Image via WikipediaIntellectuals held in China crackdown after Liu Xiaobo gets Nobel peace prize | World news | The GuardianReaction 'predictable and stupid' says head of writers group as fears grow for laureate's missing wife
Pro-democracy protesters calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo carry his picture as they march to China's liaison office in Hong Kong today. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
More than 30 Chinese intellectuals have been detained, warned or placed under house arrest in a crackdown to stifle celebration of the Nobel peace prize being awarded to the imprisoned democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo.
Among those facing restrictions are the laureate's wife Liu Xia who visited her husband in Jinzhou prison earlier today.
However, she tweeted today that she visited her husband and found he was told on Saturday that he had won the award. Liu Xia told reporters her husband cried and dedicated his prize to the "dead spirits of Tiananmen".
"The reaction of the authorities is predictable and stupid. They have tried to block the flow of information on the internet, detain people and cut telephone communications," said Zhang Yu, the Stockholm-based head of the Writers in Prison Committee of the freedom of expression group, Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC). "I'm sure they have planned for this."
The Norwegian Nobel peace prize committee announced on Friday that this year's winner will be Liu, a former literature professor who co-drafted the Charter 08 campaign for increased political liberties in China.
US president Barack Obama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech president Vaclav Havel were among a host of world leaders who commended the decision, but the Chinese government has responded with fury.
The foreign ministry summoned the Norwegian ambassador for a dressing down and declared the decision a "blasphemy" and insult to the Chinese people.
Censors cut foreign broadcasts of the announcement and police have been mobilised to choke any sign of domestic support for Liu.
About 20 of those affected were at a celebration party in Beijing on Friday night that was broken up by police. Three participants are now under eight days administrative detention for "disturbing social order". The others are under house arrest or heightened surveillance.
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