.
"This fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate," Jagland said.
Liu's Nobel diploma and medal were placed on the empty chair marking his absence.
Norwegian actress Liv Ullman read Liu's final statement, "I Have No Enemies," which he delivered in a Chinese court in 2009 before he was jailed.

Story continues below

The Chinese Foreign Ministry described the award as a "political farce" and said it reflected Cold War mentality and infringed upon China's judicial sovereignty.
"(It) does not represent the wish of the majority of the people in the world, particularly that of the developing countries," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.
In Washington, President Barack Obama said he regretted that Liu and his wife were not allowed to go to the ceremony as he and first lady Michelle Obama did when he won the peace prize last year.
"Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was," he said.
Also Friday, a group of Nobel laureates, including former South African President F.W. de Klerk, Nazi death camp survivor and author Elie Wiesel and Northern Ireland politician John Hume, offered to mediate with the Chinese government for Liu's early release.
The last time a Nobel Peace Prize was not handed out was in 1936, when Adolf Hitler prevented German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from accepting his award.
China had pressured foreign diplomats to stay away from the Nobel ceremony, with 17 other countries joining their boycott, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. At least 46 of the 65 countries with embassies in Oslo accepted invitations. Serbia, which previously said it would stay away, announced Thursday it would now attend.
Some 1,000 guests, including ambassadors, royalty and other VIPs sat solemnly in atrium hall of Oslo's modernist City Hall for the ceremony, applauding occasionally during the speeches.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who attended with U.S. Ambassador Barry White, told The Associated Press that it was "an honor" for her to be there.
"It is really a joy of my official life. For decades we have worked for human rights in China and Liu Xiaobo has been a hero to all of us," she said.
About 100 Chinese dissidents in exile and some activists from Hong Kong also attended. Chinese dissident Wan Yanhai, the only one on a list of 140 activists in China invited by Liu's wife to attend the ceremony, said the jubilation felt by many at Liu's honor will be tinged with sadness.
"I believe many people will cry, because everything he has done did not do any harm to the country and the people in the world. He just fulfilled his responsibility," Wan told AP. "But he suffered a lot of pain for his speeches, journals and advocacy of rights."
Wan managed to travel to Oslo because he fled to the United States in May after Chinese authorities increased their harassment of his AIDS advocacy group.
Before the ceremony, 2,000 schoolchildren gathered outside city hall in a display of appreciation for Liu. Some handed letters to Jagland, hoping he could convey their greetings to the jailed laureate.
Jagland said awarding the prize to Liu was not "a prize against China," and he urged Beijing that as a world power it "should become used to being debated and criticized."
Outside Parliament, the Norwegian-Chinese Association held a pro-China rally with a handful of people proclaiming the committee had made a mistake in awarding the prize to Liu.
China's furious assault on Liu's award has reached proportions last seen during the Soviet and Nazi regimes. But even Cold War dissidents Andrei Sakharov of the Soviet Union and Lech Walesa of Poland were able to have their wives collect the prizes for them. Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi's award was accepted by her 18-year-old son in 1991.
The Kremlin forced writer Boris Pasternak of the Soviet Union to decline his 1958 literature prize. French writer Jean-Paul Sartre declined the 1964 literature prize because he had consistently declined all official honors.
In 1973, North Vietnamese negotiator Le Duc Tho was awarded the peace prize jointly with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger but said he could not accept it, citing continued fighting in Vietnam as his reason.
In the Swedish capital of Stockholm, the other Nobel laureates were being honored in a separate ceremony Friday. Winners in literature, physics, chemistry and economics were receiving their awards from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf.

HATRED & Beijing Blocks Travelers To Christian Conference 14OKT10

WORDS of widom from this years Nobel Peace Prize winner and the NPR story about the government of the prc from blocking Christians from attending the Lausanne Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. 
 
“For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life-and-death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity. I hope therefore … to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.”
- Liu Xiaobo, a literature professor, essayist, and dissident, awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. (Source: Los Angeles Times) 

Beijing Blocks Travelers To Christian Conference

October 14, 2010

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October 14, 2010

A massive global evangelical gathering known as the Lausanne Congress will begin Oct. 16 in Cape Town, South Africa. But it looks likely to take place without the participation of more than 230 Chinese delegates.
So far, at least 11 people planning to attend have been forbidden to leave China, and many others have come under pressure. Many fear Beijing is moving to exert control over underground Christians.

