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China livid as dissident Liu awarded Peace Nobel

POREG VIEW: Expectedly, China is furious at the award of Nobel Peace Prize for jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo (pronounced: LEE-o SHAo-boh). ‘The award is an obscenity against the Peace Prize’, in Beijing’s view but it has emboldened the Chinese tweeters to declare ‘Long Live Freedom’, letting the world to know thereby that the prize has the potential of being the single spark to start a prairie fire in the land of Mao. Also, as Liu’s wife remarked, the award has shattered the myth that only the Chinese government speaks for the Chinese people.

China has been warning the Oslo based Nobel Committee against selecting Liu. The Committee yet went ahead with its choice. Are there politics at play? May be or may not be but there is undeniable logic in Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland assertion that ignoring the rights situation in China would have undermined the authority of the Peace Prize.  As China is rising and is craving for not only acceptance but also a place at the high global table, it has to be ready to face criticism of what the world thinks is wrong with it.

Liu shot in to lime light during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989, and went to jail. His latest sentence for 11-years was awarded last year (2009) for a manifesto for free speech and multi-party elections.

Since human rights and peace are not exclusive of each other, the award to Liu is a public snub to China as it stands today.  And its first casualty will be the trade pact between Norway and China, which is in the works. Norway is the world’s largest oil and gas exporter. China, as the fastest growing super power, is an energy guzzler and is forever on the look out for new sources of energy.  So, the Oslo – Beijing spat will be nuanced semantics.

But it is possible that China will harden its bargaining position with the West on currency reforms. This will be bad news for Washington in particular, which is upset that China is deriving maximum benefit selling cheaply its products in overseas markets.

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