Liu Xiaobo

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Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo ( Chinese  劉曉波  /  刘晓波 ; Pinyin : Liú Xiǎobō; Mandarin pronunciation: [ljǒʊ̯ ɕjɑ̀ʊ̯pɔ́] ; * December 28, 1955 in Changchun , People's Republic of China ; † July 13, 2017 in Shenyang ) was a Chinese writer , system critic and human rights activist . Liu was a lecturer at the Beijing Pedagogical University and since 2003 president of the Chinese PEN Independent Writers' Club. In December 2008 he and 302 other intellectuals supported the civil rights manifesto Charter 08 on International Human Rights Day, which was published on the Internet, and was arrested for “undermining state authority”. He was officially charged in June 2009. On December 25, 2009, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Until shortly before his death, he was held in a prison in Liaoning Province , 500 kilometers from his hometown, Beijing .

On October 8, 2010, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced that he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; the award ceremony took place on December 10, 2010 in Liu's absence. From the beginning of December 2010, well-known regime critics and their relatives were not allowed to leave the People's Republic of China; they were refused entry. Amnesty International estimates that the pre-award travel bans until December 8, 2010 affected approximately 200 people. The degree of awareness of the civil rights activist within China increased considerably due to the various defensive measures taken by the Chinese government.

Looking back, in a very late stage of his liver cancer , he was admitted to hospital on June 26, 2017, where he was still under close surveillance. The terminally ill was denied treatment outside of China. He died on July 13, 2017 at the age of 61. His body was cremated in Shenyang. Contrary to Chinese customs, however, his ashes were not buried on land, but rather scattered in the sea in the presence of his relatives. Friends of Liu suspect that the family was under pressure to agree to this type of burial in order to prevent a possible future memorial for Liu from the outset.

Live and act

Liu Xiaobo was sent with his parents to Dashizhai People's Commune in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution from 1969 to 1973 . From November 1976 he was a worker in a Changchun construction company. He started studying literature at Jilin University in 1977 and graduated in 1982 with a bachelor's degree. After that, Liu Xiaobo moved to the Beijing Pedagogical University. There he was a doctoral candidate from 1986 to 1988 and completed his studies with a doctorate in literature.

In 1988 he was invited to the University of Oslo for three months . This was followed by stays at the University of Hawaii and Columbia University .

Liu Xiaobo took part in the Beijing student protests in 1989, which were violently ended on the night of June 3rd and 4th ( Tian'anmen massacre ). In doing so, he saved a number of students from senseless self-sacrifice through prudence. He was subsequently fired from his job and was imprisoned from 1989 to 1991.

From 1991 to 1995, he lived in Beijing, wrote articles (which he could only publish abroad) and participated in the democracy movement. After being detained for six months in 1995, he was sent to work re-education from 1996 to 1999 . Since his release in September 1999, he has lived as a freelance writer in Beijing. In November 2003 he was elected President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC).

Rally in Hong Kong in December 2008 to release Liu

On December 9, 2008, he was placed under house arrest for “inciting to undermine state authority”. According to acquaintances, he was then detained in a hotel in Beijing. He was charged with being the main author of Charter 08 , with which over 300 Chinese intellectuals called for the introduction of free elections, the separation of powers and federal structures, among other things. In June 2009, half a year after he was detained, charges were brought against Liu Xiaobo. According to the state news agency Xinhua , he confessed to spreading rumors and defaming the Chinese government. In a statement on June 26, 2009, the Council of the European Union called on China to immediately release Liu Xiaobo under the rights of freedom of expression guaranteed in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights signed by China in 1998 to stop prosecution.

On December 25, 2009, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison at the trial. European and US diplomats were excluded from the process. The EU and the United States sharply criticized the condemnation and called for its immediate release. The Chinese government viewed this as insolence and interference in China's internal affairs. On January 15, 2010, the EACS (European Association of Chinese Studies) sent an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao requesting the release of Liu Xiaobo. In February 2010, several international newspapers, including Die Zeit , published a text by Liu Xiaobo entitled, "I have no enemies." Despite everything, one day freedom will come to China too. A dissident's defensive speech not given. Shortly before, his appeal had been rejected and the verdict of the first trial confirmed. Only his wife Liu Xia was allowed to visit . Liu Xia lived under strict police surveillance; The police denied anyone who came to visit her. She was allowed to visit him once a month for half an hour and not give her husband any letters directly. Many subjects were forbidden to her. Liu Xia suffers from heart disease herself and is often in severe pain. Her husband did not know exactly how she was doing and she is not receiving adequate treatment for her condition. After Liu Xiaobo died, his widow Liu Xia was almost completely isolated from the outside world.

