The award for Mr Hu, an outspoken critic of human rights abuses in China who was jailed for three years in April on subversion charges, marks a public relations blow for Beijing just as it hosts a big gathering of Asian and European leaders. The two-day summit of leaders of the 43-nation Asia-Europe Meeting forum opens in Beijing today. After Mr Hu was short-listed for the parliament's €50,000 Sakharov Prize, China's ambassador to the EU warned in a letter that honouring the 35-year-old activist would “inevitably hurt the Chinese people once again and bring serious damage to China-EU relations”.
胡佳是直言抨擊中國人權侵犯狀況的批評人士，他於今年4月以顛覆罪名被判三年徒刑。胡佳獲人權獎，標誌着北京在主辦亞歐領導人峯會之際遭受一次公關打擊。爲期兩天、匯聚43個國家領導人的亞歐首腦會議，將於今日在北京開幕。在胡佳進入歐洲議會5萬歐元薩哈羅夫獎的入圍名單後，中國駐歐盟大使在一封信中警告，讓這名35歲的社運人士獲獎，將「不可避免地再次傷害中國人民，並對中國與歐盟的關係帶來嚴重損害」。