China Doesn't Allow The Dissident Liu Xiaobo Or Family To Attend Nobel Ceremony

By ETHAN Markoff

CHINA NEWS - History repeat itself, however, this time in a more uncompromising manner. When Soviet physicist and human rights advocate Andrei D. Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in midst of cold war, he wasn't allowed to attend the ceremony but his wife to collect the award. In a similar example Polish authorities didn't allow trade unionist Lech Walesa to travel to Oslo, but his wife collected the award in his stead. In 1991, Myanmar opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's son accepted the prize when his mother was being held under house arrest.

But the obstinate Chinese government have decided to break but not bend on their approach. They have been practicing a muscular offensive way to protest against the so called Western ploy to undermine the Chinese Communist Party's hold on power. This year Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liu Xiaobo, 54 years-old who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. The government has decided not to allow his wife or family member to collect the award, and adding insult to the injury, wife of Mr. Xiaobo has been held incommunicado since news of the award broke last month.

Chinese authority is very clear in the approach, giving warning foreign governments to boycott the award ceremony. Not only that, the government has put strict restriction and surveillance on prominent dissidents and intellectuals.

The uncompromising hostile attitude of Chinese government is remarkably offensive. In fact, the government declared that the prize money including a medal and $1.5 million in cash would probably be postponed.

China in the recent past has gained an unprecedented economic mileage and probably because of its strong economic integration into the global economy that neither achieved by any Communist nation before, giving voice to confront the West mobilization technique to whole world.

“Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo once again reflects the strong attempts of Western countries to intervene in the political process in China,” said a commentary that ran this month in the official newspaper People’s Daily.

Although it appears that China urge not to attend the Oslo ceremony to other nations has hit an iron wall of disapproval. A very few countries such as Russia, Iraq, Cuba and Kazakhstan have agreed to China's plea for a boycott. However, 36 other countries have declared that they would send attend the ceremony.