Taiwan president congratulates Nobel Peace Prize winner

Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou called on China to improve its human rights record while congratulating Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo for winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

But in a message, Mr Ma stopped short of calling for Liu’s release from prison, presumably to avoid irking China and hurt his own efforts to improve relations with the communist government.

Mr Liu was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison on subversion charges after he co-authored a document calling for greater freedom, among other activism.

Under Mr Ma’s two-year efforts for rapprochement, tensions between Taiwan and China have dropped to their lowest level since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.