Insult of the Nobel Peace Prize

BEIJING, Dec. 10, 2010 (Xinhuanet) --

Hege Ulstein, a commentator, wrote in a Norwegian newspaper, on Dec. 4, 2010, that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has insulted the Noble Peace Prize. Excerpts, translated from the Norwegian, follow:

Alfred Bernhard Nobel invented dynamite and the Chinese invented gunpowder, but what did the Norwegian Nobel Committee invent?

This week, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) disclosed that the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus misappropriated foreign aid funds, and some of the people who got loans from Grameen Bank, which he set up, were forced to become indentured laborers and live in penury.

The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry knew that as early as 1998 and informed the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which gives the Nobel Peace Prize, about the fact.

But Ole Danbolt Mjos, then chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and Geir Lundestad, then director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, adamantly defended their decision of choosing Yunus. This is a worrying development.

Lundestad said that during the two decades he worked for the Nobel Institute no other nominee was as recognized as Yunus by experts in Norway and abroad. This indicates the Nobel Committee was reluctant to even glance at the information provided by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, or that it had not been checking nominees' backgrounds thoroughly to determine whether they really deserved the peace prize. Both possibilities are scary.

Looking back at the past few winners, we can say that the Nobel Committee did not carry out thorough analyses, even disregarded facts, before awarding the prize. It is not important to find out the reasons for the committee's action or inaction, because the results were the same. The basis for awarding the prize has not been solid in recent years, including this year.

Mjos defended himself saying the committee felt it (not checking facts on and backgrounds of nominees) is a good thing. He used the word "feel", instead of "believe". While awarding the peace prize, does the Nobel committee always "do what it feels is right" rather than "what is right"? Considerable facts prove that it does what it feels is right.

The 2009 and 2010 peace prize winners reflect the partisanship of the Nobel Committee -- it cheers politicians from the West and opposes leaders from the East. It praises the United States and blames China.

Therefore, we can conclude that the Nobel Committee does not consider the difference in situations in different countries and different parts of the world even when it checked the background of those nominated for the prize.

Its own words and actions reveal certain defects in its analyses. In fact, it has discovered certain problems in that process but has chosen to ignore them.

Severe partisanship has already made the Nobel Peace Prize a prize of the West, although countries in the East are playing an increasingly important role in today's world.

One example of this partisanship is the selection of Hollywood's Anne Hathaway as hostess for the Nobel Concert. Why has there never been a hostess from Bollywood in India? Does the committee still consider India a peripheral country? Does it still believe the center of the world is somewhere in the Atlantic? Let's not forget there are more than 1 billion people in India, more than that in Europe and the US combined.

Of course, the Nobel Committee has many a time chosen the right people for the peace prize, people who deserved the honor. But the present chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, is an ambitious man. He hopes to change the world by influencing certain events. But he has always failed.

By granting the 2009 prize to US President Barack Obama, the Nobel Committee had already created some negative effects. Jagland may have wanted to award this year's prize to a Chinese, but why did he choose Liu Xiaobo?

If Jagland wanted to simply cheer up China's "reformists" with the prize, Liu was by no means a wise choice, for he criticizes Chinese culture and wants to mold China into a Western-style society.

Any reform in China has to take place in line with the changing times in the country.

The committee must have been full aware of the negative effects of giving the prize to Liu, who is behind bars, but it still went ahead because it simply intended to promote Western values in China.

If the Nobel Committee wants to remodel history, it should have a clear idea about the changing world. All the five members of the committee are aged politicians. They hope to change the world but lack the basic knowledge about the global situation. This will make the Nobel Peace Prize lose its importance and glory some day.

Sadly, there is little we can do to stop the Nobel Committee from making decisions that violate the original purpose the Nobel Peace Prize.

After the US president was given the prize last year, a columnist wrote in The New York Times that Obama had been "thorbjorned". We could now say that Alfred Bernhard Nobel has been "thorbjorned", too.

 (Source: China Daily)

Editor: Mo Hong'e

China has backing of more than 100 countries, organizations on Nobel Peace Prize

BEIJING, Dec. 7, 2010 (Xinhua) --

More than 100 countries and international organizations have expressed support for China's stance on this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be awarded to convicted Chinese criminal Liu Xiaobo, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said Tuesday.

"This shows that the majority of international community members do not accept the Nobel Committee's wrong decision," said Jiang at a news briefing.

Liu was sentenced to 11 years in jail on Dec. 25, 2009, after a Beijing court convicted him of violating Chinese law and engaging in activities aimed at overthrowing the government.

Jiang said the Nobel Committee's decision to grant the Peace Prize to a convicted criminal was tantamount to overt support for criminal activities in China, and a gross interference in China's judicial sovereignty.

"This wrong decision will incur firm opposition from the Chinese people, and it is unacceptable to the vast majority of countries that uphold justice," said Jiang.

