Meanwhile things are happy in Communist China:
After peace prize, China targets winner's friends
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer Cara Anna, Associated Press
Writer Fri Oct 15, 10:10 am ET
BEIJING – In the week after Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize for
his decades of promoting democratic change in China, dozens of people
who openly agreed with his views say they have been detained, roughed
up, harassed or kept from leaving their homes.
The latest appears to be a woman who Liu has said should win the
prize: Ding Zilin, who has fought for years for China's government to
recognize the hundreds killed in the military's crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Liu's wife sent out an alert late Thursday that said Ding had
"disappeared" and urged people to "pay attention" to her case.
Specially targeted for harassment after Liu won the peace prize are
the first group of signers of Charter 08, the demand for greater
freedoms that brought Liu an 11-year prison sentence for subversion
and that was cited by the Nobel committee.
"I'm so sorry. I have a lot to say, but I don't dare to talk. I've
been confronted several times by police already since Liu Xiaobo won
the prize," writer Zhao Shiying, who signed Charter 08, said Thursday.
"Anyone who signed the charter" is getting police attention, he said.
"I hope you understand this life we lead."
Some received threatening phone calls from police as they prepared to
release an open letter late Thursday calling for Liu's release, said
Xu Youyu, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who
signed and helped prepare the letter. He said more than 120 people,
including prominent activists and journalists, had signed.
"We call upon the Chinese authorities to approach Liu Xiaobo's Nobel
Prize with realism and reason," the letter says. It also asks police
to stop "these illegal actions."
"We thought we had to say something," said Xu, who added that he
personally had not been harassed. "The government is still doing the
same things."
Beijing-based activist Fan Yafeng said he has been roughed up this
week by the police who watch him.
Zhou Duo, a friend of Liu who took part in the Tiananmen Square
demonstrations, said state security officers have kept him in his home
since the night of Oct. 9, when he was to attend a dinner to celebrate
the peace prize.
Dissident author Yu Jie said his bags were searched when he returned
Thursday from a trip to the United States, and police told him that he
now must have a police escort everywhere he travels.
Beijing police did not immediately respond Friday to a faxed question
about the complaints.
China has responded angrily to the award, saying the West was using it
to undermine China and calling Liu a criminal. In particular, Beijing
has singled out the Norwegian government for its 'erroneous support'
of the Nobel Committee's decision, cancelling several meetings with a
visiting minister.
On Friday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said he had
met with Chinese ambassador Tang Guaqiang to emphasize that Norway
wants to continue its cooperation with China on a broad range of
issues.
"I expressed regret over the reactions we have seen from China over
the last week," he said, adding that he told Tang that China "must
bear responsibility for its decisions to take actions that affect our
relations."
Stoere said he again urged China to release Liu Xiaobo and remove the
restrictions on his wife Liu Xia.
Liu Xiaobo, a protester who helped persuade students and other
demonstrators to leave Tiananmen Square hours before the military
moved in, told his wife he was dedicating the peace prize to the
crackdown's "lost souls."
Ding, the activist who founded the group Tiananmen Mothers to fight
for the memory of those killed, including her son, had been warned
before the peace prize not to give interviews.
Her mobile and land phones in Beijing and the city of Wuxi, where she
was last heard from, appeared disconnected Friday.
"The last time I talked to her was Oct. 8 when Liu Xiaobo won the
peace prize. We were so happy," Xu Jue, a member of the Tiananmen
Mothers, said Friday. "We're really worried she's been taken away.
When she was detained before, she would make contact. What if it's
worse this time?"
Police in Wuxi on Friday said they would look into Ding's apparent
disappearance.
From the moment Liu won the prize, the government sprang into action,
having a spokesman condemn the award, erasing online mentions of Liu
from and pumping up the propaganda in the state media.
One well-known blogger, Wen Yunchao, said a Twitter-like service run
by Sina Corp. was so deluged with messages that extra employees were
brought in to help censor them.
Turning up the criticism of Liu and the Nobel committee, propaganda
authorities on Thursday launched a coordinated, bitter response.
A pair of official Xinhua News Agency articles, placed prominently on
major online portals, attacked the prize as a tool the West is using
to undermine China. One linked Liu with the Tibetan spiritual leader
the Dalai Lama, who is widely unpopular in China because the
government has accused him of wanting to split Tibet from China.
"A few people abroad have reacted to the news with joy, frolicking
around as though they've taken drugs. One of these people is the Dalai
Lama, who won the Peace Prize in 1989," the article said. "What's the
underlying link? The Dalai Lama and Liu Xiaobo are the political dolls
of Western forces."
While propaganda officials are targeting ordinary Chinese to mold
public opinion to the government's line, police have warned activists
against trying to use the peace prize as momentum to cause any
trouble.
Some say China's official angry response to the peace prize is being
repeated during long police interrogations.
"This is Western anti-Chinese forces conspiring to subvert the Chinese
government," activist lawyer Pu Zhiqiang said the deputy chief of one
Beijing police station told him. Pu was detained on Sunday and emerged
Wednesday night.
Official pressure continues on Liu's wife, who remains under house
arrest inside her Beijing apartment.
The law firm that represents Liu said Thursday they can't even talk
with Liu Xia about the case. Lawyer Mo Shaoping said when he invited
her to the law firm to discuss whether to appeal her husband's
sentence, Liu Xia said police wouldn't allow it.
The phone was then cut off.
Liu Xia, meanwhile, has tweeted that police want to take her out of
Beijing, and away from the media attention, on "a tour."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_china_nobel_peace_prize