Your Majesties, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests,

I would also like to have said: Dear Nobel Laureate! Dear Liu Xiaobo!

As this excellent meal is drawing to an end I would like to express my gratitude to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. You have yet again provided us with an exquisite meal and a memorable evening. I would like to have shared it with the Nobel Laureate. Tonight, though, quoting the British dramatist William S. Gilbert seems apt. He once said that what is on the dinner table is far less important than those seated around it.

This evening the most important seat is empty. It is indeed saddening that tonight’s centre of attention, the Nobel Laureate, has been prevented from joining us. We are sad not to be able to hear you speak, shake your hand and congratulate you. And we are sad that you cannot feel for yourself the support the world bestows on you and your cause.

Honourable Liu Xiaobo, I congratulate you as the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. As Confucius taught, you have followed: «To see what is right, and not to do it, is lack of courage or of principle.»

To stand up for one’s convictions is no easy task. Shortly after her release, Aung San Suu Kyi was asked whether her personal sacrifice had been too great. She replied: «It was a choice. I decided to follow a certain road. I decided to walk a certain path based on my own conviction. That is a choice. I do not consider it a sacrifice at all.»

For having voiced his opinion, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to prison for 11 years. This is a very long time, especially for a country in rapid transition. In the past 11 years China has built the world’s fastest train, constructed the world’s largest dam, and become the world’s second largest economy. As the characters of her name imply, China is at the centre. Her development has brought her to centre stage. Yet, being centre of attention requires taking responsibility, responsibility for others and responsibility for one’s own.

China’s tremendous economic growth has saved several hundred million people from poverty. But, the people of China have not been allowed to take part in the debate promoted by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. It is not a dilemma; it is not a question of priorities. It is a question of deciding which direction to take; of deciding to take the path where affluence and human rights go hand in hand.

Distinguished Guests,

In the fight for freedom of expression, the printed word has always been important. When China started making paper and experimenting with printing, the desire to preserve the classics of Confucius was a driving force.    

In our modern society, distances seem to have shrunk, globalization brings us together, and differences between us appear to be erased. In the streets around us, the shops are filled with goods made in China. In the supermarkets of Beijing you find fresh salmon from Norway. However, meetings across cultures can be challenging. When I visited China in 2007 I met the Vice Mayor of Shanghai. We exchanged experiences as mayors. But, when I talked about my municipality of 2400 inhabitants, the response was one of stunned silence. Was it correct, the interpreter cautiously asked, that we had municipalities of as few as 240,000 inhabitants? It made me realize that our points of departure are very different.

In Shanghai I had the pleasure of unveiling a bust of Henrik Ibsen, the first foreigner to be honoured on Theatre Avenue. I have heard that Ibsen even influenced the Chinese language. «Feminism» is referred to as «Noraism». Tonight, however, I would like to quote another Norwegian writer, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson: A builder of our society and a poet; a member of the inaugural Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded by the Swedish jury. This year we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of his death.

«As it is with stars it is with people,» wrote Bjørnson, «there are luminous bodies radiating power and sun to others».

Dear Liu Xiaobo. Tonight your chair is empty. Tonight you are missed. Your star is shining bright. Let it shine and light the path towards democracy.

In closing I quote you: «There is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom.»