Happy Birthday LXB

Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo turns 61 years old in prison today

Today is dissident Liu Xiaobo's birthday. He is marking his 61st birthday in jail, serving his seventh year of an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion of state power when he wrote and circulated his "Charter 08" petition, demanding greater democratic rights in China.

On Christmas Day, several former pan-democratic lawmakers in Hong Kong, like Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho Chun-yan protested outside the Liaison Office, demanding Liu be released, and that house arrest immediately end for his wife Liu Xia, and the persecution of other dissidents, like rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, former Wukan village chief Lin Zulian, and Beijing-based activist Hu Shigen.

Activists like Lee Cheuk-yan held a Liu Xiaobo protest

Ho, who is chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, said after the protest that even though China looks powerful on the surface, "It appears to be so paranoid and so frightened in hearing dissenting voices."

He said locking up more and more non-violent people asking for the recognition of basic rights indicates the "inside is weak and maybe quite fragile."

Liu's 11-year sentence is meant to harshly punish him, but also act as a deterrent to those who think the Chinese should fight for democracy.

What's interesting to note is that this year also marks the sixth anniversary of frosty relations between Beijing and Norway after the Nobel Committee awarded the highly coveted Peace Prize to Liu in 2010.

However, earlier this month, Norway's Foreign Minister Borge Brende made an unannounced visit to Beijing and on December 19 the two countries announced a normalization of relations.

We are waiting for Liu to come to Oslo to receive his award

In the two governments' joint statement, they acknowledged the deterioration in the bilateral relationship had been "due to the Nobel Peace Prize award and events connected to the prize." It added, "The Norwegian side is fully conscious of the position and concerns of the Chinese side and has worked actively to bring the bilateral relations back to the right track."

Brende did not mention anything about human rights. That would be expected, particularly if a country is keen to restore economic ties with Beijing again.

According to Norwegian data, in December 2010, exports of whole salmon to China was 1 million kilograms, that plunged to 315,000 kg in January 2011, and 75,000 the month after.

Despite normalization of relations between the two countries, Liu's Peace Prize still stands and we are patiently waiting to watch him go to Oslo to receive it.

Happy Birthday Liu! We have not forgotten you.

Official Wackiness in Wukan

Wukan Communist Party secretary Lin Zhuluan who is now being detained

The story of bookseller Lam Wing-kee and the ongoing allegations against him and his own rebuttals continue, while Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has been caught completely flat-footed on dealing with this issue, that only demonstrates where his loyalties lie.

But there's another incident brewing in the fishing village of Wukan in Guangdong province, where local residents were protesting land seizures. The authorities tried to shut them up by kidnapping Lin Zuluan, the local Communist Party secretary.

Thousands called for Lin's release on Sunday

They took him from his home in the middle of the night on Saturday and has detained him since. Since then state media have had a field day, with Lufeng prosecutors claiming Lin had allegedly pocketed a lot of bribes through contracting out infrastructure projects.

But villagers didn't believe a word of these allegations and thousands of them continued to protest on Sunday and called for Lin's release.

Then an official claiming to be from the Shanwei prosecutors' office called Lin's wife, Yang Zhen, and put Lin on the phone.

They had hoped he would dissuade her from leading villagers in their protest, but the plan backfired.

Lin's supposed confession of taking bribes

"Do what you think is right as long as it's legal," he said over the phone in the conversation she recorded. "If someone is trying to arrest you, do not go easy on them."

However he also added a warning: "Do not go to a protest just because others told you so."

But since then, Lin has apparently confessed to taking bribes and deputy village party secretary Zhang Shuijin has replaced him, and told villagers not to participate in protest marches.

Yesterday there was a video clip circulating on social media of Qian Hanpei, deputy chief of Donghai town harassing the media with an umbrella when reporters tried to interview him.

Qian Hanpei (white shirt) trying to assault reporters

"You reporters are just like dogs," Qian said when asked of Lin's condition. He was recorded threatening to strike cameramen and reporters with the butt end of his umbrella.

And now Hong Kong media have been accused of "inciting, planning and directing" the Wukan land protests.

Apple Daily and newcomer Initium Media were named by and official in Shanwei in Guangdong province for the turmoil and added measures would be taken according to the law.

This is probably the first time Hong Kong media have been directly blamed for planning and directing mass protests. But Apple Daily's chief editor Chan Pui-man denied the paper was involved in any way other than covering the incident.

How this whole event has played out so far -- and even dragging the media into it is pretty crazy. If anything, Chinese officials haven't thought the plot line carefully and the end result.

Trying to assault reporters does not win brownie points.