I am late to the party on the Liu Xiaobo Noble Peace Prize story.  Let me first simply add my congratulations to a man who is certainly deserving of the recognition.  And then let me point readers in the direction of this good roundup of early responses over at China Beat, and call out two posts in particular, this one by Jeremiah, and this one by Kwame Anthony Appiah.   

From my own perspective, which is drawn from pre-Qin Chinese thought, my first impression is that the jailing of Liu, and the harrassment of his wife, and the detention of his friends and supporters, all demonstrate how the party-state power structure fundamentally violates Confucian principles.

Why is Liu in jail?  This time around, because he helped write and circulate Charter 08, a document that calls for fundamental political change in China.    From a Confucian point of view, this was a simple act of remonstrance, a peaceful dissent from a concerned and educated individual pointing out current failings of policy and politics and calling for change from the powers that be.  Liu has not advocated the violent overthrow of the CCP.  He worked hard, in 1989, to avert bloodshed during the massive popular demonstrations of that spring.  He simply advances ideas, ideas that are based on a desire to improve the lives of people in China.  In that regard, he is completely consistent with the great Confucian tradition of remonstrance, embodied historically in the person of Hai Rui

But peaceful dissent is too much for the party state.  In jailing Liu the party leadership shows just how disconnected they are from the most humane Chinese political traditions.  Indeed, their unremitting authoritarianism is more in keeping with Legalism than Confucianism, and as long as Legalists are firmly in power, Confucian ideals are smothered under the weight of self-perpetuating power politics.

Free Liu Xiaobo!

UPDATE: here's another good piece, by David Kelly…..