If you were still wondering about China’s plans to control more (if not all of) the world, look no further than their actions regarding the upcoming Nobel Prize ceremony.
1. Nobel Awards announced
2. China stomps its’ feet in anger as jailed democracy advocate is honored by Nobel Committee
3. Calls Nobel committee “clowns”
4. Warns Norway of consequences
5. Places wife and friends of nominee under “house arrest”
6. Demands other invited nations boycott
7. Launches competing awards
After hearing that the Nobel committee had selected a jailed Chinese dissident for the upcoming Peace Prize, China’s government went into what can only be described as a national… no, GLOBAL tantrum.
The honoree, Liu Xiaobo is not new to the dissident circles. The former leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest is serving an 11yr. sentence for having the audacity to stand up for human rights in China, and also for suggesting that the country and the people might benefit greatly from having more than one political party. He sounds very much like the kind of nominee one might expect from the Nobel folks… principled, accomplished, and driven to the cause of peace and human rights for the people of his homeland. China begs to differ.
Instead of just voicing their displeasure and moving on, China has decided this will be a relationship test for many nations considered to be BFFs. The initial response from the world’s largest country was to diminish the Nobel committee, calling them names. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters:
“I would like to say to those at the Nobel committee, they are orchestrating an anti-China farce by themselves. We are not changing because of interference by a few clowns and we will not change our path.”
And then there’s the lovely accusation sent to our own Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. China’s senior foreign policy official Dai Bingguo has told Mrs. Clinton that Beijing believes Washington orchestrated the award, ostensibly to humiliate China.
To his credit, President Obama has stood firmly on the side of freedom, stating:
“We call on the Chinese government to release Mr Liu as soon as possible.”
China’s response was less than cooperative. The Jakarta Post reports, China has sent letters to foreign ministries and embassies urging diplomats to stay away from the ceremony in Oslo and warning of “consequences” for those who support the pro-democracy activist.
According to a report from CNN, 19 of the 65 invited countries have announced that they will not be attending the prestigious ceremony this Friday. Obviously China will not be there, but Beijing’s strong-arm tactics have also convinced Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, and Indonesia to stay home. For the record, the Russian minister is claiming a “previous engagement.” Right. The Nobel Prize ceremony just sneaked up on you.
But wait, there’s more.
ABC News says that China has also decided that Lui’s wife cannot leave the country to attend the ceremony, she and other sympathetic Chinese academics and artists have been placed under house arrest.
Acting more and more like spoiled high school kids who don’t like the guest list for the big party, China has announced a competing ceremony to be held the day before the Nobel event. Please give a warm round of indifference to… The Confucius Awards! Students of history will recall that Hitler pulled something similar. In 1935 the Nobel was awarded to an anti-Nazi writer named Carl von Ossietzky. Hitler forbade any German to accept the Nobel Prize and he created the German National Prize for Art & Science, awarding the first one to Dr. Ferdinand Porsche.
The list of nominees for the inaugural “Confuscius” includes, Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, Nelson Mandela, and China’s own Panchen Lama (think Anti-Pope, China hand-picked their own Lama to compete with the Dali Lama). One wonders if any of the other nominees will attend. The (lucky?) winner is former Taiwan Vice-President Lien Chan.
Oddly enough the AP is reporting that when they contacted Chan’s office, he was clueless about the honor. Gee, I hope his calendar is clear tomorrow.
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