Oct 09 2008
China’s Increasing Ego Puts Pressure on Nobel Peace Prize Committee
Did I miss something? Was there some big shift in power and China suddenly became the leader of the world? I agree that they are probably one of the leadings lights in the suppressed dictatorship countries, but currently they seem to be on some kind of ego trip that has them telling the rest of the world what decisions they should make.
A few days ago the Chinese government was spouting off about America selling arms to Taiwan, a country that China doesn’t want to have weapons. This led to Chinese officials pulling out of scheduled talks with the US. Today it’s the turn of the Nobel Committee in Norway. In what has to be one of the largest political ironies this year, (barring Sarah “abstinence is best” Palin’s high school attending daughter getting pregnant), China is putting pressure on the Nobel Committee not to award the Peace Prize to any of the Chinese dissidents who are nominated. These include Hu Jai a human rights activist currently in prison for his reporting of acts of human rights abuse to peers and the international press, and Gao Zhisheng who apart from teaching himself law, has defended a number of Chinese people who have been prosecuted by the State. He also hasn’t been seen since September 2007 when he was reportedly removed from his home. With almost 200 international nominees for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, it’s anyone’s guess who will win, so why China should be stamping its dictatorial feet is beyond me.
I’m not sure if Beijing is still high from the success of its Olympic Games, or whether they really think that the rest of the world is going to be bullied into accepting their dictatorship opinions, but one thing is for sure, China is currently on an ego trip that could compromise east-west peace. As with the arms to Taiwan sale, the countries of the western world are more likely to go directly against these veiled threats and undermine the Chinese government’s global authority rather than bow down to China as if it were superior nation!
2 Responses to “China’s Increasing Ego Puts Pressure on Nobel Peace Prize Committee”
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Shortly after Sept. 11th, I was in a discussion with some friends, and after several hours (and several drinks), we came to the conclusion that China posed the next serious threat to the world. The challenge of the next President is daunting, in that he will have to rebuild trust in the global community in order to be in a position to shrink China’s ego. And if Russia dosen’t get their act together soon, the probability of a Russo-Chinese alliance grows. And that would just suck.
Such a weird conundrum with China’s Capitalism + Communist state system. Either they will be a super power or the people will overthrow them. Though the Confucian and Buddhist hush-hush culture over there makes the former more likely.
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