The Empty Chair and the United Kingdom

"Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth." -- Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo

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The empty chair where Liu Xiaobo should have sat at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in December, 2010

It was December 11, 2010. The King and Queen of Norway, the Nobel Committee, and dignitaries all gathered in Oslo, Norway, to honor that year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. On the stage where Liu should have sat, there was an empty chair because Liu couldn’t be there to accept his prize in person. He was serving an 11-year jail sentence in China. It was not his first time imprisoned, but it would be his last time. Liu died in prison in 2017.

Liu became a political activist in 1989. When Chinese students began their pro-democracy protest at Tiananmen Square in the summer of 1989, Liu was studying in the United States. Despite the safety and comfort he enjoyed in America, he made the courageous decision to return to China and guide the students’ movement. This act of selflessness put not only himself but also his family in harm’s way. After the Chinese government cracked down on student protestors on June 4th, Liu was arrested two days later and served a prison sentence.

Since then, Liu had been in and out of jail several times. His most serious “crime”, in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party, was that Liu had the courage to speak up, calling on the party to embrace political reform, including open elections, free speech, and the rule of law. The party accused Liu’s speech of an “incitement of violence.”

In 2010, Liu became the first Chinese citizen to receive a Nobel prize, but the Chinese government wouldn’t allow either Liu or his family to attend the award ceremony in Norway.  The Nobel Committee noted that it was the first time a Peace Prize Winner had been prevented from attending the ceremony since 1936 when Adolf Hitler barred a German pacifist from accepting the award. The empty chair on the stage has since become the ultimate symbol of the evil of the authoritarian regime and its repression of free speech.

Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read a statement that Liu had made to a Chinese court the previous year. It read, in part, "I hope that I will be the last victim of China's endless literary inquisitions, and that, from now on, no one will be incriminated because of speech. Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth."

Sadly, since Liu died in 2017, thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience continue to languish in China’s jails each year simply for voicing their points of view. The Chinese government accuses their speeches of ‘inciting violence.’

I have been thinking Liu’s words about free speech and the image of the empty chair lately because of what’s happening in the United Kingdom.