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China Liu Xiaobo

tis the season to crack down on democracy.

As a friend of mine put it, “When you open your Chinese-made Christmas presents this week, take a moment to remember how fortunate we are to be able to tell our governments to get stuffed.”

Prominent Chinese Dissident Is Tried
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: December 23, 2009

BEIJING — In a two-hour hearing that was closed to the public, Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s most prominent advocates of democratic reform, was tried Wednesday on charges that his calls for open elections and free speech are a threat to the ruling Communist Party.

Mr. Liu, a poet and social critic who has spent more than a year in detention, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of charges legally defined as “incitement to subvert state power.” His lawyer said a verdict would likely come Friday, Christmas Day. Read more…

Here is the ‘subversive’ document that Xiaobo helped write.