Today's Wall Street Journal has a review of a book of essays by Liu Xiaobo, the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, who is currently in prison in China. Mr. Liu was one of the architects of "Charter 08," which called for the promotion of democratic principles in China. This initiative drew inspiration from the Vaclav Havel led "Charter 77" in Czechoslovakia.The reviewer ends with this intriguing quote from a letter of Havel to Liu:

When Mr. Liu won the Nobel, Havel wrote to him of being "touched" but not surprised that Charter 08 drew inspiration from Charter 77 (a compliment Havel returned by working to free Mr. Liu and defend Charter 08 until his death earlier this month): "There simply exists a sort of moral minimum that is common to the entire world and thanks to which people from countries as different and far apart as the Czech Republic and China can strive for the same values and sympathize with each other, thereby creating the basis for truenot simply feignedfriendship." Mr. Liu already shares a great deal with Havel, chiefly a faith in individuals and the impact they can have on a totalitarian system. One day, we can hope, Mr. Liu will also join him in having brought about the end of a communist regime.

The rest of the review is here.