You don't always get what you bargain for

For decades, China has coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, in hopes that one day one of their own citizens (while living in China) could claim it as a recipient. To China, winning the Nobel Peace Prize would ultimately prove to the world that China has indeed become a country to reckon with and has finally caught up to, if not surpassed, the Western powers. This year, China's wish was granted, although not in the form they were expecting it. What can I say? You can't always get what you bargain for.

Back in early October, it was announced that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize would be awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissent currently jailed for subversion of state power, after co-authoring Charter 08, a highly critical political manifesto on the Chinese government. Liu was also a notable figure in the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests.

To say that China wasn't thrilled upon learning Liu Xiaobo was awarded this year's Nobel Prize would be an understatement. As soon as the announcement was made, China quickly called the Norwegian ambassador to express their anger and publicly  retorted by calling the decision "blasphemy."

Additionally, the story of that the first Chinese man ever had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was shushed quiet throughout Chinese media outlets. News story concerning the prize form international news outlets, such as CNN or the BBC were also blacked out (CNN and BBC are only available in apartment complexes catered to foreigners and in nice hotels.). Many western news websites featuring stories about the award and Internet searches on "Liu Xiaobo" and "Nobel Peace Prize" were also blocked by the Great Chinese Firewall. Lastly, and perhaps the most creepily, as the news of the decision spread, the Chinese government erased the characters composing the characters of Liu Xiaobo's name out of the SMS (texting) database so that no text messages containing his name could be sent out. Those who succeeded prior to the big erased found their messages blocked and sometimes SIM cards deactivated.

Not surprisingly, this past weekend as the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in Oslo, Norway, many Western news websites were blocked once again.Without using a VPN, I couldn't access CNN.com; although ironically, I could access the NY Times where the "Empty Chair" was one of the leading stories of the weekend. (Since Liu Xiaobo was obviously not allowed to attend the ceremony in Oslo and accept his award, the award was given to an "empty chair," thus all the "Empty Chair" headlines about the Nobel Peace Prize this weekend.)


China's anger concerning Liu Xiaobo and the Nobel Peace Prize seems to stem from a variety of factors. First of all, Liu Xiaobo is a vocal critic of the Chinese government, despite numerous attempts to keep him quiet. Most recently, he co-authored Charter 08, a political manifesto that was highly critical of the last 60 years of Communist rule in China and called for numerous reforms in the political and judicial systems. Second of all, the Chinese government feels that the Western powers are using the Nobel Peace Prize as a political device to push China to invoke changes that China feels are unwarranted and unwanted, which directly relates to (what I think is) the third reason for China's outrage. By awarding this coveted distinction to a Chinese dissent, the Chinese government feels like it has been embarrassed in a highly public, very international way. If nothing else, the China's pride has been wounded by the Nobel Norwegian Committee's decision, which to the Chinese government isn't only humiliating but a gross insult to China's pride. 

Gross insult or not, the Nobel Peace Prize is a political tool. Though the Nobel Norwegian Committee, which acts independently despite being appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, there is no way that such a highly regarded and watched prize doesn't have political motivations and political implications. Even in the wording of the reason for awarding Liu with this distinction makes it obvious that the award hopes to push China to change their human rights policies.

While I heartily believe that China has a long way to go before it really catches up the West, particularly in terms of the government and human rights, the West must also realize that China has to be willing to invoke change on it's own. As Kishore Mahbubani, the dean of  Leee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, points out in his op-ed to the New York Times/International Herald Times:

• Over time, China will become a democracy, especially when it develops the world’s largest middle class. However, it is likely to get there faster if the present balance of rapid economic transformation and gradual political transformation is maintained. Few Chinese believe that the West is trying to do China any good by trying to accelerate the political transformation. Indeed, most Chinese believe that the Western agenda is to unleash the same chaos in China as it did with instant democracy in Russia.

Ultimately, China and the Chinese people will have to want change in order for change to occur, something that will not happen overnight. Nor would an overnight revolution be desirable for China or the rest of the word. If the we learned nothing else from the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe and the fall of the USSR in December 1991, it's that sudden change, while dramatic, doesn't necessarily mean a fairy tale ending follows immediately after. Nor does forcing a country to change, as seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, mean that a country's problems are magically solved. The West needs to give China time to grow, adapt and change on it's own if we really want to see China invoke lasting changes.

Likewise, while the West gives China the time it needs to change on its own, China needs to realize that international criticisms of China are not necessarily personal attacks on China's pride as a country. Being able to distinguish between attacks on China's pride and constructive criticism, would go a long way in helping the Chinese government to realize the reforms that it needs to invoke to ultimately reach a point of equality with the West. China cannot grow as a country until it realizes that all crictisms of it as a country are not direct, personal attacks on the leadership.

Of course, this is all my own conjecture on this hot news item. I'm in no way an expert on public policy, political science or international relations. Feel free to disagree with me and feel even freer to challenge my ideas in the comments or by e-mailing me. 

And if you actually read the entirety of this post, thanks for taking the time out to read this.