As readers delve deeper into the Wikileaks cables, more secrets are being revealed about the inner workings of global diplomacy. In particular, the New York Times looks at conversations between U.S. and Chinese diplomats about the case of imprisoned dissident and now Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo:
The United States ambassador had just written China’s foreign minister expressing concern for Liu Xiaobo, the Beijing intellectual imprisoned a year earlier for drafting a pro-democracy manifesto. Now Mr. Ding, a deputy in the ministry’s American section, was reading the riot act to an American attaché.
Mr. Ding said he would try to avoid “becoming emotional,” according to a readout on the meeting that was among thousands of leaked State Department cables released this month. Then he said that a “strongly dissatisfied” China firmly opposed the views of the American ambassador, Jon Huntsman, and that Washington must “cease using human rights as an excuse to ‘meddle’ in China’s internal affairs.”
On Friday, exactly one year after Mr. Huntsman wrote his protest, Mr. Liu, now serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion, will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in a ceremony that he is unable to attend. And if anything is clear, it is that China no longer resists becoming emotional.
In the two months since the Nobel committee honored Mr. Liu, China has waged an extraordinary and unprecedented campaign, domestically and internationally, to discredit the award and to dissuade other governments from endorsing it.
The Chinese government is continuing their propaganda campaign condemning Liu Xiaobo and the Nobel prize. From the Global Times:
On whether Liu Xiaobo deserves the Nobel Peace Prize laurel, the majority of Chinese people differ in opinion from the Nobel committee. The major problem is that the committee, acting like a spectator who booed China’s performance, has overseen a political farce. Moreover, there exists much evidence that mainstream Western political forces have participated in and dominated the conspiracy. The West is using this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to sound the charge toward China’s ideology, aiming to undermine the benign surroundings for China’s future development.
Chinese civilization has long upheld the tradition of befriending all people, and public opinion in Chinese society is also in favor of making friends with the West. In the 1970s and 1980s, the West showed genuine goodwill toward China. But later on, especially since the turn of the century, the West has changed tack. It has begun obstructing the rise of China, which seems to be the last thing they want to see.
The West has shown great creativity in conspiring against China. With its ideology remaining dominant at present, the West has not ceased harassing China with all kinds of tricks like the Nobel Peace Prize.
Read more about Wikileaks and China via CDT.
