I think hatred is an overstatement, Sean. Liu Xiaobo did not write Charter 8 by himself but he is directly associated with two organizations that received hundreds of thousands of US government funding via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in the past five years. NED funded the Independent Chinese PEN Center Inc. since 2003 (Liu was its president) and the publication Minzhu Zhongguo registered as Democratic China Inc (Liu is a founder).
So its a far cry to paint Liu and his colleagues who drafted Charter 8 and/or were involved with these two US-funded organizations as some kind of organic opposition movement. NED is in the business of promoting regime change in countries they deem undemocratic.
About NED and their grant making activities:
NED says it does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. However, it has been accused of providing funding to opposition candidates in elections in countries other than the USA. According to NED, it intervenes in elections by funding election observation and civic education on voting, such as student "get-out-the-vote" campaigns.[6]
Critics such as Pat Buchanan accuse the NED of fomenting revolution and regularly interfering in the affairs of other countries, especially dictatorships and undemocratic regimes.[7]
Other critics say that the NED only supports candidates with strong ties to the military. William Blum accuses NED of being part of a U.S. government funding strategy to undermine left-wing leaders and "pervert elections". Others are also critical of U.S. corporate investment in foreign countries, and criticize the NED for not supporting candidates who oppose free trade and the investing rights of US companies. For example, Bill Berkowitz of Working for Change claims, "The NED functions as a full-service infrastructure building clearinghouse. It provides money, technical support, supplies, training programs, media know-how, public relations assistance and state-of-the-art equipment to select political groups, civic organizations, labor unions, dissident movements, student groups, book publishers, newspapers, and other media. Its aim is to destabilize progressive movements, particularly those with a socialist or democratic socialist bent."[8]
However, supporters of the NED say that the NED supports a myriad of groups of social-democratic and liberal orientation everywhere in the world. NED has also supported, provided training, and consulted with groups which approve of democracy, but criticize the United States, in countries such as Indonesia and Ukraine. The NED says that it focuses funding on democracy-minded organizations rather than opposition groups; however it does not support groups that openly advocate communism, fundamentalism, or dictatorships. Michael McFaul, in an article for the Washington Post, argues that the NED is not an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. As an example of this, he states that the NED was willing to fund pro-democratic organizations even when the U.S. government was supportive of non-democratic governments in the region.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_Democracy
Here is another article that provides an overview of how western powers advance their foreign policy goals through civil society initiatives, human rights support and humanitarian aid:
http://www.swans.com/library/art14/barker03.html
My guess is that all the candidates on the short list for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize probably received funding or were associated with organizations that received funding directly or indirectly from NED.
