Liu (his family name) was a literary force in his country and now, at the age of 57, he’s a political prisoner currently sentenced to a fourth term in prison. His crime against the state is the nonviolent struggle for human rights in China. For this he was also awarded the Nobel Prize in 2010. Liu was denied representation to receive the prize. In the history of the Nobel, only two other “prisoners” were awarded the prize: Carl von Ossietsky (Germany, 1931) and Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma, 1991.)