In one of its first commentaries since the jailed democracy activist won the peace prize on October 8, the Xinhua news agency argued China's Communist Party had made "unremitting efforts to promote and safeguard human rights".

"In what ways have Liu's actions contributed to human rights progress for China's 1.3 billion people?" Xinhua asked in an unsigned editorial.

The People's Daily, published by the Communist Party, also published one of the first Chinese-language editorials on Sunday reacting to the prize, also arguing this year's award strayed from the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Liu, 54, was sentenced in December to 11 years in jail for subversion. The Oslo-based Nobel committee awarded Liu the peace prize for his advocacy of political reform and human rights in one-party China.

The United States, the European Union and Japan have called for his release.

"Is the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decision to be interpreted another way -- the once prestigious prize has degenerated into a political tool and is being manipulated by some Western powers?" the Xinhua commentary said.

Xinhua, nicknamed the Communist Party's "eyes and tongue", is often the only domestic media organisation permitted to report on sensitive matters.

A media blackout on Nobel news began to lift on Thursday as state media began to cast Liu's award as new evidence of an "ideological war against China" in English language media aimed at overseas audiences.

Sunday's Xinhua editorial pointed to the nine-year compulsory education in much of the country and that over three decades the number of people below the poverty line dropped to 40 million from 250 million.

"Some experts believe that in the next 30 years, the reforms may not only deepen in the economic field, but also in the social and political realms," it said.

Liu's conviction was widely seen as retaliation for authoring "Charter 08" an appeal for political reform and human rights published in 2008.

earlier related report
Minister asks why Chinese 'heroes' never win the Nobel Prize
Marrakech, Morocco (AFP) Oct 17, 2010 - Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying called Nobel Peace Prize laureat Liu Xiaobo a "strange" person and asked Sunday why "heroes" who helped resolve Chinese problems were not nominated.

"The Nobel Peace Prize committee was always naming strange people from China," Fu told the World Policy Conference in Marrakech, in what might also be a reference to the Dalai Lama, who won in 1989.

"If you are Chinese, all you need to do is to do something strange against China and then you are very likely to be nominated," she added before asking why someone "who said China should be divided into seven parts" won the award.

Fu wondered if "the heroes in China" could "ever be in sight of the Nobel prize," and pointed to those who had helped eliminate widespread poverty and helped feed the country's population of more than 1.3 billion.

She cited agricultural scientist Yuan Longping, called by many "the father of hybrid rice."

Fu said that "at some stage I even thought that maybe he could be nominated.

"But now I know how naive I was to think that way."

She explained that "the Chinese character for peace is composed of two parts, one is rice and the other side is a mouth.

"Throughout history we believe that if every mouth is fed, there's peace on earth."

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