Liu Xiaobo Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2010

Rimage BEIJING, CHINA - APRIL 25: Liu Xiaobo poses for a photo at a restaurant in an undisclosed location April 25, 2008 in Beijing, China. Liu Xiaobo is the 2010 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Liu Xiaobo, a celebrated intellectual, hurried home from University of Columbia in New York to join the 1989 struggle on Tiananmen Square. "If we don't join the students in the Square and face the same danger, we don't have any right to speak, Liu Xiaobo argued." He joined the protesters on Tiananmen Square at a time when momentum was slowing down, but with his, and pop star Hou Dejian's, hunger strike thousands again flocked to the square. He has once said: "There's no way for me to know whether our hunger strike had affected the government's decision to launch the bloody crackdown. If it did, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life." Since 1989, Liu Xiaobo has repeatedly been arrested for his criticism of the Communist Party. In 1996 he was sentenced to three years in labor camp. Liu Xiaobo was a key drafter of Charter 08, a charter calling for more freedom of speech and democratic reforms. He was arrested in December 2008 and one year later he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Liu, The chairman of Chinese PEN, says the grip on political dissidents and the press has been tightened since China was granted to host the Olympics in 2001 despite promises of the contrary. (Photo by Reportage by Getty Images)