Obama praises Nobel Peace winner

WASHINGTON - Jailed Chinese dissident and writer Liu Xiaobo, who was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, sacrificed his freedom for his beliefs, US President Barack Obama said Friday.

“We call on the Chinese government to release Mr Liu as soon as possible,” he said.

Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, which brought him both praise and criticism - it came after he was in office for less than nine months and as he was managing two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Last year, I noted that so many others who have received the award had sacrificed so much more than I,” Obama said in a statement Friday.

“By granting the prize to Mr Liu, the Nobel Committee has chosen someone who has been an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and non-violent means, including his support for democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

He said that while in the last three decades China has made dramatic economic progress and lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, “this award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace, and that the basic human rights of every man, woman and child must be respected”.