One year ago, writer and activist Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize from his jail cell<\/a>. Since then, he has only been allowed out of prison once to mourn the death of his father<\/a>. His wife, Liu Xia, has been held under house arrest and other dissidents throughout China have fallen victim to one of the harshest crackdowns in years. From ABC News<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n
\nIt is safe to say that any wagers placed on another Chinese winning the Nobel Peace Prize this year would be wasted. The political changes that swept the Arab world this year have crashed impotently against a seawall of state power in China. The government’s response was to unleash a harsh crackdown on activists, disappearing dozens and blocking any attempts at public protest last spring. New legislation now under consideration would make secret detention, without any notice for family members, legal<\/a> for periods of up to six months in cases of terrorism, state security or serious corruption, which human rights groups fear will be used to silence dissent.<\/p>\n
The most significant aspect of Chinese activists this past year has been their silence, which has been achieved through disappearance, intimidation and abuse. Ai Weiwei, the artist and activist, spent nearly three months in detention<\/a> on tax evasion charges and is now out on a form of bail, his movements and freedom to speak out restricted. Chen, a blind legal activist, is being held with his wife in a harsh form of house arrest<\/a> in their village in Shandong province, despite completing a four-year prison term for damaging property and organizing an illegal protest. The couple’s six-year-old daughter has been blocked from attending school. Gao Zhisheng, a dissident lawyer who was convicted of subversion in 2006 and has described suffering extensive abuse in detention, remains missing and is presumably being held by authorities.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Meanwhile, the Chinese government’s anger over Norway’s awarding of the prize to Liu is being played out in the trade of fish. Norway has reported China to the WTO over import controls of salmon, the Independent reports<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n
Read seven years of reports by and about Liu Xiaobo<\/a> via CDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"