Update – Look Who’s Not Coming…
The final list of countries that have used China’s hissy fit over Liu Xiaobo as cover to skip the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony: Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam. And of course, China itself.
Meanwhile, no award will be handed out, since Beijing has declined to allow any of Liu’s family to leave the country in order to travel to Oslo. Other prominent critics of the regime have also been grounded, including Ai Weiwei, the artist and auteur most recently of the mind blowing installation of 100 million hand painted, ceramic sunflower seeds at the Tate Modern. Ai was scheduled to travel to South Korea this week and insists that he had no intention of attending the Nobel ceremony.
One wonders if Beijing really does not understand the negative PR impact of this kind of over-the-top statist wingeing, or if they don’t care? Are they maybe just frustrated that the broader international community continues to lack respect for their right not to ever be publicly embarrassed or criticized by anyone? Who knows – but in my opinion this remains one of the significant areas where China’s foreign policy continues to reflect a lack of sophistication. Perhaps that’s a good thing. Countries (like the US dare I say?) that are good at covering up their human rights misdeeds with a show of public concern and open-mindedness might be much more threatening than those which do it right out in the open.
Food for thought.
