Chinese Dissidents

In this Jan. 12, 2010 file photo, pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong hold a candlelight vigil in support of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. In announcing its selection for this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced said Liu has won "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

A police officer stands guard beside a picture of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo outside the Chinese government liaison office in Hong Kong Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010. Protesters rallied in Hong Kong for the release of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner.

In this Sept. 28, 2010 photo, Liu Xia, wife of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, speaks during an interview in Beijing. When the police came for Liu Xiaobo one night nearly two years ago, they didn't tell the dissident-author the reason for taking him away. The line in the detention order for "motive" was blank. But everyone in Liu's dark Beijing apartment knew exactly why. Liu was hours from releasing a call for peaceful political reform in China that would represent the democracy movement's most comprehensive demand ever - and that earned Liu multiple nominations for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Plain clothes police officers stake out the front of Liu Xiaobo's house, Dec. 7, 2010, preventing journalists from accessing her compound.

Other dissidents like Gao Zhisheng, a self-taught human rights lawyer, completely vanish. In an open letter to Congress in 2007, Gao said that he was subjected to torture, including electric shocks to his genitals and having his eyes burned by cigarettes. Seen here meeting with the media in Beijing on April 7, 2010, Gao said that he was abandoning his once-prominent role as a government critic in hopes of reuniting with his family. Five days later, he vanished. His whereabouts remain unknown.

In a picture taken June 27, 2007, outspoken Chinese AIDS and pro-democracy activist Hu Jia wears the July 1st protest T-shirt in front of the Tiananmen Gate in Beijing. The protest was held to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to Chinese rule in 1997 from the British and a call on the government for a universal suffrage.

Zeng Jinyan, the wife of human rights activist Hu Jia, holds her baby as they leave a courthouse in Beijing on April 3, 2008. Hu Jia was sentenced to three years and six months for subversion, his lawyer said, amid what rights groups charged was a campaign by China to silence dissent before the Olympics.

Chinese dissident Zeng Jinyan stands behind a gated compound at Bobo Freedom Village in Beijing where she lives under unofficial house arrest, on October 10, 2008. The 25-year-old Zeng said she wanted to keep speaking out on human rights, but felt deep fear due to intimidation of her and her jailed husband Hu Jia. Zeng, who has used her Internet blog to challenge China over Hu's previous detentions and current imprisonment, talked nervously knowing that she was being constantly watched, about her fear of speaking out but the necessity of continuing the fight for rights in China.

Chinese dissident Qi Zhiyong, wearing a T-shirt with an image of fellow dissidents Hu Jia and his wife Zeng Jinyan and their baby, moments before being taken away by police after meeting with foreign journalists in Beijing on March 26, 2009. The high-profile Chinese dissident said on April 15, 2009 he had been detained amid heightened security on the 20th anniversary of a reformist leader Hu Yaobang's death that triggered the 1989 Tiananmen protests. The 52-year old Qi, who lost a leg after being shot during the military crackdown on the Tiananmen democracy protests, said "When I went out at 7 o'clock to take my child to school, I was forced into a police car by state security police."

Feng Zhenghu, an activist calling for political reform, is best known for living in the immigration hall of Japan's Narita International Airport for more than three months after being barred by authorities from returning back to his home in China.

Feng remains under close surveillance with minders camped outside his house after successfully re-entering China in February 2010.

Chinese dissident writer Liao Yiwu poses during a portrait session while attending the Berlin International Literature Festival at Haus der Kulturen der Welt on September 19, 2010 in Berlin. Liao Yiwu's current trip to Germany is the first time ever that Chinese authorities have allowed him to travel abroad.

Norwegian actress Liv Ullman reads Liu Xiaobo's text, "I have no enemies," as Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland is seated next to an empty chair, at the ceremony for the Nobel Laureate and dissident Liu Xiaobo at the city hall in Oslo, Dec. 10, 2010. With the guest of honor detained in a Chinese prison, this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony centered around an empty chair, as its celebration of dissident Liu Xiaobo continues to split the global community and infuriate Beijing.

Shortly after learning he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo told his wife that he would dedicate the award to the victims of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, including the possibly thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens estimated to have been killed in Tiananmen Square in June 1989.