The Norwegian Nobel Committee has invited Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey and other human rights leaders from around the world to attend a ceremony in Oslo to award imprisoned Chinese democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo, a survivor of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Liu will not be at the ceremony, due to the Chinese government’s refusal to release him, or even to permit a member of his family to travel to Oslo to receive the award in his place. In recent weeks many other Chinese human rights defenders have been refused permission to travel abroad, lest they attend the ceremony in Oslo, and the Chinese government has put unprecedented pressure on governments around the world not to send a representative to the ceremony.
“The Chinese government has engaged in unprecedented intimidation and coercion of the international community,” said Smith, who led the congressional effort to nominate Liu for the prize in February. “Sadly, the Chinese government shares with the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union the terrible distinction of being the only governments of major nations to block a Nobel Peace Prize recipient from accepting the prize. The whole world is watching the events in Oslo, and it sees the Chinese government act as the enemy of the Chinese people.”
After Congress goes into recess for the week, Smith (R-NJ) will join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in Norway at the ceremony in Oslo Friday and help underscore the extent to which the Chinese government will go to punish those who believe in freedom. Smith, who said he is outraged that nearly 20 nations have been strong-armed by China to boycott the ceremony, has chaired 28 hearings on human rights in China and is the Ranking Member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Helsinki Commission. Rep. David Wu (D-OR), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee with Smith, is also attending the ceremony.
“This is a time when democratic leaders have a duty to speak up,” Smith said. “Liu is a true Chinese patriot and a blessing to his country, yet the Chinese government is doing its best to keep the Chinese people from learning about Liu, his heroic character and the internationally acclaimed Nobel Peace Prize. As the rest of the world unites to honor him, Liu’s story and courage exposes the truth about the extent to which the Chinese government will go to abuse those who speak out and struggle for freedom in China.”
Smith brought a resolution honoring Liu, H. Res. 1717, which the House debated and voted on this week. Numerous members – including Speaker Pelosi – spoke in favor of the resolution, which highlights the abuse the Chinese government has inflicted on the freedom activist for speaking out against human rights abuses.
“My resolution honors Liu Xiaobo, who in the 1980s had a brilliant academic career in front of him in China,” Smith told his colleagues on the floor. “When the Tiananmen Square demonstrations began in 1989, he was a visiting professor in New York. He effectively gave all that up when he flew back to China to join the students demonstrating for democracy on the square – where he insisted that the students themselves adhere to democratic process. Liu has been working and sacrificing for democratic reform ever since – through the hundreds of remarkable essays he has written, and the courage with which he has borne imprisonment – four times.” (Click here to read Smith’s floor statement).
The measure, which passed 402-1, calls on the Chinese government to immediately release Liu, and rejects its claim that his imprisonment is purely an “internal” Chinese matter.
In February 2010, Smith organized a bi-partisan group of House lawmakers in nominating Liu—as well as two other persecuted human rights advocates, Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng, to be joint Nobel recipients—as part of an international movement to award the prize to Liu.
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