Lei Yang for NPR Church elder Abraham Liu Guan was turned back at Beijing airport customs and blocked from attending a global evangelical gathering in Cape Town, South Africa.

Christianity in China is flourishing, with tens of millions of Christians openly worshiping. Many gather in private assemblies, or house churches, rather than in the official government church, known as the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. The authorities have largely turned a blind eye in the past.
But when a grouping of house churches decided to send some 200 delegates to attend the Lausanne Congress, the government stepped in.
Abraham Liu Guan is a church elder who tried to leave Sunday for the meeting with six others. Authorities warned him not to meet NPR, but in a phone interview he explained what happened at Beijing airport customs. "The border defense people said they'd received a notice from the State Administration for Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security. It said our participation in this meeting threatened state security, and they should not let us pass customs," Guan said.
Repercussions Felt Already
Some of those who have been turned back have had their passports confiscated. One delegate has been placed in detention. Several others have been prevented from leaving their homes.
For months, across China, officials have been warning almost all the pastors invited not to attend, telling them the meeting was anti-China. For some, there have already been consequences.

I think Lausanne could play a positive role for Chinese Christians. For a short time, there might be pressure or there might be a price to pay. But that will pass quickly.

- Ezra Jin, pastor at Zion Church in Beijing

The Rev. Xing Jingfu from Changsha, in Hunan, said authorities stopped his church from meeting and from preaching. He said they openly said it was because of the Lausanne Congress. If we meet again, they'll arrest us, he said.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, issued a statement to NPR. It accuses the Lausanne organizers of not issuing an official invitation to China's state-controlled church and of having secret communications with Christians from private assemblies.
"This act has openly challenged China's principle of an independent, autonomous, self-governing church. It is a flagrant interference in China's religious affairs," the statement said.
For their part, the Lausanne organizers say there’s been a misunderstanding, and they did invite the official church as an observer. “We very much regret that our intentions and invitations to our Chinese brothers and sisters have been wrongly perceived. We have a profound set of disappointment and incompleteness in knowing that our friends from China are not able to be with us,” the statement said.
Before the weekend, Lausanne Chairman Doug Birdsall said how Chinese pastors reacted to warnings would be up to them.
"There are times when there are matters of conscience for which people take a stand. Most any right that we have, someone has worked for, or battled for, at some time. The apostle Paul gave advice and encouragement to followers of Christ to be faithful to Christ, and faithful to their nations," Birdsall said.
Crackdown Won't Affect Larger Trend
That China's underground Christians could get together to choose delegates and raise more than $1 million to cover their costs would have been unthinkable a decade ago. But that level of coordination is unsettling to Beijing, especially given the explosive growth in Christianity.
Some predict that this current clampdown will alienate house church members further.
“These measures will cause house churches to feel extreme dissatisfaction with the Chinese authorities,” says Fan Yafeng, a prominent Christian. “Stopping the house church members from attending the conference will have a long-term impact on the relationship between politics and religion in China."
The Rev. Ezra Jin from Zion Church in Beijing says even if he's blocked from going to Cape Town, it won't affect the larger trend. "I think Lausanne could play a positive role for Chinese Christians. For a short time, there might be pressure or there might be a price to pay. But that will pass quickly," Jin says.
"Let our blood and sweat drive China's Christian revival," he prays with a visitor.
Beijing's hard line on this congress comes as the authorities were showing signs of tolerating house churches. It clearly undermines Beijing's claims to allow freedom of religion. It's not yet clear how far Beijing will go.
But some fear this could be the start of a new wave of persecution against China's underground Christians.

Related NPR Stories

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Chinese Dissident Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize 8OKT10

CONGRATULATIONS to the Nobel committee for their decision and to Liu Xiaobo for having the courage to stand up to the oppression of the government of the prc. Charter 08 has been added to the speeches page on this blog.

Chinese Dissident Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize

by The Associated Press

Kim Cheung/AP Activists hold pictures of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was arrested after co-authoring a bold manifesto urging civil rights and political reform in China.

