By Oh Kongdan
The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist.
Liu is the first Chinese citizen to receive any kind of Nobel Prize for work done in China. Predictably, the Chinese government, which has its own self-serving views on human rights, is not only preventing Liu from attending the awards ceremony but also preventing any of his family members from receiving the prize on his behalf.
Consequently, at the ceremony he will be represented by an empty chair with his portrait sitting on top of it, and the $1.7 million prize will be awarded at a later date. The only other time that the prize could not be awarded was in 1936 when a German journalist and his family were detained by the Nazis. Sad to say, that the German recipient died two years later while still in Nazi custody.
Liu Xiaobo is currently incarcerated as a political prisoner for calling for democratic reforms and the end to communist one-party rule in China. More precisely, he was detained for helping to write Charter 08, a manifesto released on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and written in the style of the Czechoslovak Charter 77 that called for freedom of expression, human rights, and free elections.
On Dec. 25, 2009 he was sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights ― such as they are in China. This is not his first prison term. Since 1989, Liu has been in and out of Chinese prisons but the authorities cannot shut him up. As the New York Times said, ``his credentials are beyond reproach.”
Since the announcement of Liu’s award, the Chinese government has pressured its own citizens and representatives of other governments not to attend the ceremony, threatening unspecified consequences if they do. So far, six of the 58 countries that maintain embassies in Oslo have stated that they will not attend the December 10 ceremony: Cuba, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Russia, and China itself. Interestingly, Freedom House ranks the freedom of press in these countries as, respectively, 191st, 144th, 169th, 146th, 175th and 186th out of 196 countries (North Korea is dead last).
Most Western governments have accepted the Nobel Committee’s invitation, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The decisions of 16 other countries with embassies in Oslo have not yet been announced. One of those undecided countries is the Republic of Korea.
Korea is coming off its successful hosting of the G20 summit. Korea’s freedom of press ranking is 67, just allowing it to squeeze into the group of ``free press” countries (the United States ranks 24). Korea boasts a long and sometimes violent history of democratization from the early days of the Republic to its political maturity in the 1990s. Today, Korea is a shining example of political and economic achievements. So why is Korea reluctant to join the leading democratic nations in honoring a Chinese freedom fighter? Do Koreans deserve more freedom than Chinese?
Korea’s geographic proximity to China has always presented challenges as well as opportunities. In ancient days the more advanced Chinese civilization conferred many cultural benefits on Korea, including Buddhism, calligraphy, ceramics, and silk culture, but China also sent armies to subjugate Koreans.
Today these two neighboring countries are deeply engaged in commercial, social, and educational exchanges. Tourism is booming and the commercial relationship is comprehensive and solid. China is the biggest market for Korean goods and many Korean companies are heavily invested in China. Political pressure from the Chinese government has the potential to disrupt this close economic relationship.
However, Korea’s place is with the democracies at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. Liu Xiaobo’s life and work represent the political values that Koreans have worked so hard to gain. Korea now has a chance to give something back to the Chinese people: a model of human rights. Bowing to China on this issue will send a signal to the political rulers in Beijing that they can use threats and economic leverage to preserve their privileged positions.
In the future, the Chinese people will probably gain their freedom from one-party rule, and if Koreans wait until that day to honor heroes like Liu Xiaobo, they will find it necessary to apologize for remaining silent for so long. Korea’s delay in announcing its attendance at the awards ceremony is already shameful. Korea should join shoulder-to-shoulder with the democracies and not place itself in the company of those countries at the bottom of the ladder of freedom.
Oh Kongdan is a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. She is an expert on Asian affairs. Her recent publications include the report, ``Moving the U.S.-ROK Alliance into the 21st Century" and the book ``The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom." She can be reached at kohassig@ida.org.