One Year After the Nobel Peace Prize Award to Liu Xiaobo: Conditions for Political Prisoners and Prospects for Political Reform

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One year ago, the Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Today, Liu Xiaobo remains in a Chinese prison serving the third year of an 11-year sentence, while authorities hold his wife under a de facto form of house arrest. Across China, authorities persist in harassing and detaining democracy and human rights advocates. This hearing discussed Liu's views on Chinese political reform and society; Charter 08, a grassroots political reform treatise signed by Liu and thousands of Chinese citizens; the essays that formed the basis of the government's "inciting subversion" charges against Liu; and the impact, if any, of Liu's Nobel Peace Prize in China. In addition, witnesses discussed conditions for other political prisoners and activists, as well as the prospects for political reform in China in the near future.