CHINA has taken its suffocating censorship to a new level by erasing from an internet blog an image of the empty chair that highlighted the absence of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel laureate, from the peace prize ceremony in Oslo.

The image was removed only a few minutes after a lone Chinese blogger posted it on a popular website in defiance of the authorities.

Buoyed by Liu’s award, Chinese dissidents will no doubt be keeping censors busy in the coming days — the blue and white empty chair is set to become a powerful symbol and rallying point for resistance to the regime.

Already empty chairs have begun proliferating in cyberspace.

One image circulating online and via Twitter, the social networking site, showed a black chair in the shape of a human with handcuffs around the ankles.

"I think that they will remember the empty chair," said Geir Lundestad, the Nobel committee secretary, after the Nobel medal was placed on the chair under a portrait of the 54-year-old Liu at Friday’s ceremony in Oslo.

Mr Liu, a writer, professor and human rights activist, could not attend because he was jailed in 2009 for 11 years for his campaign to bring more freedom to China.

China also prevented members of his family, including his wife, Liu Xia, from leaving the country to accept the medal on his behalf. A $1.4 million cash prize went uncollected.