China calls Nobel peace prize supporters 'clowns'
Supporters of this year's Nobel peace prize, which honours a jailed Chinese dissident, are "clowns" perpetrating a farce, the foreign ministry in Beijing said today.
China is furious at the decision to give Liu Xiaobo the prestigious award, which will be celebrated at a ceremony in Norway on Friday. He is serving an 11-year sentence for incitement to subvert state power for his co-authorship of Charter 08, a call for democratic reforms.
The authorities have placed his wife, Liu Xia, and other supporters under house arrest and have barred other activists and dissidents from leaving the country, apparently for fear they will attend the event.
A foreign ministry, spokeswoman Jiang Yu, said Liu's supporters were fundamentally opposed to China's development and wanted to interfere in the country's politics and legal system. She added: "We will not be pressured by clowns."
The Norwegian Nobel committee said China and 18 other countries have declined invitations to the ceremony "for various reasons". The others are Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco.
China had written to diplomats in Oslo urging them to boycott the ceremony and warning of "consequences" if they did not do so, but 44 countries will send representatives. Not all countries are invited as not all have missions in Norway.
A committee member said the Chinese embassy in Oslo is returning all correspondence unopened.
According to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, all invited countries sent representatives last year, when Barack Obama won. The previous year, about 10 countries did not attend the ceremony for Martti Ahtisaari.
China calls Nobel peace prize supporters 'clowns' | World news | The Guardian
