20100203 PRC warns against Nobel prize for leading dissident

PRC warns against Nobel prize for leading dissident

REUTERS, BEIJING
Wednesday, Feb 03, 2010, Page 5

“Honoring [Liu] with the Nobel Peace Prize would be a powerful way to underscore the fact that the rights that are enshrined in international human rights law — values that China has acknowledged and endorsed — are the non-negotiable entitlements of every man and woman.”  Kwame Anthony Appiah, Pen American Center president

The Chinese Foreign Ministry warned yesterday against giving a Nobel Peace Prize to leading jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), a nomination made by the US chapter of rights group International Pen. A Chinese court jailed Liu, a prominent critic of Chinese Communist Party rule, for 11 years on Christmas Day on a subversion charge after he co-authored Charter 08, a petition calling for broad political and democratic reforms. Pen American Center president Kwame Anthony Appiah last week sent a nomination for Liu to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, noting his “distinguished and principled leadership in the area of human and political rights and freedom of expression.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said it would be a mistake to give Liu such an award. “If the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to such a person, it is obvious that it is totally wrong,” Ma told a regular news briefing in Beijing, without elaborating. Liu is a member of the Chinese chapter of Pen, which campaigns for freedom of expression. “Honoring [Liu] with the Nobel Peace Prize would be a powerful way to underscore the fact that the rights that are enshrined in international human rights law — values that China has acknowledged and endorsed — are the non-negotiable entitlements of every man and woman,” Appiah said in a statement. The group said the nomination letter had been signed by other Pen members and well-known authors, including Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth and Ha Jin (哈金).