
Liu Xiaobo, Nobel laureate and political prisoner, dies at 61 in Chinese custody - wyuenho
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/13/liu-xiaobo-nobel-laureate-chinese-political-prisoner-dies-61
======
phreack
He may have died of Cancer, but while being denied proper care, serving an 11
year prison sentence for what amounts to an attempt of speech. And its
censorship appears to have mostly worked for its intended audience. Truly a
sad conclusion.

~~~
girzel
It's true, hardly anyone inside China is even aware of his existence.

That said, I've seen direct references to him (and even photos of him) from
activist friends in my WeChat feed, which surprises me a bit. I would have
thought the WeChat censors would have been working overtime this week...

~~~
paradite
I hope by now you have discovered the contradiction between your two
paragraphs. People know, they just don't discuss it publicly.

~~~
girzel
A minuscule proportion of the population knows about him. My WeChat feed is
utterly unrepresentative of Chinese society at large.

~~~
paradite
I really want to agree with your projection. However, your only data is
contradicting it. Until you have more data, it would remain an assertion.

~~~
girzel
> it would remain an assertion.

Yes it would.

------
yingliu4203
He is the only noble laureate died in jail after world war II. The one before
him was died in a jail of nazi Germany.

~~~
gcb0
sadly, the importance of the title is going downhill. giving one out to an
enabler of torture and war was a joke. a very sad and twisted joke.

------
abhi3
In case someone wants to learn more about the work that got him imprisoned but
also won him the Nobel Prize, start here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_08](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_08)

------
EduardoBautista
For all the criticism that the USA is receiving recently, I am sure the world
would be a worse place if China was the most influential country in the world
(which they are trying become) instead of the USA.

~~~
paradite
I am sorry but I fail to see how China being influential (which is already
true to a large extent) would cause the world to be a worse place than it
already is.

You could argue that what's going on in China is bad for Chinese people, but
China's influence outside its border is much less significant.

This is going off tangent, but I would just like to point out that until now,
China has not been deploying troops around the world and over-throwing foreign
governments.

~~~
specializeded
That might be because China hasn’t been a superpower for very long, they’ve
literally not been able to project that sort of force.

Bit disingenuous to imply that’s solely because of policy, not reality and
vice versa.

~~~
paradite
You make a very good point. I can't really make a judgement now. I am just
talking based on my biased experience with the official narratives.

I guess we can only wait and see for ourselves.

------
wangii
Liu died and everyone came out to consume his death. I bet no non-chinese here
knows what exactly he promoted in his political campaign, including his
controversial arguments. Nobel Price committee conveniently ignored his
support of invasion of Iraq. Yet the supporters of Chinese govt. forgot the
piece got him into jail is, in fact has no contradiction to the Chinese law.
He was a flawed man but should've enjoyed a longer life. RIP

~~~
blackbagboys
If anyone is interested in learning more about Liu's "controversial
arguments", I encourage you to read Charter 08, the document for which he was
imprisoned and brutalized:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_08](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_08)

Original Chinese:
[http://www.2008xianzhang.info/chinese.htm](http://www.2008xianzhang.info/chinese.htm)

English Translation:
[http://www.hrichina.org/en/content/238](http://www.hrichina.org/en/content/238)

------
onetokeoverthe
Dear greedy elites, Stop manufacturing in Communist China.

~~~
vkou
Much like countries with 'Democratic' in their name, the only thing that's
communist about China is the name of the ruling party.

