Beijing, Oct. 8: China reacted with anger to Friday’s news of the Nobel Peace Prize to the dissident writer, Mr Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion.
“Liu Xiaobo is a criminal sentenced by Chinese judicial organs due to his violation of Chinese law,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“His actions are against the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize,” the statement said.
“The Nobel Committee’s award of the Peace Prize to such a person is totally contrary to the aim of this prize and also seriously disrespects the peace prize,” it said.
The statement warned that the award of the prize in Oslo would also bring harm to China-Norway relations.
Mr Liu was arrested in December 2008, two days before he and 300 other dissidents released the Charter ’08 for democratic reform.
China’s state media downplayed the news of the jailed dissident getting the prestigious award. China’s official Xinhua news agency carried news of the prize in English and Chinese — by headlining the government’s angry reaction to it. Searches using the key words “Nobel Peace Prize” and “Liu Xiaobo” brought up no results on Chinese web portals Sina, Sohu and Baidu while similar searches on Weibo, a Twitter-like service, also drew a blank.
Meanwhile, Norway’s ambassador to China was summoned to the Chinese foreign ministry on Friday over the prize.