Liu Xiaobo, 53, was Friday convicted of "inciting subversion of state power", the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The closed-door trial before the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court lasted less than three hours Wednesday in Beijing and was condemned by human rights groups as politically motivated and aimed at placing a leading critic of the Chinese government behind bars.
Liu was detained in December 2008, shortly before the release of Charter '08 for democratic reform in China, which he co-organised.
In the charter, 303 leading dissidents, activists and writers set out their ideals for transforming China into a liberal democracy and lamented a lack of "freedom, equality and human rights" under the ruling Communist Party.
Since its release, more than 10,000 people have signed it online.
"All charges have been fabricated," Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo, said earlier in Beijing.
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