After Liu Xiaobo's death in July 2017, western states and human rights activists called on China to allow Liu Xia to leave the country unconditionally. However, the Chinese authorities initially did not comply with this request. At the beginning of November 2017, at the suggestion of the writers' association PEN America, a letter was published which again demanded their release and, among other things. a. mentioned her poor health. The 52 signatories included JM Coetzee , Philip Roth and Anne Tyler .

On July 10, 2018, Liu's house arrest was lifted after eight years and she was allowed to travel to Germany for medical treatment, where she arrived on the same day.

Nobel Peace Prize 2010

A label in Warsaw declares “ Solidarity with Liu Xiaobo” in Polish .
Attitudes of various countries towards the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo 2010: Participation in the boycott ceremony Norway




On October 8, 2010, the Nobel Prize Committee announced that Liu Xiaobo would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The reason given was his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg had congratulated Liu Xiaobo on winning the Nobel Prize, but abstained from any direct criticism of Beijing. At a meeting a few weeks earlier in Oslo, representatives of the Beijing Foreign Ministry had already threatened a deterioration in relations if Liu or another opposition member from China were to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Chinese reactions

On October 10, 2010, the authorities allowed wife Liu Xia to visit Liu Xiaobo in custody. Liu Xiaobo's attorney's previous fears about Liu Xia's disappearance were found to be unfounded. Liu Xiaobo, his wife reported, dedicated the Nobel Prize to the victims of the Tiananmen massacre. Spontaneous applause was suppressed by the police and the couple's apartment was placed under surveillance so that neither foreign journalists nor Chinese citizens have access. Ms. Liu Xia was under house arrest after she returned to Beijing . The Chinese government summoned the Norwegian ambassador and handed him a protest note against the award ceremony.

A media campaign against the award had been running since October 11, 2010, a meeting with a Norwegian minister was canceled, Internet access was made more difficult, and broadcasts on the BBC and CNN relating to Liu Xiaobo were disrupted. At the same time, more than 100 Chinese intellectuals requested Liu's release in an open letter to the Chinese government published on October 15, 2010. In early November 2010, the Chinese embassy in Oslo asked diplomatic missions from other countries not to attend the award ceremony in December. Apart from China, 18 countries did not take part in the handover ceremony: Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Cuba, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela and Vietnam. The People's Republic of China announced shortly before the award ceremony that it would offer its own peace prize. The award ceremony took place on December 10th, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death . One chair remained vacant during the December 10th, 2010 ceremony because neither Liu Xiaobo, his wife, or any other agent could personally accept the award. The last time something comparable happened was in 1936, when the German award winner Carl von Ossietzky was prevented by the National Socialist regime from leaving for Oslo and personally receiving the award.

The 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, Mo Yan , a member of the Chinese Communist Party, publicly spoke out in favor of the release of Liu Xiaobo on October 12, 2012, shortly after the Oslo Committee's decision was announced, along with permission to participate in politics in the future.

Academic sinologists' position on the Liu Xiaobo case

On the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, the journalist and sinologist Kai Strittmatter complained that the specialist science related to China was insufficiently prepared to criticize the government in Beijing. Tilman Spengler said: The current silence of the experts is a good contrast to the adulation of Maoism at the time. Freedom of expression also includes the “right to shut up”. As a common pattern of this silence, Strittmatter cites: One is only there for ancient China; the second is choking on the German bureaucracy and therefore has no time; the third thinks nobody asks us; and a fourth does not want to be overwhelmed by aggressive Chinese exiles. A single full-time academic sinologist, Heiner Roetz at the Ruhr University in Bochum , had organized a public panel discussion on the subject; Spengler gave the laudatory speech for Liu in 2010 when he received the Hermann Kesten Prize . According to Strittmatter, Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer , chairman of the German Association for Chinese Studies, looks at the state of China psychologically: It sometimes feels misunderstood or feels deeply offended by criticism from human rights activists. Carsten Herrmann-Pillath , at the same time head of an “East-West Center for Business Studies and Cultural Studies” in Frankfurt, calls for respect for cultural difference , we should not set “one-sided standards” from the West, the People's Republic is no longer a “totalitarian power” . China should not be expected to “lose face”; and he sees "hardly any difference to Western democracies" in access to Western ideas. Strittmatter underpins his criticism of overly adapting with statements by the author Dai Qing . Dai Qing, who has been banned from publication, speaks of the “buckling of Western Sinology”, some representatives would gloss over the nature of the regime instead of talking about “dictatorship” and “authoritarianism”.

