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Nobel prize tantamount to ¡¥encouraging
crime¡¦: PRC
AFP, BEIJING
China yesterday denounced the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to dissident Liu Xiaobo
(¼B¾åªi) as tantamount to ¡§encouraging crime,¡¨ as state media said the award was
part of a Western ¡§ideological war¡¨ against Beijing.
The comments came as China came under fresh pressure, with Norway criticizing
Chinese retaliatory steps over the award and the Japanese prime minister saying
the jailed laureate should be freed.
¡§Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Awarding the Nobel Prize to him is
equivalent to encouraging crime,¡¨ foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (°¨´Â¦°)
told reporters.
Liu, 54, was sentenced in December last year to 11 years in jail for subversion.
He was awarded the prize last Friday by Oslo¡¦s Nobel Committee for his advocacy
of political reform and human rights in one-party China.
The US and the EU have called for his release and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto
Kan weighed in yesterday, risking Beijing¡¦s ire just as Japan and China seek to
put a damaging diplomatic spat behind them.
¡§From the viewpoint that universal human rights should be protected across
national borders, it is desirable¡¨ that Liu be released, Kan told the Japanese
parliament.
China broke off contacts with Tokyo last month after Japan detained a Chinese
fishing boat captain whose vessel collided with Japanese coast guard ships in
waters claimed by both sides in the East China Sea.
However, the two close trading partners later moved to patch up the row.
Kan said he would be ¡§watching whether he [Liu] will be able to attend the Nobel
Prize award ceremony or whether his wife or family members will attend.¡¨
Liu¡¦s wife, Liu Xia (¼BÁø), has been largely confined to her Beijing home since
last Friday in what she has denounced as ¡§illegal house arrest.¡¨
Washington and Brussels have both appealed to China to let her move freely
again.
Beijing has directed most of its fury at Oslo by canceling ministerial meetings
and a Norwegian musical scheduled to be staged in the country.
Oslo on Wednesday criticized the cancelations and said Norway hoped to maintain
good relations with China.
¡§If this decision is the consequence of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize,
we consider this an inappropriate reaction,¡¨ Norwegian foreign ministry
spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund said.
The state-run English-language Global Times newspaper said yesterday Liu
Xiaobo¡¦s award was part of a Western ¡§ideological war¡¨ against China.
¡§They even hope that China will one day collapse under the West¡¦s ideological
crusade,¡¨ said the editorial, intended for foreign audiences.
The Chinese-language state press, however, has remained muted on the subject
amid an information blackout on the news in China.
In a similar vein, Ma asked about the ¡§real motives¡¨ behind leaders and
governments supporting Liu Xiaobo¡¦s prize.
¡§Is it that they deep down in their hearts don¡¦t like China¡¦s development path?
They don¡¦t like China¡¦s political system?¡¨ he said.
Liu Xiaobo¡¦s sentence was widely seen as retaliation for authoring ¡§Charter 08,¡¨
an appeal for political reform and human rights made in 2008.
Dissidents and activist lawyers have been under close surveillance since the
award was announced, and ahead of an annual Chinese Communist Party meeting
opening today.
Liu Xia, meanwhile, has had her telephones cut off by authorities, but has
issued periodic statements on Twitter, which is blocked in China by the nation¡¦s
censors, but accessible via proxy servers.
¡§I strongly protest against the government for my illegal house arrest,¡¨ Liu Xia
said in a tweet on Wednesday, calling her situation ¡§very hard to take.¡¨
Her lawyers said yesterday that she remained unreachable by telephone.
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