The Foreigner in Formosa

Communist Party Vassal Refuses To Call For Release Of Chinese Dissident

And to think Lien Chan came within 26,000 votes of the Taiwanese presidency.  Does he really expect people to believe he's never read about the first Chinese to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize?

On second thought, this is Lien Chan of Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party we're talkin' about.  And the man has his priorities.  When someone of his ilk has to choose between standing up for democracy advocates or bringing pandas to Taiwan, there's really no contest.

 

(All my panda-huggin', all my panda-kissin', you don't know what you've been a-missin'...)
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Postscript:  Good on France and Nicholas Sarkozy for defying The Empire and sending ambassadors to Oslo for Liu's award ceremony.  Same goes for Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

As for Japan, we'll see.  On the one hand, Prime Minister Kan seems willing to bend over backwards to appease the PRC.  On the other, his poll numbers seem to be tanking as a result:

Public support for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet has plunged 14.9 points since early October to 32.7 percent, reflecting growing frustration with the government . . . reflect[ing] public dissatisfaction with the government's handling of Japan's row with China and a political funds scandal dogging ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa.

For Unto Us A Panda Is Born, Unto Us A Cub Is Given...

The day Liu Xiaobo wins the Nobel Peace Prize, a "European Affairs" program in China instead breaks the earthshaking news that a panda had been born in Spain.

Hugo Chavez: Let Chinese Dissidents Rot

As is sometimes my wont, I exaggerate.  But not by much.

Nobel Peace Prize Predictions

Damn.  Remind me never to play a game of Machiavelli with Michael Turton!

All kidding aside, Occam's Razor suggests to me that China was sincere in its brutish objections to Liu Xiaobo's nomination and win.  Thuggish is as thuggish does.

But I'll go further out on a limb and predict that within the next 3 or 5 years Liu will have company, when another Chinese dissident will be awarded the prize.  And my reason for believing that is that the Chinese Communist Party REALLY hacked off the Nobel Committee.  So much so, that the committee broke with precedent and leaked the name of the winner to the media a few days before the official announcement.  (Hard to imagine a bigger F U being issued to the Butchers of Beijing.)

Remember how the Nobel committee spent the last 6 or 7 years repudiating George W. Bush?  It was almost a steady stream -- Mohammed ElBaradei...Al Gore...Barack Obama.  (If I'm not mistaken, there were also a couple anti-American authors for the Literature Prize tossed in just for good measure.)

Message received.  Loud and clear.

But one thing cannot be denied:  in response to these rebukes, the American government did most assuredly NOT threaten the government of Norway, nor the livelihood of its people.  Great powers get criticized, and they learn to live with it.  Goes with the territory.

In contrast, the Communist government of China gave the Nobel committee only two alternatives:  humiliating surrender, or honorable defiance.*  One or two more Liu Xiaobo's this decade will drive home to the Chinese what stuff Norwegians are made of.

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* During a conversation with some Taiwanese youths a few years back, one of them announced in all seriousness to me that "Face didn't matter to Westerners." 

(No offence was intended by them.  I think the subject came up when I remarked that I wouldn't feel any loss of face if I offered a last-minute dinner party invitation to a coworker, and they declined due to prior commitments.)

It's a view charming in its naivety when held by the young -- but foolish to the extreme if it's held by the Chinese leadership.

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UPDATE:  An Indian reporter blogs on the Chinese media black-out.

UPDATE #2:  Liu's not hard-line enough, protest some exiled Chinese dissidents.  Sad.

 

Jia Yo, Liu Xiaobo

Congratulations to Liu Xiaobo -- China's very own Vaclav Havel -- on his historic Nobel Peace Prize win.

An honorable mention to President Hu Jintao and the Chinese Communist Politburo as well.  (For without their tireless efforts, Liu's victory would scarcely have been possible!)

 

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 UPDATE:  Will the current Nobel chairman publicly make the Carl von Ossietzky - Liu Xiaobo connection?

UPDATE #2:  I knew that Liu had been sentenced to 11 years by the Communist politburo...but wasn't aware that Liu & his lawyers had only 14 minutes to defend him at trial.   Can't wait to see Bev Chu & Taiwan's China Post spin the proceedings of that kangaroo court as a "fair trial".

UPDATE #3:  "I have long been aware that when an independent intellectual stands up to an autocratic state, step one toward freedom is often a step into prison.  Now I am taking that step; and true freedom is that much nearer."  - Liu Xiaobo

UPDATE (Oct 9/2010):  Gotta give Ma Ying-jeou & the KMT credit for at least pretending to be pleased with Liu's win.  Hypocrisy may be the homage vice pays to virtue, but that's certainly more than Taiwan's China Post has done so far.

[Don't be so cynical, Foreigner -- school bullying is a huge, HUGE story!  Way bigger than the first Nobel Peace Prize won by a Chinese!]

From yesterday's Taipei Times:

Hours after the announcement, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) congratulated Liu for winning the prize and called on China to address human rights issues with a more liberal attitude.

The General-wuss-imo must be really worried about the coming elections, if he's that willing to piss off his Communist masters.  What's next?  An invitation to Rebiya Kadeer and the Dalai Lama to come help campaign for him?

UPDATE #5:  Beijing summons the Norwegian ambassador for a dressing-down.  Yet another Hitler "Downfall" parody in the making...

UPDATE #6:  Heh.  "...peaceful and friendly China" vs. "antagonistic and belligerent Norway."

 

The Dog That Didn't Bark

What, no editorials from Taiwan's China Post, cheering on Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize?  Whose struggle for freedom and democracy is something that Chinese everywhere can take justifiable pride in?  Not a word from the newspaper which has stated that after a century, it's HIGH-TIME for a person of Chinese extraction to win?

Nope, guess not.  Where once were glowing paeans for Beijing's '08 Olympics, are now only crickets for the frontrunner poised to become China's FIRST-EVER winner of the award.  Chinese nationalists, indeed.

(But then, when one takes the position that democracy is the worst political system ever tried (bar none!), it's not surprising that by default one roots for Communist jailors instead.)

 

(Image from Reporters Without Borders)

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UPDATE:  An Irish gambling company which allows people to wager on who will win the prize is apparently so confident that Liu Xiaobo will come out on top that they've stopped taking bets and started paying-off bettors 48 hours before the actual announcement.

Parting with their money before they absolutely have to suggests that they're completely nuts.  Or that they know something the rest of us don't...

UPDATE #2:  Beijing threatens to bring Norway its knees by withholding vital supplies of heavy metal-laced cigarettes.  Which will be difficult for the Norwegians to substitute, since China controls at least 92% of all the world's rare earths cadmium-flavored tobacco products.