“China has money. As a German scientist ... you can have a good time here. Research grants and honorary doctorates are in abundance here ... Those in power want to impose their worldview on others. With every nice talker there is, they take a step further. "

Some sinologists also address the danger of gossiping : “There is a lot of opportunism involved,” says Hans Kühner, Berlin; There is a large group “that is about to become dependent, ... some are systematically holding back in anything that could offend in China.” Jörg Rudolph, Ludwigshafen, sees some “servility and voluntary submission” want to " go into the country for field research , the scissors are in your head ". He is particularly bothered when Chinese politicians in the West “represent their interests so aggressively that everyone adapts to them ... that is dangerous.” Michael Lackner, Erlangen, also sees some “anticipatory obedience”. For him, the founding of Confucius Institutes is China's legitimate “soft power”; these institutes at universities that teach sinology are co-financed from China. At the University of Göttingen , two regular professorships from China are financed.

For others, this one-sided sinologist scolding goes too far. Björn Alpermann (sinologist and political scientist, University of Würzburg) asked in a letter to the editor of Strittmatter's article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung whether he would force an Aristotle expert to comment on the current financial crisis in Greece, as he would from a Confucius specialist Liu Xiaobo had requested an assessment. The regular dealing with critical China topics in the vast majority of Sinology courses is ignored in this discussion, as are the frequent lectures, interviews and media reports by many China researchers who differentiate but critically deal with the political situation there. In memory of the late Liu Xiaobo, the Sinologie Hamburg organized a memorial hour.

To mark the second anniversary of the Nobel Prize, PEN organized a campaign for his release.

Further awards

Publications

  • Words from the cell , poem, from the cycle Experiencing Death . Translated from the English by Thomas Steinfeld. Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 12, 2010, p. 15 Online
  • Liu Xiaobo: There is hope for a free China. Essay, abridged. In 3 parts, Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 11, 2010 Part 1 (translator and compiler unknown)
  • Martin-Liao, Tienchi, Hans Peter Hoffmann and Liu Xiaobo: I have no enemies, I don't know any hatred . Selected writings and poems. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 9783100925916 .

literature

  • Beiling Huang: Sacrificed to Freedom: The Biography of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate . Riva, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-86883-134-4

