Liu Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
CNN reports:
An empty chair stood in for imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo as he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia on Friday amid protests and condemnation from China.
China has responded furiously since the Nobel committee announced on October 8 that Liu would be its peace prize winner. Officials have repeatedly called Liu a common criminal and declared the award a Western plot against China.
The rhetoric continued Friday with China calling the awarding of the prize to Liu a "political farce."
"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," said Jiang Yu, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official.
Liu, a professor of literature, is serving an 11-year sentence in a Chinese prison for what the government called "inciting subversion of state power." He was not allowed to travel to Norway to accept the prize, nor was his wife, Liu Xia.
Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland, in awarding the prize Friday, likened Liu Xiaobo to Nelson Mandela, the former South African president who fought the apartheid regime.
After announcing the award, Jagland placed Liu's medal in the empty chair, the second time such a symbol has been used in the event.
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