[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 159 (Monday, December 6, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8549-S8550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               LIU XIAOBO

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, in China, as I speak, there is a man in a 
small prison cell lit by one single lightbulb. He has been in prison 
for 11 years in the country of China. On Friday of this week, in Oslo, 
Norway, he will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His name is Liu 
Xiaobo. His wife has written me asking me to come to the Nobel Peace 
Prize presentation in Oslo, Norway, this Friday in honor of her 
husband. I am not able to go to Oslo this Friday. The Senate is going 
to be in session the rest of the week. I regret I can't be in Oslo for 
the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, but I did want to take a moment 
to remember what is happening this week.
  This is Liu Xiaobo. He is in prison in China. He has been in prison 
for 11 years. That is his sentence. I wish to describe why the Chinese 
have put Liu Xiaobo in prison. It is not the first time he has been in 
prison, as a matter of fact.
  Let me tell my colleagues just a little about Liu Xiaobo. He was born 
in 1955, grew up in an industrial city in China's northeast. As a young 
man, he wanted to study literature, so he went to Beijing and he became 
a Ph.D. in comparative literature. He became a professor and dedicated 
his days to teaching and to writing.
  By 1989, he had the good fortune to be allowed to travel abroad as a 
visiting scholar. He was at Columbia University in New York, in the 
USA, when the demonstrations began to grow in Tiananmen Square. He cut 
short his visit to Columbia University as a visiting scholar and 
returned home to China, joining students in Tiananmen Square in a 
hunger strike. Then, on the night of June 4, a scholar whom the 
students had grown to trust, persuaded a group of students to withdraw 
from the square to save their lives. That was Liu Xiaobo. Authorities 
in China labeled him a subversive and sentenced him to 18 months in 
prison.
  Eighteen months later, upon his release, he was told he could neither 
teach nor publish. He described his plight then in these words:

       Simply for expressing divergent political views and taking 
     part in a peaceful and democratic movement, a teacher lost 
     his podium, a writer lost the right to publish, and an 
     intellectual lost a chance to speak publicly.

  On his release in 1991 he continued to write and again he was placed 
under house arrest in 1995, then sent to a labor camp where he was 
detained until 1999.
  In December of 2008, Liu Xiaobo called for political reform and was a 
supporter of something called Charter 08 in China. He was once again 
detained, then formally arrested, and then sent to prison for 11 years.
  Let me describe what Charter 08 calls for. A group of people in China 
who want the expression of freedoms that are available to all of us had 
created Charter 08. It calls for the guarantee of human rights, an 
independent judiciary, the freedom to assemble, the freedom of 
expression, the freedom of religion, protection of private property--
and so on.
  So someone who advocates this and pushes for these kinds of reforms 
is now sitting in a small prison cell with a single light bulb.
  On Friday, in Oslo, Norway, when they award the Nobel Peace Prize, 
there will be one empty chair on the stage for the man to whom the 
Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded.
  There will be empty chairs in the audience because his wife is not 
allowed

[[Page S8550]]

to go. She is detained under house arrest in China. I want to describe 
that as well. His wife has been barred from traveling to Oslo to accept 
the honor, and all of Liu's family has been barred from traveling. The 
Nobel committee will postpone bestowing the actual medal, but the 
ceremony will go on on Friday. There have now been just over 100 
documented incidents since October in which Chinese citizens have been 
harassed, interrogated, and subjected to police surveillance, detained, 
or placed under house arrest for their expressions of support for Liu 
Xiaobo. Some supporters reportedly have just disappeared.
  The travel restrictions are pretty unbelievable. A violinist, Lynn 
Chang, an American of Chinese descent who teaches at the Boston 
Conservatory, and who will be playing at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony 
on December 10, expressed concern about the personal and professional 
repercussions his family might have in China for his accepting the 
invitation to play at the ceremony.
  Out of about 140 Chinese activists invited by Liu's wife to attend 
the ceremony, only one at this point has been able to say: ``I will be 
there.'' More than a dozen and far more have been blocked from flying 
overseas since Liu won the Peace Prize in October.
  This is a photograph of Liu Xiaobo and his wife. Both are courageous 
citizens, who, in my judgment, are owed our respect and all that we can 
do to say to the Chinese Government: You cannot possibly continue to do 
this and then insist that you believe in democracy.
  Mr. President, in a recent interview with CNN, Premier Wen Jiabao of 
China said this:

       Freedom of speech is indispensable. . . . The people's 
     wishes for, and needs for, democracy and freedom are 
     irresistible.

  I hope the Chinese Government and Chinese officials will understand 
they cannot talk about these principles in that way and then continue 
to imprison someone such as Liu Xiaobo, whom the rest of the world will 
celebrate as a courageous man striving for greater human rights in 
China, the very things we take for granted every morning we wake up in 
the United States. This man is spending 11 years in prison just for 
writing about his aspirations for himself and the rest of the people in 
China to have those freedoms.
  As I said, I will not be in Oslo on Friday. I am enormously honored 
by Liu Xiaobo's wife asking me to be present. As chair of the 
Congressional Executive Commission on China, I have held many hearings 
on the issues that exist between us and China. I held a hearing within 
the last month about the issue of Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize and 
what it means when a government says: Rather than be at a place of 
honor and our country celebrating your winning the Nobel Peace Prize, 
we will have you in a prison cell once again.
  That is not what we would expect, or what anybody should expect, from 
the Government of China. I said previously there are things that have 
improved in China in recent years for some Chinese. China is a big 
country. It will be a significant part of our future. We are not quite 
sure how that is going to manifest itself.
  Our country has decided affirmatively that our relationship with 
China ought to be a constructive relationship in which we have 
constructive engagement through trade and travel, and that is 
anticipated to move China toward greater human rights. In fact, there 
have been some areas of progress. But this is a disgrace. Liu Xiaobo is 
a hero. He ought not be a prisoner. Liu Xiaobo will be honored whether 
the Chinese like it or not this Friday in Oslo, Norway. The Chinese are 
trying to do everything they can to keep people away from that 
ceremony. They have been calling other embassies in Oslo saying: Do not 
go to that ceremony.
  I think what has been happening is pretty unbelievable. I hope all of 
the American people this Friday understand there is someone we ought to 
think about who has exhibited great courage in support of freedom for 
the people of the country in which he lives, and that is Liu Xiaobo. On 
Friday, he will still be in prison, but the world can celebrate his 
courage and say to the Chinese in every way we know that they cannot 
continue to talk about freedom and then keep a Nobel Peace Prize winner 
in a dark prison cell in the farther reaches of China.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. I ask unanimous consent to speak for as much time as 
I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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