Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo
	"Liu Xiaobo" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese	刘晓波
Traditional Chinese	劉曉波
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Liú Xiǎobō
Wade–Giles	Liu2 Hsiao3-po1
IPA	[ljǒʊ ɕjàʊ.pwó]

Liu Xiaobo
Liu Xiaobo
刘晓波
	Liu in 2010
Born	28 December 1955; Changchun, Jilin, China
Died	13 July 2017 (aged 61); Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Nationality	Chinese
Alma mater	Jilin University (BA); Beijing Normal University (MA, PhD);
Occupations	Writer; political commentator; human rights activist;
Spouses	; Tao Li (m. 1982; div. 1989) ; Liu Xia (m. 1996)
Children	1
Awards	2010 Nobel Peace Prize

Liu Xiaobo (Chinese: 刘晓波; pinyin: Liú Xiǎobō; 28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end Chinese Communist Party one-party rule in China.^[2] He was arrested numerous times, and was described as China's most prominent dissident and the country's most famous political prisoner.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] On 26 June 2017, he was granted medical parole after being diagnosed with liver cancer; he died a few weeks later on 13 July 2017.^[8]^[9]

Liu rose to fame in 1980s Chinese literary circles with his exemplary literary critiques. He eventually became a visiting scholar at several international universities. He returned to China to support the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and was imprisoned for the first time from 1989 to 1991, again from 1995 to 1996 and yet again from 1996 to 1999 for his involvement on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power. He served as the President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, from 2003 to 2007. He was also the president of Minzhu Zhongguo [zh] (Democratic China) magazine starting in the mid-1990s. On 8 December 2008, Liu was detained due to his participation with the Charter 08 manifesto. He was formally arrested on 23 June 2009 on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power".^[10]^[11] He was tried on the same charges on 23 December 2009 and sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights on 25 December 2009.^[12]

During his fourth prison term, Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16]

Liu was the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China,^[17] as well being the first ethnically Chinese person of any citizenship to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also the third person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991).^[18] He was the second person to have been denied the right to have a representative collect the Nobel Prize for him as well as the second to die in custody, with the first being Ossietzky.^[19] Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, blamed the Chinese communist regime for his death and said that "Liu Xiaobo had contributed to the fraternity of peoples through his non-violent resistance against the oppressive actions of the Communist regime in China."^[20]

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^ "Liu Xiaobo, China's most famous political prisoner, 'close to death'". the Guardian. 6 July 2017. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
^ "Liu Xiaobo: China's most prominent dissident dies". BBC News. 13 July 2017. Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
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^ Gracie, Carrie (13 July 2017). "Liu Xiaobo: The man China couldn't erase". BBC. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
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[6] "Liu Xiaobo, China's most famous political prisoner, 'close to death'". the Guardian. 6 July 2017. Archived from the original on 11 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.

[7] "Liu Xiaobo: China's most prominent dissident dies". BBC News. 13 July 2017. Archived from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2021.

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[9] Gracie, Carrie (13 July 2017). "Liu Xiaobo: The man China couldn't erase". BBC. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2018.

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