奥斯陆的空椅子

写于2010年12月8日

自1901年以来，诺奖委已经颁布了九十一个诺贝尔和平奖。除了没发奖的那几年外，其间只有四次出现领奖人缺席的情况。12月10日星期五，在奥斯陆的和平奖颁奖仪式上，又会有一把空椅子。

今年的得主刘晓波在中国东北锦州监狱中服刑，“罪行”是支持倡导民主人权的《零八宪章》，被判刑十一年。他的妻子和其他亲属近友也去不了奥斯陆，因为他/她们也被软禁或被监控起来了。

这次的这张空椅子比能有人去领奖更能说明中国人权状况的恶劣。中国的经济和政治实力在扩增，但是这种实力并没有带动人权的改善。这张空椅子也道出了人们在中国倡导自由民主所付出的代价。空而富有内涵，好比无声的呐喊。
自诺奖在10月8日公布以来，全国各地公安对那些敢于庆祝或传播这一消息的人们进行了威胁和惩罚。刘晓波的妻子刘霞最后一次在推特上发推条是10月18日，据说20日以后就再也没有她的任何音讯。官方警告刘晓波的老父和三个兄弟不准对媒体发表评论也别想去奥斯陆领奖。刘晓波在北京的好些朋友和同事被国保日夜监控。官方因担心他们会去奥斯陆，堵住了刘晓波的律师莫少平和北大法学教授贺卫方，不让他们去伦敦参加一个国际律协会议。有好几十人因商务或学术会议出国，包括著名经济学家矛予试和艺术家艾未未，就因为涉嫌绕道去奥斯陆，受到边控。至少已经有一百多人被公安传唤或请“喝茶”，有的受到威胁：如果就诺奖接受媒体采访将会面临严重后果。有几位支持晓波的人或“零八宪章”签署人已经被以无端捏造的罪名拘留或送去“劳教”。

中国政府的这些威胁和报复行为从一个侧面表明，诺奖委把今年的和平奖授予刘晓波很明智，也挺有勇气。这个决定使国际社会上更多人知道中国还有像刘晓波这样因言论被严重治罪的人，对其它上千中国狱中良心犯的关注可能会达到1989年以后的第二个高点。世界主流终于开始悟出一个道理：一个国家的经济总产值增长与人权自由压制可以并行，别以为前者一定会带动后者，因此也不要因为有了前者就不再批评后者。

抵制诺贝尔和平奖、报复获奖人，在这方面中国政府这次比缅甸的军统集团、甚至希特勒的纳粹德国走的更远。1991年，缅甸的反对派民主党领袖昂山素姬获诺贝尔和平奖，她当时被拘禁在家里，但她的儿子还能出席颁奖仪式致答谢词。在她2010年11月获释之前，昂山素姬有15年是在软禁中度过的，但她有时还能见到外国使节。1936年，德国的反战记者卡尔. 冯. 奥赛茨基获和平奖，他当时被关押在集中营，重病在身。纳粹德国把他转入市民医院，并公开宣布他可以自由去挪威领奖，但没给他办护照。刘晓波获奖后，中国官方发言人和媒体连篇诋毁诺奖委和诺贝尔和平奖倡导的普世价值：和平、公正、人权，不但没有任何释放刘晓波的迹象，而且对刘晓波进行人格攻击，把刘霞软禁起来，对他们的近亲好友进行了各种形式的打压。在国际层面，中国外交部门公开向各国驻挪威领馆施压，要它们抵制12月10日在奥斯陆举行的和平奖颁奖仪式。

过去十几年中，中国政府投入巨资在国际上营造“软外交”公关工程，塑造良好国际形象。耗资庞大的北京奥运和上海世贸就是这样的“公关”战绩。但是它对诺奖的反应是对这些工程的自我瓦解，与它这些年来刻意营造良好国际形象和信誉的意愿背道而驰。一个继续监禁诺贝尔和平奖得主的政府，不可能受到国际道义和舆论的亲睐，更不可能在世界上有“良好”形象。刘晓波继续被关押在监狱里多久，中国政府的人权劣绩被国际社会重点关注就会持续多久。诺奖提高了对民主国家和多国机构领导人的期望值：他们会感到更大的压力推动他们就人权问题向中国领导人加压。

历史可以佐证。除中国之外，近代还有四个个国家在自己的公民获诺奖后继续监控他（她）们：纳粹法西斯德国（奥赛茨基1936年获奖），苏联政府（沙哈诺夫1975年获奖），波兰政府（瓦文萨1983年获奖），缅甸军统政府（昂山素姬1991年获奖）。

中国政府在颁奖仪式前一天推出一个“孔子和平奖”与诺贝尔和平奖对阵，以此表达官方的一贯说法：“人权”和“民主”是西方概念、“和谐稳定”繁荣才是中国人所向往的。“孔子和平奖”第一任获奖人、台湾前副总统连战已经谢绝接受。在儒家伦理与人权理念之间制造对立，这不仅是一个学术不严谨的问题。当代儒家学者当中一个非常活跃的流派一直在论证儒家的“仁爱”、“宽恕”和“官逼民反”思想是与人权思想一致的。1946年，罗斯福夫人牵头、由世界各国学者组成《世界人权宣言》起草委员会里就有一位中国学者张彭春。他的渊博学术论述说服了起草委员会在最后的文本里接纳了饱含儒家伦理的理念，如《宣言》第一条“人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神相对待”中“良心”、“兄弟关系”等提法。

