【明報專訊】Many Nobel Prize winners were behind bars, but few are doing time. Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a Chinese civil rights activist, is one of them.

1. Life of the Laureate

Liu Xiaobo was born on 28 December 1955 in Jilin. He read literature and philosophy in his formative years. He taught at Beijing Normal University (北京師範大學). In 1989 he participated in the Tian'anmen Square protests. He was one of the leading participants who went on hunger strike. After the protests he was fired by the university and was sentenced to two years in prison. In 1996, Liu was again arrested. He served three years in a labour camp afterwards. He married Liu Xia (劉霞) during his captivity.

In 2008, Liu drafted the 2008 Charter (《零八憲章》) with Zhang Zuhua (張祖樺). The authors of the Charter advocated the gradual development of democracy in China and reiterated the importance of freedom, human rights, equality, constitutional government and democracy. It was first signed by 303 people, including Tian'anmen Mothers leader Ding Zilin (丁子霖), leader of the Tian'anmen protests Wang Dan (王丹) and Szeto Wah (司徒華) and Albert Ho (何俊仁) of Hong Kong. Liu and Zhang planned to make the Charter public on 9 December 2008. However, Liu and Zhang were arrested on the evening before that. Liu was charged with sedition and subversion (煽動顛覆國家政權) and was sentenced to 11 years in jail.

2. The Nobel Peace Prize

Announcing the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate on 8 October 2010, the chairman of the Nobel Committee said the committee believed that human rights and peace were closely related. Liu received the award ''for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China''. Liu was the first serving prisoner to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize since the end of WWII. Liu once said to his wife, ''The prize should go to those who died in the June 4 incident.''

Human rights activists and democracy advocates were glad to hear the news. Wang Dan thought that the international community had changed its tactics in handling issues of human rights abuse in China.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (中國外交部) lashed out at the committee's decision, saying Liu was a convict who had violated the law and awarding the prize to him was against the visions envisaged by the prize and desecrated (褻瀆) it.

The award ceremony took place on December 10 that year. As Liu was in captivity and could not assign a person to receive the award on his behalf, an empty chair was placed to pay tribute to him. Liu's statement ''I have no enemies'', written before he was jailed, was read aloud. Representatives of 15 countries that had diplomatic or economic ties with China were absent from the ceremony.

3. Human rights in mainland China

Human and civil rights in China are an international concern. According to a report issued by Human Rights Watch, the Chinese government ''places arbitrary curbs on expression, association, assembly, and religion; prohibits independent labour unions and human rights organisations; and maintains Party control over all judicial institutions''. Corruption is so serious that it harms the public interest, as reflected by the fact that many poorly constructed houses collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

In the US's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices of 2013, China was criticised for its ''black jails'', its lack of fair, open trial and Chinese dissidents' ''disappearances''. China refuted that the US should not interfere in its internal affairs.