China mounts Nobel Prize security crackdown

Chinese security agents launched a wide-ranging clampdown on dissidents today, hours before the award Nobel Peace Prize award to imprisoned democracy activist Liu Xiaobo.

Uniformed and plainclothes officers guarded the entrance to the compound in central Beijing where Mr Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, has lived under house arrest since the October announcement that her husband would receive the prize.

Officers have guarded her home since her house arrest, but were out in greater force ahead of the award ceremony.

Guards checked the identities of all who entered, while about a dozen journalists stood just outside the gate. Police cars were positioned on every surrounding corner and officers patrolled outside the apartment block where the blinds were drawn on Mrs Liu’s two-story unit.

China was infuriated when the prestigious 1.4 million-dollar (£890,000) prize was awarded to the literary critic, describing it as an attack on its political and legal system.

Beijing has also pressured foreign diplomats to stay away from today’s ceremony.

Mrs Liu’s phone and internet connections have been cut off and friends, family and colleagues in the country’s embattled dissident community have been placed under house arrest or tight surveillance.

Several in the community, including renowned artist Ai Weiwei and human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping, have been barred from leaving the country, apparently out of fear they might attend the award ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

Others have been removed from Beijing by security agents to keep them out of the loop entirely.

Mr Liu’s award has elicited a furious and wide-ranging response from Beijing, with daily tirades in state media and regular denouncements from Foreign Ministry officials.

The vilification campaign has rocketed Mr Liu, 54, from relative obscurity to worldwide fame, in apparent contradiction to the communist leadership’s desire to negate his influence with an 11-year prison sentence for sedition.

The term was handed down after he co-authored a bold appeal for human rights and multi-party democracy.

While Mr Liu has faced the brunt of Beijing’s condemnation, scores of other dissidents and independent social activists have also come under pressure.

Numerous lawyers, academics and non-governmental organisation activists were prevented from attending a seminar on rule of law hosted by the European Union yesterday due to being under house arrest or having been physically stopped by police officers, said EU ambassador Serge Abou.

“It’s a pity, and in fact it’s a shame,” Mr Abou said.

An empty chair will be left for Mr Liu when ambassadors, royalty and other VIPs take their seats in Oslo’s City Hall for the ceremony today.

China and 18 other countries have declined to attend, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, but at least 45 of 65 embassies in Oslo have accepted invitations.

Nobel committee secretary Geir Lundestad said Mr Liu would be represented “by an empty chair ... the strongest possible argument” for awarding it to him.

It will be the first time the peace prize will not be handed out since 1936, when Adolf Hitler prevented German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from accepting the award.

The prize can be collected only by the laureate or close family members. Cold War dissidents Andrei Sakharov of the Soviet Union and Lech Walesa of Poland were able to have their wives collect the prizes for them. Burma democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s award was accepted by her 18-year-old son in 1991.

Among the 1,000 guests expected at the City Hall ceremony are US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and US ambassador Barry White. In addition, about 100 Chinese dissidents in exile and some activists from Hong Kong will attend.

A torchlight parade through the dark, wintry streets to the Grand Hotel will follow, with chosen guests dining at a banquet with Norwegian King Harald and Queen Sonja.

Mr Lundestad said countries gave various reasons for not attending, but some were “obviously affected by China”. He noted that two-thirds of embassies had accepted.

China warned that attending the ceremony would be seen as a sign of disrespect.

“We hope those countries that have received the invitation can tell right from wrong, uphold justice,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Nobel Peace Prize Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland urged China to consider political reforms, saying the committee’s decision to award Mr Liu the prize was also a message to Beijing that as a world power, China “should become used to being debated and criticised”.

“This not a prize against China,” Mr Jagland said.

Several news websites, including the BBC’s and Norwegian broadcaster NRK’s, were blocked in China yesterday, apparently to blot out any possible coverage of the ceremony. Some Nobel-related reports on CNN’s website were also inaccessible.

Meanwhile in a chaotic ceremony in Beijing yesterday, former Taiwanese vice president Lien Chan was honoured with the first Confucius Peace Prize – intended to put forth China’s idea of peace.

Mr Lien was absent and his aides seemed not to know anything about it. Instead, an unidentified, pony-tailed girl accepted it on his behalf.

Tan Changliu, chairman of the awards committee, said the new prize should not be linked with Mr Liu.