Liu Xiaobo Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in Absentia

China's tyranny is on full display today as Liu Xiaobo's absence in Oslo put China's brutality on stage for the world to see.  Indeed, Xiabo's cause has made a spectacle of China's political policies and brutal repression of dissent.

Not since Nazi Germany in 1935 has a government barred a Nobel Peace Prize winner from attending when Hitler barred pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from attending in the ceremony.

To further their aims, China also blocked access to news on the Internet, TV, and print media to prevent their citizenry of knowing Xiaobo's great achievement.  And what was Xiaobo's crime?  It was the publication of Charter 08 advocating for freedom, the end of one party rule, freedom of association, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. 

Xiaobo's fight is our fight and the struggle of freedom loving people everywhere.  It makes China's apologists (like Ignatieff and Tom Friedman) seem very much on the wrong side of history.  However, the left has been on the wrong side of history often since 1917 and Red October.  Not surprisingly, Tom Friedman has been completely silent on Xiaobo's prize despite his constant yearnings for the United States to become more like China in its efficiency to pass laws regardless of the human cost.

Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was due to read out an address made by Mr. Liu, 54, who was closely involved in Tienanmen and more recently helped found the reform group Charter 08, to a court during his trial for subversion in December 2009.

"Hatred can rot away at a person’s intelligence and conscience. (The) enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation’s progress toward freedom and democracy,” the address said.

Xiaobo may be suffering in prison, being tortured and subjected to awful crimes like thousands of others in China.  But I am utterly convinced that freedom will eventually win the day, even in Communist China.