We do not set great store by the Nobel Peace Prize, because over the years it has gone too often to people who harm, rather than advance, the cause of peace.
However, sometimes the committee that awards the annual prize “gets it right” by honoring an individual who truly is committed to peace and liberty. This year’s winner is a citizen of Communist China, Liu Xiaobo. He has called for big and obviously necessary political reforms in his repressive nation.
Because of his peaceful activism, though, he is serving an 11-year prison sentence in his homeland. His wife, meanwhile, is under house arrest.
Communist China’s disgraceful, though predictable, behavior toward this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner and his family is bad enough. But the totalitarian nation is also issuing ugly threats of reprisals against other nations that may send representatives to the award ceremony in Norway in December.
“If they make the wrong choice, they have to bear the consequences,” said Communist China’s Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai, according to news reports. His nation slanders prize winner Liu as a common criminal.
The winning of the Nobel is unlikely to result in Liu’s being set free. It may well lead to even worse treatment of him and his family. But even though he will be forbidden to attend the award ceremony in Norway, other nations should not give in to Communist China’s bullying and thuggery. While we would not say this for every Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, all countries of good will should send their representatives to this one as a show of solidarity with a man who believes in peace and freedom.