Dharamshala: An article published Monday (25 October) in China's state controlled media, so called "China Tibet Information Center" has once again demonstrated their objection to Liu Xiaobo winning the Noble Peace Prize, calling it "anything but the legitimate judgment of peace."
The opinion article entitled "Nobel Prize has nothing to do with Peace" accuses the rest of the world of not understanding peace, on the contrary it can be seen that China itself does not understand peace as this week diplomats claim that China is attempting to block the publication of a United Nations report which links Chinese weapons with attacks on UN and African Union peacekeepers in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
The article also contains vast and angry views on Norwegians saying "The fact that Norway has long kept neutral in wars and showed its support for resolution through mediation and arbitration does not mean the Norwegians possess a deeper understanding of the complexity of achieving world peace as well as the essence of maintaining the peace". They state that the jury of five people, all of whom were members of the Norwegian government, have no right to chose the winner, however, the decision being made by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament was prearranged in Alfred Nobel's last will and testament.
In his will he states that the winner should strive for "for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Liu Xiaobo has struggled all his life in efforts to uphold such values, through his constant callings for democratic elections, advocated values of freedom, supported separation of powers and urged the governments to be accountable for its wrongdoings. Therefore the article's accusation of the awarding being an "unthinkable and ridiculous decision," is in itself ridiculous.
Stating in the article that the peace prize "does not possess a worldwide significance," the writers seems to be unaware of the fact that Liu Xiaobo's award has received support from Japan, American, The UN and many European countries, which contradict such a statement completely.
The writer touches on Tibet and His Holiness' awarding of the Peace Prize saying "In 1989, the committee awarded the peace prize to Dalai Lama, a Tibetan slave master involved in armed rebellion and national abruption". However, the human right violations that China has committed in Tibet since 1959 are plain to see with increasing political prisoners, scarred earth and Tibetan culture in dire threat. This week has seen intense protests inside Tibet as once again China attempts to erode Tibet's ancient language with recent educational reforms in Amdo Province requiring all subjects to be taught in Mandarin and all textbooks to be printed in Chinese except for Tibetan-language and English classes. Other praised winners of the Peace Prize include: Barrack Obama, Al Gore and Martin Luther King,Jr.
They also use the example of Adolf Hitler's nomination of the award stating that it was due to pressure from the German government, however, the nomination was submitted by Erik Brandt, a member of the Swedish parliament. Brandt never intended for this nomination to be seriously considered. Rather, he had submitted it to protest the nomination of Neville Chamberlain for the prize; Brandt retracted the nomination after a few days.
The article may seem hollow and full of Chinese governmental propaganda, however, it does seem a clear indication of the Chinese government's unwillingness to release Liu Xiaobo.
