Nobel laureate Mo Yan praised for urging dissident's release

China’s Nobel Prize-winning writer Mo Yan won praise on Saturday from supporters of the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo after the officially tolerated writer called for his fellow laureate’s freedom.

Mo Yan, who has been on the defensive against activists who accused him of being a communist stooge, told a news conference a day after winning the prestigious prize that he hoped Liu would be freed “as soon as possible.”

Initiatives for China, a Washington-based democracy advocacy group that has campaigned for Liu’s freedom, said it was “extremely pleased” by the comments by Mo Yan - whose penname ironically means “Don’t speak.”

“We know that Mo Yan, a son of peasants, in his heart is a writer who deeply cares about the people suffering at the bottom of Chinese society,” the group said of the author who previously participated in “infamous communist propaganda.”

“Anyone familiar with his work can clearly see such a sentiment reflected throughout his writings,” it said.

The group voiced hope that Mo Yan would speak out about Liu Xiaobo and the dissident’s wife Liu Xia, who has spent some two years under house arrest, in his speech to accept the award in Stockholm.