CHINA AND LIU XIAOBO

CHINESE MEDIA STAY RESOLUTELY SILENT ON NOBEL WINNER

Imprisoned Liu Xiaobo wins one of the world's highest honors, but most of his countrymen have no idea. Web search engines return error messages for his name. The few who try to celebrate are arrested.

Megan K. Stack

Los Angeles Times, October 10, 2010

Reporting from Beijing

The silence was conspicuous in China on Saturday.

Dissident Liu Xiaobo languished in a prison cell, possibly unaware that he had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a day earlier. His wife was incommunicado after telling a reporter she was being taken away by police. And the Chinese news media appeared determined to pretend that nothing had happened.

As for most Chinese, they didn't have to pretend. Many of them don't know Liu exists, let alone that he has been honored with the world's most coveted award.

This is the paradox of China: It's an economic superpower that is very much a part of the world and yet, at times, separate from it.

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