From The Guardian, 11th December 2010: Jon Henley reporting from the Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo: ‘It was not a special chair. Like the six others next to it on the dais...its frame was of plain varnished hardwood and its fabric of powder blue, white cross-stiches picking out a delicate pattern of flowers and stars and, across the back, three swans flying against a snowy sky.  

‘Unlike its neighbours, though...it stayed empty. For the first time since 1936, the Nobel peace prize could not be presented yesterday either to its laureate  or, as the prize-rules require, to a close relative. Nominated for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”, Liu Xiaobo, a 54-year old critic and writer, is serving an 11-year prison sentence [in China] for inciting subversion after co-authoring Charter 08, an appeal for democratic reform. His wife, Liu Xia, has been under house arrest since the award was announced last month.

‘Despite China’s fury... and warnings of “consequences” for nations that attended, some 50 of the 65 embassies in Oslo were represented [at the ceremony]. The actor, Liv Ullman, read the moving address made by Liu to the court that tried him for subversion last year: “Hatred can rot away at a person’s intelligence and conscience. The enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel moral struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation’s progress towards freedom and democracy. I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future, free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme.”’