PEN International, Front Line Defenders, and Storyful Forum on Human Rights Defenders in China

On occasion of the fifth anniversary of Liu Xiaobo’s detention, PEN International, Front Line Defenders, and Storyful will host an online forum dedicated to his work and thinking, as well as to the current state of the human rights movement in China. On Wednesday, December 18, at 10:00 AM (EST), three prominent Chinese thinkers and human rights advocates, Ms. Liao Tienchi, Dr. Yang Jianli, and Mr. Wu’er Kaixi, will speak with Deputy Director of Front Line Defenders, Mr. Andrew Anderson. Ms. Liao Tienchi is the former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, Dr. Yang Jianli is President of Initiatives for China and a Fellow at Harvard University, and Mr. Wu’er Kaixi is the co-chairman of the Democracy for China Fund and founder of Friends of Liu Xiaobo.

Liu Xiaobo, a prominent intellectual, is a long-time advocate of political reform and human rights in China and an outspoken critic of the Chinese communist regime. Over the past two decades Liu Xiaobo has served nine and a half years in prison for his work defending human rights. He is currently four years into an 11 year sentence for “inciting subversion of State power” after he co-authored Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democracy and respect for human rights in China. Liu Xiaobo was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, which he was unable to accept in person due to his imprisonment. Since the announcement of his award, his wife Liu Xia, an artist, has been held under house arrest, largely isolated from the outside world. Liu Xia has not been accused, charged or convicted of any crime.

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