China succeeds Nazi Germany in barring Nobel winner

TibetanReview.net, Nov22, 2010) Has the party-state of China proved itself a worthy successor to Nazi Germany by not allowing the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to receive the award on Dec 10? In 1936, German journalist Carl von Ossietzky, was not allowed to leave Nazi Germany to receive the award. This year, China is doing the same to the winner Liu Xiaobo. Nor is it allowing any of his close relatives to receive it on his behalf.

In fact, China has gone further than Nazi Germany by writing to other countries, demanding that they boycott the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. "For an embassy to actively try to persuade other embassies to not participate in the ceremony is something new," AP Nov 18 quoted Geir Lundestad, secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, as saying.

While China has been rebuffed in this by the democratic West, it has succeeded in getting Russia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Iraq to order their ambassadors in Oslo not to attend the ceremony. Nevertheless, none of them have explained their reason for declining the invitation.

Russia has sought to explain that its decision was not politically motivated, and it did not feel pressured by China. Rather, it has said its ambassador would not be in Norway at the time of the award ceremony, reported AP Nov 18.

Lundestad has said 36 ambassadors had accepted the invitation to the ceremony while 16 had not yet replied. He had said some had asked for more time to decide.

The prestigious 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) award can only be collected by the laureate or close family members. Liu himself is under an 11-year jail term for alleged subversion. His wife, Liu Xia, remains under house arrest. All of Liu's closest family members remain under tight police surveillance to prevent them from attending the ceremony.

If no one from Liu’s family turns up, the prize will probably not be awarded, both Lundestad and the committee's chairman Thorbjoern Jagland have said. It will then be the first time since 1936, when there was no one present to accept the medal. In 1936, a representative of Ossietzky received the prize money only, Lundestad has said.

The unprecedented character of China’s fury against the Nobel Peace award could be gauged from the fact that even Cold War dissidents Andrei Sakharov of Russia and Lech Walesa of Poland were able to have their wives collect the prizes for them in 1975 and 1983, respectively. Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi's award was accepted by her 18-year-old son in 1991.

Lundestad has said the absence of a prize recipient won't make the 2010 prize fall into oblivion. "I agree with those who say that the prizes to laureates who could not attend the ceremony have become among the most important," AP Nov 19 quoted him as saying.

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