And the Chinese authorities are more than a little upset.
“Good!” is my immediate reaction. Anyone who can irritate the Chinese authorities can’t be all bad, and it seems that Liu Xiaobo is doing more than his fair share. Which is why he got the prize of course.
When you are young, you eventually realise that when accused of doing something wrong, it is usually less painful to admit to it straight away than come up with silly excuses that blame everyone else – “It was the cat” …
The Chinese government is doing exactly that when it comes to Lui Xiaobo. It is claiming that he isn’t the sort of person who should be getting the Nobel Peace Prize. After all he is alleged to have broken Chinese law (so what?). Indeed they go on to criticise the Norwegian government for awarding this prize.
Of course the Norwegian government is not involved in the decision making process as the Nobel prizes are awarded by a committee independently of the government. Perhaps the most withering description of attempted Chinese interference comes from the Norwegian government themselves who explain that the Nobel committee is independent, but that the Chinese government will find such independence incomprehensible.