The “Charter 08″ and the essays by Liu Xiaobo became his inevitable fate: he was doomed to 11 years of prison. The Chinese court came to the conclusion that the writings of the activist would undermine the Chinese State. But according to many newspapers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the human rights activist merely criticized the Chinese government.

The activities of Liu Xiaobo go back to the Tiananmen protests in 1989, when he supported some students during a hunger strike. Since then, the Chinese regime might have had its sights on him. The difference between the past and modern times is that nowadays critics would simply be caught by the police – a complaint by professor Ding Zilin, the founder of the Tiananmen mothers group.

Her own son was killed during the Tiananmen massacre more than 20 years ago. The harsh sentence against Liu Xiaobo shall show all Chinese people that the communist regime is willed to nip all critique in the bud. Anybody who speaks against the Chinese government is not any longer secure. He had no chance to respond in court to the sentence.

The verdict focuses on Liu Xiaobo´s role in organizing Charter 08 back in December 2008, when he signed a document together with 300 other intellectuals, during Human Rights day. Therefore, he was already arrested for a short time; his fight for human rights was greeted by a lot of Chinese people dreaming of more freedom in their country.

The verdict stands clearly against the human rights, esp. against freedom of expression. The Chinese regime showed once more that it still does not share all Western values. Dissidents have to fear to be jailed for mere writings, which cannot be in the interest of human rights defenders. Critique against the sentence and the Chinese regime should go on; but after a bit more than two weeks, Liu Xiaobo seems to be forgotten.

His predecessor Bush was in the end very unpopular and most Americans seemed to be relieved after the great success of the Hawaii-born. But after almost one year of regency, people start to realize that even Barack Obama is not almighty, and some started to criticize him for several reasons. A radical shift to the left did not really take place, neither domestically nor external.

Nevertheless, if some could not find a change in policies: a change in style came with Obama – no question about it. The rather unilateral policy of the Bush-government was not taken over by the new one. Barack pursues dialogue which was currently made clear during his visit in China. Though there was nor real change, he strenghtened diplomatic ties: he accepted China as a big global partner, without giving up on Western values at the same time.

There are many different issues Barack Obama has to deal with concerning foreign affairs: he might be distant from the White House for the conflict in the Middle East; or to make progress in Afghanistan. Next month, the climate change conference will be held in Copenhagen. But also at home, he wants to promote the Health Care Reform and thus improve the situation of millions of U.S. citizen.

The Health Care Debates turned out to be successful for Obama when U.S. Congress voted for the biggest project related to domestic politics a few days ago. Now it is up to the Senate to decide on that topic. A Health Care Reform would mean a real change in the country, and people might start admitting: yes, he can.