中国政府在国际台面上表现的很自信、强大，然而它在国内对待本国公民的作法却显得十分怯弱和恐惧。把一个书生文人打入牢狱11年，恰好说明了这个政府害怕他，怕他是因为他替普通人说话。限制言论自由、惩罚表达民怨的声音，这样的政府出面来说“中国人不要民主人权，”怎么会有信誉？只有开放言论自由，让人们充分表达自己的观点，自由辩论是非，才能真正了解中国民众的价值观和向往。否则，政府官员和官方操控媒体的说法只能代表中国政府的观点。也就是说，“不要人权民主”是中国政府，不是中国民众。

去年的诺贝尔和平奖得主奥巴马在他的答谢词中说，“在一个公民被剥夺言论自由、宗教自由，和无畏选择自己的领导人和集会的权利的国家，和平不可能长久。”奥巴马应该为那些没有表达自由的人们说话，为诺奖最新得主刘晓波的自由呼吁，只有这样，他才能说话算话。

诺奖颁奖仪式实况将会被网警屏蔽，但是中国的四亿多网民当中不少人会通过他们自己的途径翻墙观看并传播仪式的影像和信息。 中国政府把刘晓波、刘霞和她邀请的140多中国贵宾都堵在了牢墙里或国门内，不让去领奖或参加典礼，但是它堵不住刘晓波多年来倡导的那些得到诺贝尔和平奖肯定的理念和价值观穿越国界和防火墙。

12月10日那天，人们会更加树耳倾听刘晓波从他的空椅子上发出的沉寂的声音。

Empty Chair in Oslo

The missing Nobel laureate

latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-xia-nobelist-20101209,0,469228.story

Neither China's Liu Xiaobo nor his wife or family or friends will be in Oslo to receive his Peace Prize. Who will speak up for him?
By Renee Xia
December 9, 2010

Ninety-one Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded since 1901. On Friday, at the Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, there will be an empty chair.

This year's recipient, Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese writer and dissident currently serving 11 years in prison for supporting the pro-democracy and human rights manifesto Charter 08, will not be here to receive the honor. Nor will his wife or any other relatives or close friends, as they have been placed under house arrest or police surveillance, or barred from traveling abroad.

The empty chair will speak volumes about the deteriorating human rights conditions in China, a rising economic and political power unchecked by democratic balances. It will also speak of the tremendous sacrifices that Chinese human rights and pro-democracy activists have made, and the urgent need to support their struggle for justice and human rights for those living in China, and for upholding universal values.

Since the Nobel was announced Oct. 8, police across China have been intimidating and penalizing anyone who tries to celebrate or spread the good news. Liu's wife, Liu Xia, was last heard from on Twitter on Oct. 18. Authorities warned Liu Xiaobo's father and brothers to stay silent. Several of Liu's friends and associates in Beijing are guarded around the clock by police. Border control authorities barred his lawyer, Mo Shaoping, and outspoken Beijing University professor He Weifang from traveling to London for a seminar, for fear they would go to Oslo. Dozens of other friends or supporters of Liu, including the economist Mao Yushi and the artist Ai Weiwei, also have been stopped from leaving the country for conferences. At least 100 activists have been visited by police and threatened with severe consequences for speaking to the media about the prize. Several supporters of Liu and signatories of Charter 08 have been detained or sent to "re-education through labor" camps on trumped-up charges.

This campaign of intimidation and retaliation makes it evident that the Nobel Committee made a wise and courageous decision to award the Peace Prize to Liu, one of thousands of prisoners of conscience in China.

Chinese leaders have outdone Myanmar's military junta and even Hitler's Nazi Germany in their efforts to snub the Nobel Peace Prize and retaliate against the recipient. When Burmese democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the Peace Prize in 1991 while she was under house arrest, her son made the acceptance speech at the ceremony. When Carl von Ossietzky, the German pacifist journalist, won in 1935 while imprisoned in a concentration camp, Nazi Germany declared that Ossietzky was free to go to Norway to accept the prize, while refusing him a passport. The Chinese government is handing out a competing Confucius Peace Prize.

Over the last decade, the Chinese government has invested heavily in soft diplomacy and image beautification projects, such as the 2008 Beijing Olympics and this year's Shanghai Expo. But international opinion will not look kindly on a government that jails its first Nobel Peace Prize winner. Keeping Liu in prison provides a platform for international mobilization to end rights abuses in China, and will continue to shame the government for its failures to honor its international treaty obligations to respect human rights.

Beijing puts out the Confucius prize to boost its claims that rights and freedoms are Western ideas, and that "stability" and prosperity are more desirable to the Chinese people. On the world stage, China appears as a confident and powerful player. Yet at home, the government is nervous about losing control, terrified that the people will find their own voice. Liu Xiaobo has articulated their voice. By silencing him, the government is silencing the voice of conscience. It is not the silenced Chinese people but the government that rejects the universal values of human rights and democracy.

President Obama, the recipient of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, has a special responsibility to advocate for the freedom of fellow laureate Liu. Obama should attend the Nobel ceremony and take the opportunity to speak publicly about China's worsening human rights conditions. He should ask Chinese President Hu Jintao to free Liu, release his wife from house arrest and allow them to travel to Oslo. Indeed, Obama has a solemn responsibility to speak for the Chinese citizens who cannot, to give substance to the words in his acceptance speech in Oslo a year ago: "Peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please, choose their own leaders or assemble without fear."

Despite Beijing's information blackout on the prize ceremony, many of China's 420 million netizens will find ways to watch the ceremony and spread the word online. Chinese authorities may have succeeded in keeping Liu, his wife and invited guests from China away from the Nobel ceremony. But they cannot prevent the ideas and values that Liu has spent his life promoting from traveling across national borders and China's great Internet firewall.

Renee Xia is international director of the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, which documents human rights abuses in China.