Posted on 10/08/2010 6:17:20 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, sparking a furious diplomatic row as China accused the Norwegian awards committee of honouring a "criminal".
The Chinese authorities denounced the award as an "obscenity" and warned that it would damage relations between the two countries.
The Nobel Committee said Mr Liu was honoured "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China". The 54-year-old activist, was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison for subversion.
In a strongly-worded citation, the committee criticised China's human rights record.
"Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world's second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened. China's new status must entail increased responsibility," it read.
"China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article 35 of China's constitution lays down that 'Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration'. In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens."
It added: "The campaign to establish universal human rights in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."
The award drew a furious response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, who said choosing Mr Liu ran "completely counter to the principle of the prize". Norway said China had summoned its ambassador in Beijing to express their
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Now they know how we felt last year!
as China accused the Norwegian awards committee of honouring a “criminal”...
Oh come on - they awarded Yassar Afafat the Nobel and.... oh, wait a minute...
maybe China is not so bad a place after all.
The Chicom's finally realized what the prize stands for.
Carter
Gore
Obama (on assumption that he would earn it)
Now it's our turn as a nation to follow suit!
We got hit three times; Obama, Algore and J Carter.
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Hear's all you need to know... about that:
China's Harvest
So this makes two years in a row where they’ve given the prize to a criminal. The only difference is, this time, they chose somebody that opposes communism.
Why not? They gave one to our criminal.
Lots of criminals have been awarded the Nobel peace Prize.
Didn’t Arafat get one?
Once in awhile the Nobel Peace Prize committee gets one right. This is one of those times.
1994, along with Yitzhak Rabin.
But then so did that Viet Cong guy Le Duc Tho.
yitbos
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