China Keeps Both a Nobel Laureate and Some High School Students Behind Bars | deutsch29

China Keeps Both a Nobel Laureate and Some High School Students Behind Bars | deutsch29:

China Keeps Both a Nobel Laureate and Some High School Students Behind Bars

On May 15, 2015, I wrote a post about China’s testing obsession going so far as Chinese high school students’ using amino acid IVs to support their beyond-humane studying for Chinese exams.

In that post, I observed that China has very few Nobel laureates– only nine.

Only two were residing in China at the time of their awards.

One of these two was in prison.

China’s testing obsession kills creativity and confidence. However, China also has a single-party, highly-controlling, oppressive Communist government that does nothing for the free flow of ideas.

In 2008, Chinese university professor Liu Xiaobo and others drafted a document entitled Charter 08, which called for the end of the authoritarian Chinese government and the beginning of a democratic government for China.

The document linked above is a translation from the original Chinese. It is a cached copy originally posted by the group, Human Rights in China, and later removed. A full translation can also be found here: 

In 2009, Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned for his involvement in producing Charter 08. He is serving 11 years. His wife was put under house arrest.

In 2010, Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia.

In October 2014, the international community remembered Xiaobo and his uncollected award. As noted in the Telegraph:

“We cannot forget that another Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo remains imprisoned four years on since being awarded his Prize,” Kate Allen, the UK director of Amnesty International told The Telegraph, “Amnesty continues to campaign tirelessly for Liu Xiaobo’s release.”

Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch added: “While it is marvellous to see the efforts around education and freeing children from slavery being honoured, that is tempered by some extent knowing that Liu Xiaobo still has five years to go in prison for doing nothing more than speaking his mind.”

Liu was a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations that left several hundred dead after China’s ruling Communist Party sent in tanks to crush the protests. He was represented by an empty chair at the awards ceremony in Oslo in 2010.

The empty chair with a diploma and medal that should have been awarded to this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (portrait l) stands in Oslo City Hall on December 10, 2010. The head of the Nobel committee placed this year’s peace prize China Keeps Both a Nobel Laureate and Some High School Students Behind Bars | deutsch29: