As David Lindsay has asked the question, “What is Liu Xiaobo for?”, perhaps I can provide part of an answer. On the one hand, he is one of the authors of Charter 08, which says all the right sorts of things that will appeal to most Western liberal democrats, and his statement read out at the Nobel Peace Price ceremony in his absence includes an appeal to freedom of expression with which most of us would probably agree. Then again, his old organization was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, which is never a good sign, and Liu has made arguments endorsing the Iraq war, among others, and democracy promotion through warfare.
Unfortunately, it seems that on most political questions Liu Xiaobo has fully adopted the conventional views that “pro-Western” dissidents are expected to take. Where Solzhenitsyn denounced the West for its decadence and materialism, and rooted his critique of the Soviet system in older Russian traditions, Liu Xiaobo would seem to be a Chinese version of those Russian liberals who disdain most of their countrymen and their national traditions in the name of a democratic universalism that aims to reduce all nations to what George Bush once called the “single model of human progress.” He has called for the thoroughgoing Westernization of China both culturally and politically.
Obviously, none of this remotely justifies his arbitrary detention, and I can even understand why a dissident against a truly oppressive authoritarian regime would make the mistake of identifying so strongly with America that he recklessly endorses every U.S. policy. We should also recognize that this sort of wholesale “pro-Western” attitude among Chinese dissidents cuts off would-be political reformers from most of their fellow countrymen and makes it that much easier for the Chinese government to portray these dissidents as hostile to China. The more that such dissidents say the things that most Westerners want to hear, the less relevant they are likely to be to reforming their country’s politics, and the more that they become cause celebres in the West with minimal influence where they might do the most good.
It’s worth emphasizing that Liu Xiaobo’s detention is obviously, purely political. There is no question that he is being held as a political prisoner for the “crime” of expressing views that the regime finds unacceptable, and for no other reason. For some reason, I haven’t seen anyone arguing that Liu’s detention, or the detention of so many others like him, should have any impact on U.S.-China relations. Presumably, most people understand that harming U.S. interests for the sake of “speaking out” to no purpose about the treatment of Liu and others like him will accomplish nothing, but this is just the sort of useless hectoring that some hawks have been urging in the wake of the Khodorkovsky trial.
Zhuubaajie 
eric d 
It’s great to get intelligent commentary on Western support for Liu Xiaobo from American conservatives. But isn’t it strange how Western support for Chinese (Eastern European, Russian, American etc.) dissidents always disappears when they’re in prison & the chips are down? Liu Xiaobo is doing 11 years in the Chinese Gulag (laiogai), eating “Grass Soup,” for publishing Charter 08; his wife & supporters face conbstant persecution & harassment from the Chinese security services. And Western support isn’t doing anything to help him. In fact, China’s persecution & harassment of Liu & Co. has only been made more intense by that “Western support” & the attention brought by the Nobel prize. And besides that, Liu & his wife will most likely never see a single remimbi on that prize money.
Yes, Western (American) diplomatic pressure against Chinese censorship & repression of political dissidents will probably have little effect. But if the West is going to set non-Western (& Western) political dissidents up as spokespersons for “Western liberal democracy,” maybe the West also has some obligation to stand behind them when the chips are down & not just bow out to political expediency or the supposed “negative impact on US-China relations.”. Certainly “the West,” including the US & our Nobel prize-Winner, Barack Obama, could do more to support Chinese dissidents, the Belarussian opposition, and First Amendment freedoms (even in America) than they are currently doing.
But it’s difficult to condemn China for imprisoning Liu Xiaboi when Julian Assange is being persecuted for exercising those First Amendment freedoms Liu also advocates to publish low-level classified documents written by the US military & US diplomats themselves chronicling US misdeeds & war-crimes in the global arena. The Obama administration’s “targeted assassination” & “indefinite detention” policies & relentless refusal to allow scrutiny of US policies in US courts (citing the “executive privilege,” “sovereign immunity,” & “national security” doctrines) could also be shown as evidence that “the West’s” (& America’s commitment) to “Western liberal democracy” isn’t what it’s stacked up to be. And the list goes on…
It would be great to think “American conservatives” are really serious about supporting political dissidents in China, Rusia, Belarus, & America. But for non-Western (& Western) political dissidents who count on that support when the chips are down, well… Don’t hold your breath. Talk to your lawyer first. And believe in “Western support” when you actually see it. You’ll probably need it.