China’s Pre-Nobel Preparations

10 Dec 2010 | Asia and Pacific, China

With less than a day to go before the Nobel Committee awards Chinese imprisoned dissident (or convicted criminal if you are the Beijing government) Liu Xiaobo this year’s peace prize, China has been stumbling over itself to create diversions, block news, gather allies, and negate the legitimacy of the award.

The first things to go were the news websites. As early as Thursday 9 December, the BBC, CNN and NRK, a Norwegian television channel, were all blocked on the mainland. Naturally nobelprize.org is blocked.

The English-language domestic press, however, were not shy about raising the issue. In the China Daily this morning, a front page lead declared “’Most nations’ oppose peace prize to Liu.” The story, which was merely reporting comments made by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu also linked to a curious opinion piece: “Insult of the Nobel Peace Prize,” which selected excerpts from an earlier editorial in an unidentified Norwegian newspaper.

It was a similar story in the other English-language daily, Global Times. “Beijing firm on Nobel,” ran the top front-page story, which also carried Jiang’s comments. The lead editorial, “Oslo puts on a farce against China ,” was much more dramatic than China Daily’s. “It’s unimaginable that such a farce, the like of which is more commonly seen in cults, is being staged on the civilized continent of Europe,” it runs. “Tonight’s political show is not an easy task for the Norwegians. They have to ignore the signs of China’s drastic changes and social progress, in a bid to convince themselves that China’s “darkness” is real.”

At least 18 countries have made their excuses, including Russia, Serbia and Saudi Arabia. That leaves approximately two thirds of embassies accepting the invitation. Western news reports say China has pressured diplomats not to attend, but China denies this while publicly making comments such as: “We hope those countries that have received the invitation can tell right from wrong.”

Meanwhile, in China itself, scores of dissidents have had their movements curtailed — put under house arrest, forcibly moved out of Beijing, prevented from leaving the country and having their phone lines cut.  “While such tactics are common before important events such as political meetings, it is rare for pressure to last so long and be applied so extensively,” reports The Guardian. Chinese police have surrounded the home of Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, in Beijing, where she is believed to be under house arrest.

However, perhaps the most perplexing of China’s anti-Nobel preparations was the quick whipping up of a new peace prize to rival the Nobel award. The first Confucius Peace Prize was awarded to former Taiwanese vice-president Lien Chan yesterday at a hurriedly held press conference in Beijing. Lien’s office says it knew nothing about the prize, and an infant girl was carried in to accept the prize on his behalf.

Like Lien, Liu will not be picking up his prize in person. Nobel committee secretary Geir Lundestad said Liu will be represented “by an empty chair … the strongest possible argument” for awarding it to him.

If you want a look at the power of Liu’s pen and why the Chinese government considers him a threat, The Telegraph has published parts of a speech he gave two years ago. Read it here.