China’s alternative Nobel

A Chinese group will hand out the Confucius peace prize tomorrow -- a day ahead of the Nobel ceremony in Oslo -- in a bid to push back against the Nobel Committee and its decision to award the jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subversion. The group argues that China "should have a greater voice on world peace" because it has over 1 billion citizens, while Norway is small and the Norwegian committee "could be inevitably biased and fallacious". So instead, they will give the award to a Taiwanese politician Lien Chan who has "built a bridge of peace between the mainland and Taiwan". This alternative Nobel is the latest in China’s furor over the decision to honour Xiaobo. So far, eighteen other countries have said they will not attend Friday’s Nobel ceremony after China put pressure on diplomats in Oslo not to attend and said there would be "consequences" if they did so.

The Guardian