Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and the Future of Political Reform in China

Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman and Representative Sander Levin, Cochairman
of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China announce a hearing on
“Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and the Future of Political Reform in China” to be held in Washington, DC.

Last month, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese writer and democracy advocate, Liu Xiaobo, recognizing his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Liu currently is serving an eleven-year sentence in a Chinese prison for "inciting subversion of state power," in part for his role in Charter 08, a document calling for human rights and political reform in China. What are the prospects for political reform in China today? Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao recently was quoted as saying, "if there is no guarantee of reform of the political system, then results obtained from the reform of the economic system may be lost . . .." When China's leaders make such references to "reform of the political system," what exactly do they mean? As China prepares for major leadership changes in 2012, these developments provide an opportune moment to assess debates over political reform in China, to ask what Liu Xiaobo's writings and advocacy mean for China and what impact, if any, his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize may have on democracy and human rights in China, and with what consequence for the United States?

Witnesses:

Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, President, PEN American Center, and Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University

Dr. Bruce Gilley, Professor of Political Science, Portland State University

Dr. Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

Phelim Kine, China Researcher, Human Rights Watch

CECC hearings are open to the public. No RSVP is necessary.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 as China prepared to enter the World Trade Organization, is mandated by law to monitor human rights, including worker rights, and the development of the rule of law in China. The Commission by mandate also maintains a database of information on political prisoners in China-individuals who have been imprisoned by the Chinese government for exercising their civil and political rights under China's Constitution and laws or under China's international human rights obligations. All of the Commission's reporting and its Political Prisoner Database are available to the public online via the Commission's Web site, http://www.cecc.gov.