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October 8, 2010

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights" - a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him.
Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu Xiaobo (LEE-o SHAo-boh) was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China and the government should expect that its policies face scrutiny.
"China has become a big power in economic terms as well as political terms, and it is normal that big powers should be under criticism," Jagland said.
Unlike some in China's highly fractured and persecuted dissident community, the 54-year-old Liu has been an ardent advocate for peaceful, gradual political change, rather than a violent confrontation with the government.
In China, broadcasts of CNN, which is available in tourist hotels, upmarket foreign hotels and places where foreigners gather, went black during the Nobel announcement and when reports about the award later aired.
China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment, but a spokeswoman said recently that choosing Liu would go against the prize's aims.
"The person you just mentioned was sentenced to jail by Chinese judicial authorities for violating Chinese law. I think his acts are completely contrary to the aspirations of the Nobel Peace Prize," said spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
It was the first Nobel for the Chinese dissident community since it resurfaced after the country's communist leadership launched economic, but not political reforms three decades ago. The win could jolt a current debate among the leadership and the elite over whether China should begin democratic reforms and if so how quickly.
The Nobel citation said China's new status a big economic and political power must entail increased responsibility.
"China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights," it said, citing an article in China's constitution about freedom of speech and assembly.
"In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens," the citation said.
The document Liu co-authored, Charter 08, called for greater freedoms and an end to the Communist Party's political dominance. It was an intentional echo of Charter 77, the famous call for human rights in then-Czechoslovakia that led to the 1989 Velvet Revolution that swept away communist rule.
"The democratization of Chinese politics can be put off no longer," Charter 08 says.
Thousands of Chinese signed Charter 08, and the Communist Party took the document as a direct challenge.
Police arrested Liu hours before Charter 08 was due to be released in December 2008. Given a brief trial last Christmas Day, Liu was convicted of subversion for writing Charter 08 and other political tracts and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In a year with a record 237 nominations for the peace prize, Liu had been considered a favorite, with open support from winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and others.
When the Tibet-born Dalai Lama won the peace prize in 1989, both the Chinese government and some of the public were angry - the exiled Buddhist leader was endlessly vilified in official propaganda as a traitor for his calls for more autonomy for Tibet.
The son of a soldier, Liu joined China's first wave of university students in the mid-1970s after the chaotic decade of the Cultural Revolution.
Liu's writing first took a political turn in 1988, when he became a visiting scholar in Oslo - his first time outside China.
Liu cut short a visiting scholar stint at Columbia University months later to join the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989. He and three other older activists famously persuaded students to peacefully leave the square hours before the deadly June 4 crackdown.
Liu went to prison after the crackdown and was released in early 1991 because he had repented and "performed major meritorious services," state media said at the time, without elaborating.
Still, five years later Liu was sent to a re-education camp for three years for co-writing an open letter that demanded the impeachment of then-President Jiang Zemin.
President Barack Obama won the Nobel peace prize last year.
China's Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize

By John Pomfret
Friday, October 8, 2010; 7:11 AM


Liu Xiaobo, an irrepressible, chain-smoking Chinese dissident imprisoned last year for subversion, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for helping to spearhead a campaign for more freedom in China.
In a statement, the Nobel Committee said Liu, 54, deserved the prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."
Analysts said the honor was aimed at pressuring China to ease its crackdown on religious and political activists. China's government denounced the award as "a desecration" and said the honor should have gone to someone focused on promoting international friendship and disarmament.
"Liu Xiaobo is a sentenced criminal who has violated Chinese law," a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, said honoring Liu "runs counter to the principles of the Nobel Peace Prize."
The Nobel committee lauded Liu's efforts over more than two decades to demand freedom of speech, assembly, religion and other forms of expression for Chinese citizens.
China's "new status" as the world's second-largest economy "must entail increased responsibility," the committee said. It said Beijing must heed the call of Liu and others to award its citizens the most basic democratic freedoms.
"Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China," the Nobel statement said.
Liu is serving his 11-year sentence at Jinzhou prison in Liaoning, hundreds of miles from his home and wife, Liu Xia, in Beijing. In an interview shortly before the announcement, Liu Xia said she was thankful her husband's physical condition seems to have improved in jail, and grateful that he's allowed to read and that the two can exchange regular letters.
"We have no regrets," she said. "All of this has been of our choosing. It will always be so. We'll bear the consequences together. I've known Liu since 1982. I've watched him change little by little year by year, and we know that we have to pay the price under the current situation in China."
In the weeks running up to the announcement, Liu was considered a top contender to win the award. But China's government had warned Norway not to award Liu its most prestigious prize, saying that the essayist did not qualify for the honor.
Analysts predicted that in the short-term, China's one-party state would react to the award by intensifying an already tough campaign against dissidents, religious activists and non-governmental organizations. Although China outwardly appears strong, with a world-beating economic growth rate, prosecutions for "state security" offenses are approaching numbers not seen since the bloody crackdown on student-led protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989.
But in the long-term, a wide spectrum of Chinese and foreigners said, Liu's award could actually resonate more deeply within China than any similar act in years--significantly more so than the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to the Dalai Lama in 1989 or the Nobel prize for literature given to dissident writer Gao Xingjian in 2000.
First of all, Liu will be the first Chinese citizen to ever win the award. (The Dalai Lama has status as a refugee. And Gao is a French citizen.) Second, Liu, unlike most Chinese dissidents, remains well-known and well-liked in China.
Prickly, with a thick northern drawl, tobacco-stained teeth and an infectious laugh, he's always been considered part of the "loyal opposition," less a theoretician of a democratic revolution than a tough urban gadfly.
Although in and out of jail for stating his beliefs, writing letters and challenging the state for two decades, Liu has escaped the sentence of irrelevance meted out to so many of his dissident contemporaries.
Some observers, however, said the award would feed into a sense among many young Chinese that the West is out to get China and that "Cold War" thinking still dominates mindsets in the developed world.
"I worry about the effect of this prize on China's younger generation," said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Beijing University. "It will be seen as new evidence about how the West is unfriendly to China."
Liu's latest sentence was his longest. Announced on Christmas Day 2009 - because the Chinese government believes Westerners are less likely to take notice on a holiday--Liu's sentence of 11 years was for attempting to subvert the state.
His specific crime was that he volunteered to have his name lead a list of signatories to a document called "Charter 08." Modeled after the Charter 77 movement in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, Charter 08 called for greater freedom of expression, human rights, and for free elections.
Ultimately, more than 8,000 people have signed China' s charter.
Published on Dec. 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the charter "was to put a stake in the ground and say here's an alternate vision of China," said Perry Link, the renowned China scholar who worked with the group to translate their manifesto into English. "It was definitely a long-term program."
Among the demands were for a judiciary not controlled by the Communist Party, meaningful elections and the freedoms of association, assembly, expression and religion. "The current system has become backward to the point that change cannot be avoided," the charter read. "This situation must change! Political democratic reforms cannot be delayed any longer!"
Liu played an important role as the crafters of the charter hashed out the wording, Link said. He fought to excise any mention of the banned sect Falun Gong from the document because, he argued, the charter's purpose should not be to deal with specific human rights cases.
And he helped work out a compromise over mentioning the Tiananmen Square crackdown - which was raised in the preamble but not in the actual body of the charter.
Link, who spent much of that month talking with Liu and others as the manifesto went from one draft to another, recalled that Liu wasn't a leader of the group in the beginning. "But once he saw it was going somewhere, he naturally volunteered to be out front," Link said.
Liu didn't hog publicity, Link added, "he just doesn't shrink from putting his head on the line. He was like a moth to the flame."
After he was sentenced, Liu's lawyer released a simple statement from his client: "I have long been aware that when an independent intellectual stands up to an autocratic state, step one toward freedom is often a step into prison," it said. "Now I am taking that step; and true freedom is that much nearer."
Ai Weiwei, a signatory of the Charter 08 document who designed the Bird's Nest stadium for China's Summer Olympics, said Friday's award was at least a sign that "the world is paying attention to China."
But the award "won't change much in China," Ai predicted. "More people need to wake up."
Liu has taken risks with his life throughout his career. In 1989, he left a cushy post as a visiting scholar at Columbia University to return to China to participate in demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.
On the night of June 3, 1989, he was one of four dissidents who negotiated with the People's Liberation Army to allow the last several hundred students to peacefully vacate the square. After the crackdown he spent two years in jail.
Liu was dispatched to a re-education camp in 1996 for co-writing an open letter that demanded the impeachment of then-president Jiang Zemin.
From then until his arrest in December, 2008, two days before the charter was released, Liu lived a life of constant harassment by the security services. He was repeatedly questioned because of his views or his essays, which were passed around the Internet by thousands of his readers.
Liu's wife, Liu Xia, said the toughest time for her was after Liu was arrested in 2008 but before he was indicted. He basically disappeared, she said, into the maw of China's security state.
"For those six and half months, I only saw him twice, it was weird for both of us," Liu Xia recalled. "I was taken to a hotel in a suburb of Beijing, Xiaobo was taken there too, and he told me he didn't know where he was."
But when the indictment came, "I felt very calm," she said. "I told our lawyer that Xiaobo would probably be sentenced at least 10 years. Then it came out 11, very close to what I expected."
Correspondent William Wan contributed to this report. pomfretj@washpost.com