Liu Xiaobo – the almost forgotten hero of Tiananmen Square

 

Liu Xiaobo was a key figure of the Tiananmen uprising, and was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet few in China know his name, as the government continues to try to erase him from collective memory. Liu Xiaobo was a human rights hero and intellectual who kept watch at Tiananmen Square in 1989 to protect protestors from encroaching soldiers. In 2008 he wrote the Charter 08, a pro-democracy charter that led to his arrest. When he was awarded the Nobel peace Prize in 2010 while in prison, Liu Xiaobo became China’s Nelson Mandela or Václav Havel. Yet many Chinese do not know much about him.

China says UN criticism of human rights record is 'politically driven'

The Chinese government doesn't understand irony.  How else does one explain the headline above. 

In 2010  Liu Xiaobo a human rights lawyer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  He was promptly jailed and died in prison all for the crime of advocating for the rights of his fellow citizens. 

Xinjiang  a province in western China which has a large Muslim population which the Communist party has tried to suppress, if not forcing them to give up their religious beliefs.  Recently clear evidence has been presented that shows China has created a large number of interment camps with an estimated population of 1 million prisoners.     

China has defended its human rights record after the first UN assessment since 2013 criticised the mass detention of lawyers and the continuing use of internment camps.

Beijing rejected claims made during the UN Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review that human rights in China had deteriorated, saying that some UN member countries were deliberately disregarding “the remarkable achievements made by China”.

During the review, UN member states singled out China’s policies in Xinjiang and Tibet and its treatment of human rights defenders. It called on Beijing to release detained Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, protect religious freedoms in Tibet, and stop harassing and detaining human rights lawyers.

Activists say as many as a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps in Xinjiang, where they are forced to undergo political indoctrination.