THERE COULD be a lot of empty chairs in Oslo this week when the Nobel Prize committee awards jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with the prize for peace. Some 19 nations, including China, have agreed not to show up.
China was furious when the committee gave the prestigious prize to Mr Liu – who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion after co-authoring an appeal calling for reforms to China’s one-party political system – and has worked hard to dissuade foreign diplomats from attending the award ceremony.
The list of non-participants in the December 10th event in Oslo is long and includes embassy representatives from Russia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, all of whom have turned down an invitation to the ceremony in Oslo.
Meanwhile, the list of Chinese participants is short, because no one in the dissident community is allowed to travel. Nobel officials have said that none of Mr Liu’s relatives were expected to travel to Oslo to collect the prize on Liu’s behalf. But his wife, Liu Xia, has invited scores of activists and luminaries to attend the ceremony in an open letter posted online.
Mr Liu is serving an 11-year sentence on subversion charges brought after he co-authored a bold call for sweeping changes to the one-party communist political system known as Charter 08.
His wife has been placed under house arrest, as have numerous lawyers, academics and activists, all of them prevented from leaving the country to attend Friday’s ceremony.
China has taken a hard line on the Nobel prize award. The foreign ministry denounced backers of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as “clowns”.
At least 44 of the 65 embassies that have been invited have accepted the invitation, the organisers said. Chinese spokeswoman Jiang Yu, however, said that a lot more countries did not want to give backing to the Nobel Prize.
“After the awarding ceremony, you can see very clearly the vast majority of the international community who did not attend the ceremony,” she said.
Beijing considers Mr Liu’s recognition an attack on China’s political and legal system, and says the country’s policies will not be swayed by outside forces in what it calls “flagrant interference in China’s sovereignty”. Some embassies have tried to fudge the issue, unwilling to offend rising economic power China.
The German ambassador is unlikely to attend, but the Berlin government will be represented by a deputy, in what looks like a move to fulfil Germany’s diplomatic role but not offend the Chinese government too intensely.
Only one of about 140 Chinese activists invited by Liu’s wife has confirmed he will attend the ceremony.
Most of the others have been stopped from leaving China or placed under tight surveillance in a crackdown on dissenters following the prize announcement.
Other countries not planning on attending Friday’s ceremony at Oslo City Hall include Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Colombia and Egypt. China has put ties with Norway on ice as retaliation for the prize.
