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China Nobel winner wants dissident freed

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Mo Yan, the Chinese novelist honored this week with the Nobel Prize for Literature, called for the release Friday of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

Mo, speaking at a news conference in Shandong province, suggested he is not a fan of Liu's essays pushing for democracy in China and made no direct demands on the government, The New York Times reported. But he did give a short statement of support.

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"I hope he can achieve his freedom as soon as possible," Mo said.

Mo, 57, is the first Chinese writer to win the literature prize. Two dissidents suggested they welcomed even a tempered statement of support for Liu, who won the peace prize in 2010.

"Maybe all the glory has made him more courageous and more outspoken," Murong Xuecunhe, a writer who has confronted the government, said of Mo.

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