OSLO, Norway – With a large portrait of a smiling Liu Xiaobo hanging front and center, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee crossed the dais and gently placed the peace prize diploma and medal on an empty chair. Ambassadors, royalty and other dignitaries rose in a standing ovation.

The man they honored wasn’t there Friday — he is serving an 11-year sentence at Jinzhou Prison in northeastern China for urging sweeping changes to Beijing’s one-party communist political system.

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Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee, sits next to the diploma and medal on an empty chair that symbolizes the imprisonment of peace-prize winner and activist Liu Xiaobo during a ceremony in Oslo on Friday. The Associated Press

And there was no news coverage of it in China, where foreign TV news channels went black as the ceremony began and authorities denounced the award as a “political farce.”

It was the first time in 74 years that the $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize was not handed over.

Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland drew the first of several standing ovations from the international gathering of 1,000 guests at Oslo City Hall when he noted that neither Liu nor his closest relatives were able to attend.

“This fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate,” he said.

He brought the crowd to its feet again when he declared: “He has not done anything wrong. He must be released.”

China was infuriated when the Nobel committee awarded the prize to the 54-year-old literary critic, describing it as an attack on its political and legal system. Authorities have placed Liu’s supporters, including his wife, Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize.

After Jagland drew another ovation by placing the medal and diploma on Liu’s empty chair, Norwegian actress Liv Ullman read the dissident’s statement, “I Have No Enemies,” which he delivered in a Chinese court in 2009 before he was sentenced.

In the speech, Liu portrays the surprisingly positive and gentle nature of his correctional officer while awaiting trial, which gave him hope for the future.

That “personal experience” caused him to “firmly believe that China’s political progress will not stop,” Ullman read. “I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China,” she quoted Liu as saying.

Lynn Chang, a Chinese-American violinist, then performed a haunting Chinese melody, “Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon” and “Jasmine Flowers.”

But ordinary viewers in China saw none of it. Both CNN and BBC TV channels went black at 8 p.m. local time for nearly an hour, exactly when the Oslo ceremony began. Security outside Liu’s Beijing apartment was heavy, and several dozen journalists were herded by police to a cordoned-off area.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the awarding of the peace prize to Liu reflected a Cold War mentality, infringed upon China’s judicial sovereignty and “does not represent the wish of the majority of the people in the world, particularly that of the developing countries.”

“This political farce will in no way shake the resolve and confidence of the Chinese people to follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the scheme by some people will get nowhere,” Jiang said in a statement issued after the Nobel ceremony started.

In Washington, President Obama said he regretted that Liu and his wife were not allowed to go to the ceremony as he and first lady Michelle Obama did when he won the peace prize last year.

“Liu Xiaobo is far more deserving of this award than I was,” he said.

China had pressured foreign diplomats to stay away from the ceremony, with 16 other countries joining their boycott, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

But the government of Serbia, which had planned to boycott to maintain good relations with China, reversed itself Friday in the face of an outcry at home and from the European Union.

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