Press Release

A bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese democracy advocate who died of cancer this summer while serving a prison term, was introduced today by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04). 

  Smith attended the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo at the invitation of Liu Xiaobo’s family. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award in the United States.   

  “It is an unspeakable tragedy that Liu Xiaobo’s unjust imprisonment in 2009 became a death sentence. The blame should lay squarely on the Chinese government, his death is truly an unwashable stain, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner to die in state custody since Carl Von Ossietzky died after being detained in a Nazi concentration camp,” said Smith.  “The Communist Party has censored news of his death, scattered his ashes at sea so his burial site would not become a place of pilgrimage, and have detained and silenced his wife, the poet Liu Xia, who’s health and safety remain at risk. The world lost a great champion of freedom and democracy, we must not forget Liu Xiaobo and the Communist Party of China should be confronted with his ideas and memory at all occasions.”  Text of H.R. 3960 can be found here.

  Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who serves with Smith (R-NJ) as Chair of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, will introduce a similar bill in the Senate. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) joined Smith in sponsoring the legislation in the House of Representatives.

   “The world owes Liu Xiaobo a debt of gratitude because he demonstrated that democracy and due process, liberty and the rule of law, freedom and justice are not foreign ideas in China, no matter what the Chinese Communist Party may say.  These ideas will eventually be part of a more peaceful and prosperous future for China and the globe,” said Smith.  “I believe that, someday, China will be free. Someday, the people of China will be able to enjoy all of their God-given rights, and Liu Xiaobo will be honored as a hero, along with all others like him, who have sacrificed so much, and so long, for freedom.”

  Smith has held over 60 hearings on human rights in China. According to Smith, an estimated 250 human rights lawyers have been detained since July 2015, in a massive crackdown designed to silence dissent in China—known as the 7-09 crackdown.

                                                           
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