Someone I know is working in Beijing and most of her colleagues are local.
In the morning when Liu Xiaobo was put on "trial" on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power", one of her local colleagues was listening to RTHK morning news via the internet. (The word "trial" has to be put inside a quotation mark cause that's not a fair one, and that office uses HK internet service. Otherwise, RTHK website is blocked in Mainland China as in Facebook, Youtube, and many others.) That was the first time that colleague heard about Liu's name (and not to mention the "trial"), so she "Baidu" the name. (Baidu is a popular search engine in Mainland China.) Baidu told her that her search result contained illegal content and therefore were not displayed. Being a local, this certainly rang her bell. She then switched to HK internet service and "Google" the name again. She was surprised that so much was written about Liu but she was aware of none.
She then asked her HK colleague if she had ever heard about Liu Xiaobo. The latter said yes and went on and on about details of Liu. The Beijing girl was totally amazed.
Today, Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China", while he himself and many other Chinese prisoners of conscious are in jail. At the same time, quite some Mainland Chinese haven't even had a chance to hear about their names.
Next time when a Chinese wins a Nobel Peace Prize, I certainly do hope s/he is fighting for some international peace mission, not something only on Chinese soil.
Release Liu Xiaobo. Release prisoners of conscious.
