Liu Xiaobo, who has died aged 61, was a former literary critic turned Chinese dissident who became the first representative of his country to be honoured by the Norwegian Nobel Committee when he won the 2010 Peace Prize. Liu first came to public attention aged 33, in 1989, when he cut short a visiting lectureship at Columbia University, New York, to return to China and take part in the student occupation of Tiananmen Square. He was one of the "four gentlemen" – older intellectuals – who went on a hunger strike in support of the students. When troops and tanks moved