Web links

Commons : Liu Xiaobo  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chinese civil rights activist Liu Xiaobo is dead. In: FOCUS Online . July 13, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017 .
  2. ↑ China: Civil rights activist Liu Xiaobo arrested. In: Spiegel Online . December 10, 2008, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  3. ↑ a b Amnesty Report 2010: China. In: amnesty.de. Amnesty International Germany, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  4. ^ A b Announcement of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. In: nobelprize.org. October 8, 2010, accessed October 9, 2010 (English, video, 4 minutes).
  5. ^ Nobel Prize Ceremony : China refuses to allow regime critics to leave the country. In: FAZ.NET . December 3, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  6. ↑ Nachrichten WDR 5, December 8, 2010, 11:00 am
  7. ↑ Dai Ying: Acknowledgment for China's Democracy Movement. In: Deutsche Welle online. December 10, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  8. ↑ Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo released. In: FAZ.NET. June 26, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Kai Portmann: Liu Xiaobo's ashes scattered in the sea - concern for widow grows. In: Tagesspiegel Online . July 15, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2017 .
  10. ^ Till Fähnders: China: Dissident Liu Xiaobo arrested. In: FAZ.NET. June 24, 2009, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  11. ^ Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the criminal prosecution of Mr. Liu Xiaobo. In: europa.eu. Council of the European Union , June 26, 2009, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  12. ↑ Conviction for "undermining state authority": Chinese dissident has to be imprisoned for eleven years. In: tagesschau.de . December 25, 2009, archived from the original on December 28, 2009 ; Retrieved October 9, 2010 .
  13. ^ Andrew Jacobs: Leading China Dissident Gets 11-Year Term for Subversion. In: The New York Times Online . December 24, 2009, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  14. ↑ Brunhild Staiger (President, EACS): Open Letter To The President Of The People's Republic Of China. In: soas.ac.uk. European Association of Chinese Studies, January 15, 2010, archived from the original on June 4, 2011 ; accessed on October 11, 2010 (English).
  15. ^ Brunhild Staiger (President of EACS): Open Letter to the President of the People's Republic of China. (PDF; 63 kB) European Association of Chinese Studies, January 15, 2010, accessed on October 17, 2010 (English).
  16. ^ The time February 11, 2010 and human rights in China: "I have no enemies". In: Zeit Online . February 12, 2010, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  17. ↑ Civil rights in China: Court confirms prison sentence for Liu Xiaobo. In: Zeit Online. February 11, 2010, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  18. ^ Wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner talks about daily struggle. In: Deutsche Welle online. October 8, 2010, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  19. ↑ Finally set Liu Xia free again! . In: FAZ.NET . January 8, 2013. Appeal from Bei Ling (Chinese writer in exile and President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center), Peter Englund (Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy) and Per Wästberg (President of the Nobel Committee for Literature and Honorary President of the International PEN).
  20. ↑ Liu Xia: Liu Xiaobo's widow has disappeared , Zeit Online, August 3, 2017
  21. ↑ China: Fear for Liu Xia, the Nobel Laureate's widow , Weltspiegel , September 7, 2017
  22. ↑ Widow of the late Liu Xiaobo: writers appeal to China in the case of Liu Xia. In: n-tv.de , November 3, 2017. Accessed November 3, 2017.
  23. ↑ China lets the widow of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo leave the country . Zeit Online, July 10, 2018.
  24. ↑ Liu Xia arrived in Berlin , deutschlandfunkkultur.de, published and accessed on July 10, 2018
  25. ↑ Norwegian ambassador summoned to Beijing
  26. ↑ Till Fähnders: Nobel laureate meets his wife. In: FAZ.NET. October 10, 2010, accessed October 10, 2010 .
  27. ↑ Liu Xiaobo weeps over honor ( Memento from September 14, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  28. ↑ Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate: Human rights activists fear for Liu's wife. In: Spiegel Online. October 9, 2010, accessed October 9, 2010 .
  29. ↑ Liu Xia cannot be reached: Nobel Laureate's wife has disappeared. In: RP Online. October 9, 2010, archived from the original on October 11, 2010 ; Retrieved October 9, 2010 .
  30. ↑ Wife of Nobel Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo under house arrest again. In: Zeit Online. October 11, 2010, accessed October 13, 2010 .
  31. ↑ Nobel Peace Prize dedicated to the victims of Tiananmen: Liu Xiaobo meets wife in prison - New harassment against dissidents. In: NZZ online. October 10, 2010, accessed October 13, 2010 .
  32. ↑ Kirstin Kupfer: According to the Nobel Prize for Chinese dissidents: wife under house arrest. In: taz.de . October 11, 2010, accessed October 13, 2010 .
  33. ↑ Lui Xia: Beijing responds harshly to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. In: Rheinische Post online. October 11, 2010, accessed October 13, 2010 .
  34. ↑ Chinese intellectuals demand the release of Liu Xiaobo. In: FAZ.NET. October 15, 2010, accessed October 15, 2010 .
  35. ↑ Nobel Peace Prize: China calls for a boycott of Liu Xiaobo's honor. In: Welt Online. November 5, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  36. ↑ China warns states not to support Nobel dissident. In: bbc.co.uk. November 5, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  37. ↑ Solidarity with China's leadership: 19 countries boycott the Nobel Prize award. In: Spiegel Online. December 7, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  38. ↑ Nachrichten WDR 5, December 8th 11.00; China awards its own peace prize. In: Welt Online. December 8, 2010, accessed December 8, 2010 .
  39. ↑ Nobel Peace Prize for Liu Xiaobo: Appeal to Beijing: "Set him free". In: FAZ.NET. December 10, 2010, accessed December 12, 2010 .
  40. ↑ Nobel Prize awarded in the absence of Liu Xiaobo. In: Stern.de . December 10, 2010, archived from the original on December 12, 2010 ; accessed on December 12, 2010 : "One chair remained empty: for the first time since 1936, the Nobel Peace Prize could not be handed over."
  41. ↑ Nobel Prize for Literature. Nobel laureate Mo Yan calls for freedom for Liu Xiaobo . In: Zeit Online . October 12, 2012.
  42. ↑ Kai Strittmatter : Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 286 of December 10, 2010, p. 15, under the heading Die Chinaversteher , online
  43. ↑ Memorial hour for Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017). In: aai.uni-hamburg.de. July 17, 2017, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  44. ^ PEN International in partnership with Front Line Defenders launches International Campaign for Poet and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo. In: pen-international.org. December 7, 2010, archived from the original on May 3, 2013 ; accessed on December 17, 2012 (English).
  45. ^ Washington is renaming the street outside China's embassy after jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo - and China is furious . In: nationalpost.com . June 26, 2014, accessed July 14, 2017; Indignation at the Liu Xiaobo Plaza . In: Spiegel Online . June 28, 2014, accessed July 14, 2017.
  46. ↑ a b A Liu Xiaobo Square in Washington ?: Politics with dead dissidents , NZZ , July 17, 2017
  47. ↑ The Quiet Death of 'Liu Xiaobo Plaza' , National Review , December 15, 2016
  48. ^ After dissident's death, Ted Cruz hopeful about changing Chinese Embassy address , The Texas Tribune, July 15, 2017
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Liu is the family name here, Xiaobo is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Liu, Xiaobo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 刘晓波 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese writer, dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Changchun , People's Republic of China
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 2017
Place of death Shenyang