The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to honor Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and call on China to free the jailed champion of democratic reforms.
The nonbinding resolution, which sailed to passage on a 402-1 vote, "congratulates" Liu and "honors" his "promotion of democratic reform in China, and the courage with which he has borne repeated imprisonment."
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in October to Liu, who was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring "Charter 08," a manifesto calling for democratic reform in one-party China.
The congressional resolution, approved two days before the Nobel ceremony in Oslo, also urges US President Barack Obama to keep working for the release of Liu from prison and the release of his wife Liu Xia from house arrest.
It also "calls on the government of China to cease censoring media and Internet reporting of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo and to cease its campaign of defamation against Liu Xiaobo."
And it asserts that "in honoring Liu Xiaobo, it also honors all those who have promoted democratic reform in China, including all those who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstration for democratic reform."
China has accused Norway, the Nobel committee's home, of undermining relations and encouraging a "criminal." China has also pressured nations not to attend the Nobel ceremony.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Representative Chris Smith, who crafted the resolution, were expected to attend the Friday ceremony in Norway.
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