Like other activists and intellectuals, Ai was stopped from leaving China in late 2010. Ai gave an idea that the higher ups wanted to stop him from attending the ceremony in December 2010 to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo. Ai said that he was never invited to the ceremony, and was attempting to travel to South Korea in which he had an important meeting when he was told that he could not leave for reasons of national security.