The first Chinese Nobel prize winner, Liu Xiaobo

This post is originally from here.

I am so exciting about Liu Xiaobo awarding Nobel peace prize. Even though there are many people, not just Chinese government, questioning his qualification , I am still so proud to witness a historical event of the first Chinese citizen winning a Nobel prize.

Well, thanks to Chinese government, which are doing a very well job so far to keep any Liu’s information away from ordinary Chinese people, most of ordinary Chinese people don’t know who Liu is and his contribution to China human right and democracy. All of his information can be found in Wikipedia, or some other web pages, but they are just blocked in China.

In my opinion, it will be very silly to evaluate or even criticize someone whom you don’t know. Just like in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four,  Emmanuel Goldstein is generally seen as an enemy of the state, symbol of all evil forces, but almost no one knows his political opinion and how he "betrayed” the big brother. Therefore it is also ridiculous for Chinese people to accept government's statement of “Liu is not qualified to win the prize because he is a criminal” without knowing any other information.

Many people, includes US president Barack Obama, have appealed Chinese government to free Liu. He has been in jail since last June, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”, which is wisely seen as against freedom of speech in democratic nations. Will Chinese government compromise and free Liu? Well, I don’t see this can happen in the short term. After all, the most possible phrase which our spokesman will say is “don’t interfere China's internal affairs” (this is not your business, go away).