China steps up rhetoric ahead of Nobel ceremony

BEIJING - China’s foreign ministry Tuesday stepped up its rhetoric against jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and the nations planning to attend Friday’s award ceremony in Oslo.

“We have already launched solemn representations to the Norwegian government,” ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

“If someone wants to make a fuss with the issue of Liu Xiaobo and challenge China’s judicial system or even wants to change the path of China’s politics and development, they are doomed to fail,” Jiang said.

“If someone thinks it is possible to exert pressure on China with Cold War methods, they are too naive,” she said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Tuesday that 44 embassies had accepted invitations to Liu’s award ceremony while 19 had declined and two had failed to respond.

Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cuba were among the nations who said they would not attend the ceremony.

Liu, a prominent writer and one of China’s leading dissidents, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December for his part in writing the Charter ‘08 for democratic reform.

Jiang claimed that “more than 100 countries and organizations” had supported China’s opposition to the Nobel Committee’s award of the prize to Liu.

“I think this shows that most members of international society do not accept the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s false decision,” she said.

Jiang repeated China’s assertion that Liu was a “criminal who violated Chinese law” and called the award a “gross interference in China’s judicial sovereignty”.

Strict police controls in China since the award of the prize Oct 8 make it unlikely that any Chinese democracy activists would attend the event, but dozens of exiled dissidents plan to travel to Oslo for the ceremony.

In an open letter in late October, Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, invited 140 other leading Chinese dissidents, lawyers and rights activists to attend the Nobel award ceremony.

Police have prevented several of the 140 from leaving China while most of the others are under close surveillance or house arrest.

Liu Xia has also been held under house arrest since the announcement of the prize.

Border police last week prevented renowned artist Ai Weiwei and dissident economist Mao Yushi from leaving China.

They also detained rights lawyers He Weifang and Mo Shaoping, who were both invited to Oslo, as they were waiting to board a flight to London last month.