In China, human rights experts and legal experts aired their opposition to the award.

A spokesperson of Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court pointed out that the court's decision on Liu's case was based on an adequate factual and legal foundation.

Liu had incited others to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system through writing incendiary articles and releasing them on the Internet and organizing and inducing others to sign in support of his articles, said the spokesperson.

His actions violated Article 105 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and he had committed the crime of inciting others to subvert state power, said the spokesperson.

Professor Zhang Xiaoling, director of the human rights research center of the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said China respected the rule of law, and the Chinese courts handled Liu Xiaobo's case according to the law, which was a judicial act of a sovereign country that should be respected.

The Nobel Committee had awarded the prize to an imprisoned Chinese criminal, which challenged China's judicial authority, and interfered in China's internal affairs, said Zhang.

Zhu Wenqi, a professor of international law at Renmin University of China, said China was a vast and populous country, and its stability had direct bearing on the world order. Responsible international organizations and institutions should weigh their actions against the interests of a peaceful world order.

Zhu said different countries had different legal provisions, but many Western countries had also criminalized the incitement of hatred. China's law was appropriate to its own social and cultural circumstances, which should be respected and understood by other countries.

Editor: Fang Yang

Inconvenient Nobel awakens Chinese wrath and wounded pride

By FRANCE 24 December 10, 2010

China’s disapproval of the Nobel committee’s choice of dissident Liu Xiaobo as peace prize winner was predictable. But the country’s furious reaction has as much to do with anxiety about its image in the world as it does about the man being honoured.

When the Nobel committee announced its decision in October to award the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, China was furious. For Chinese authorities, Liu, who is currently serving 11 years of jail time for subversion after heading a pro-democracy campaign, is a common criminal.

According to Nancy Li of the International Federation for Human Rights, who spoke to FRANCE 24 on Friday, China has been “reacting hysterically” ever since. Earlier this week, Jiang Yu, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, slammed countries sending officials to Friday’s ceremony in Oslo as “clowns”.

The ceremony was unusually solemn, with Liu's presence marked by an empty chair. It is the first Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 74 years at which the award was not directly handed over.

FRANCE 24 An interview with Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.

That China disapproves of the Nobel committee’s choice is hardly surprising; Liu has long been a thorn in the side of Chinese authorities. But the country’s reaction has as much to do with anxiety about its image in the world as it does about the man being honoured.

Known for joining student protesters on hunger strike in 1989 days before the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement, Liu has frequently invoked the wrath of Chinese authorities. The former professor’s publication of online texts critical of China’s one-party rule and his campaigning for greater political freedoms in China landed him in prison in December 2009.

‘A slap in the face’ for Chinese authorities

FRANCE 24 Portrait of China's Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo

The fact that such a figure is receiving a prestigious international prize is highly inconvenient for China’s government. “Liu is now being mentioned in sentences with the likes of the Dalai Lama, President Barack Obama, and Aung San Suu Kyi,” explained FRANCE 24 correspondent in Beijing Henry Morton. “It legitimses the Chinese dissident movement, and that is an extreme threat potentially to the power of the Communist party here.”

Aside from the internal ramifications of the prize going to Liu, there is also a sense of international humiliation that Chinese authorities have been grappling with since the Nobel committee’s pick was announced. China sees this year’s award as an implicit condemnation of its human rights record. “The Communist party here is extremely sensitive about any external criticism of its policies,” said Morton. “The awarding of this prize to Liu is a slap in the face for Chinese policy makers.”

The resentment likely runs even deeper. China's official Xinhua news agency published an editorial early this week that described what the writer sees as positive things in China. “China has so far become the world's second biggest economy,” the piece reads. “China has long pursued a policy of peace and development, striving to build a harmonious world order.” The editorial concludes by saying that the Nobel committee has distorted the record on Chinese policy.

The fact that the only Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner to get the award while still in China resides in prison has reinforced authorities’ perception that the West takes China’s modernisation and economic and educational progress for granted. In this context, the Chinese wrath over Liu’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize seems steeped in wounded pride and feelings of rejection.

Still, not everyone in China is upset over the Nobel committee’s choice. According to Li, a more youthful, progressive segment of the Chinese population is excited about the prize and taking to the Web to get the word out. “You cannot type in Liu Xiaobo or even Nobel, but there are ways to get around it,” Li said. “Young, free-thinking people in China hate censorship and have been using different ways to spread the news.”

Li also told FRANCE 24 that she does not think China’s hardline anti-Xiaobo stance will last. She used the example of Confucius, who was long vilified in China, but whose name is invoked in a peace prize China has presented as an alternative to the Nobel they contest – the Confucius Peace Prize.

“Perhaps 15 years from now, the government will have changed,” Li said, “and there’s going to be a Liu Xiabao Peace Prize.”

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