By Emily Lau

One of Hong Kong's most outspoken and popular politicians, Emily Lau represents the Democratic Party.

OSLO, Norway – In December, I flew to Oslo to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. The recipient, Chinese writer and dissident Liu Xiaobo, was not there to receive the award because he remains locked up in a prison in China, serving an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”.

The ceremony took place at Oslo City Hall on International Human Rights Day (December 10). More than 1,000 people attended, including Norway's king and queen, dignitaries and international human-rights activists.

An empty chair symbolized Liu's absence. For the first time in 75 years, no relative or representative of the winner attended to accept the award. Speaking at the ceremony, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said the committee chose Liu for his heroic, non-violent struggles for democracy and human rights and because China must learn that with economic power comes social and political responsibility.

“We can, to a certain degree, say that China with its 1.3 billion people carries mankind's fate on its shoulders,” said Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister. He said that if China can develop a social market economy with full civil rights, it would have a huge favorable impact on the world. For all of China's strength, its weakness shows in the need to imprison a man merely for expressing opinions on how his country should be governed.

In a press interview, Jagland said that several times he and the Norwegian foreign minister received warnings from top Chinese officials not to give the award to Liu. Although the Nobel Committee disregarded Beijing's threats, it believes the choice should not be seen as an insult to China. Instead, the committee's reasoning resembles that in 1964 when the prize went to Dr Martin Luther King, who defied the American authorities to fight for civil rights. That prize nudged the U.S. toward reform. Jagland hopes for the same effect on China.

The recent 75-minute Peace Prize ceremony was simple, dignified and moving. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read out Liu's defiant, yet gentle, statement made to a Chinese court before his incarceration. Tears fell from the eyes of some in the audience, including dissidents who had joined the 1989 student protests in Beijing. Now exiled, they could travel to Oslo.

More than 100 of Liu's invited friends and relatives were not allowed to leave the Chinese mainland. With fellow Hong Kong democrats Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan, I could travel to Norway. Under a “one-country, two-systems” policy, Hong Kong people retain many of the freedoms they had under British colonial rule, including that of travel. Yet for 20 years, the three of us haven't been allowed to enter the Chinese mainland. I look forward to a time when all Chinese citizens can enjoy basic human rights, like freedom of movement. When that happens, it will be thanks to the sacrifices of people like Liu.

The Chinese government also persuaded the representatives of 16 countries to stay away. These absences resulted from a relentless pressure campaign by Beijing, one symptomatic of a broader global transformation. Although China's rapid rise has positive implications, like lifting millions of people out of poverty, it also undermines the international human-rights system.

After the Second World War, various documents codified the principles of a universal human-rights system. These included the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which held assertions of individual human rights. Such assertions also appeared in Charter 08, a manifesto that Lui and others tried to promote.

But Beijing sees absolute national sovereignty as key to national cohesiveness. Its culture often places collective progress over individual rights. So China's concept of sovereignty stands in sharp contrast to the norms of the international human-rights system.

In some countries where human rights are abused massively, China acts as a protector of the abusing governments, among them Sudan, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. Such brutal regimes could not survive without Chinese support, protection and weapons. In return, China benefits commercially, often in deals for natural resources. In these places, international efforts to protect human rights have little impact.

Beijing's heavy-handed attempts to meddle in the Nobel Peace Prize process made international headlines. The empty chair for Liu symbolizes Chinese oppression and intolerance. Many people were amazed that an event worthy of national pride could be turned into such an embarrassment. Leaders in Beijing should know that their hysterical reaction was counter-productive and betrayed a sense of insecurity.

By behaving like a world-class bully, Beijing turned the event into a public-relations disaster, doing little to enhance China's international image or to gain the respect it desires as a peaceful superpower. To worsen matters, Beijing launched its own “Confucian’s Peace Prize”, and the winner, former Taiwan vice-president Lien Chan, failed to appear. To many people, Beijing's reaction to the events in Oslo became a farce.

Some commentators said Beijing had only itself to blame for the embarrassment and ridicule. As a modern, confident and powerful nation, China should find room for dissent and debate without locking up its people for expressing political views.

In the statement read out by Ullmann, Liu said he has no enemies or hatred because hatred can rot a person's intelligence and conscience. After the 1989 crackdown on student protests, he was branded a counter-revolutionary and essentially rendered voiceless: “Merely for publishing different political views and taking part in a peaceful democracy movement, a teacher lost his lectern, a writer lost his right to publish and a public intellectual lost the opportunity to give talks publicly.”

Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth, said Lui. He looks forward to when “all political views will be spread out under the sun for people to choose from” and wishes to be the last victim of China's endless literary inquisitions.

But many Chinese continue to be incarcerated for daring to express dissent. Their sacrifices won't be in vain. In time, China will embrace democracy. Liu represents values that an increasing number of Chinese people also desire.

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