"There was a lot of repression during the Olympic Games. Now is a golden opportunity to underline that repression is unacceptable," said Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor of international relations at the University of Oslo, and a previous candidate to be a member of the Nobel committee.
The Chechen human rights lawyer Lydia Yusupova is another contender. "It would be an opportunity to focus on Russia at a time of increased interest following the conflict with Georgia," said Matlary.
Apparently we missed that page of the international rule book. We do recall Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, though. That's the portion of the United Nations' seminal 1948 document that states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
If Chinese leaders are tired of all the international attention being given to Hu, there's a better solution than high dudgeon from the Foreign Ministry: They could set him free.