Beijing: No to the Nobel Peace Prize for Hong Kong Democrats
The Chinese government criticizes interference in its internal affairs and charges Washington with promoting anti-Chinese elements in the former British colony. US politicians: the democratic movement is fighting peacefully for its rights. Democratic leader Martin Lee also proposed for recognition.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Chinese government is attacking US senators who want to nominate the Hong Kong democracy movement for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In yesterday's press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the recognition should be given "to people who have seriously contributed to maintaining and promoting world peace."
According to the nine US politicians - Republicans and Democrats - Hong Kong's Democratic Front should be rewarded for its courageous commitment to human rights and its fight against the erosion of its rights.
In the letter to the Nobel Committee promoting the Nobel, they stressed that several democratic activists "are already in prison or in exile, while others are awaiting trial for the sole reason of having peacefully expressed their thoughts".
As usual, Beijing dismissed the initiative of US lawmakers as interference in its internal affairs. For the Chinese, Washington uses the Nobel Prize as a tool to incite the "anti-China elements" to subvert the order in Hong Kong. In his speech, Wang went so far as to advise American senators to "see China in an objective and rational light" and to work to improve Sino-US relations.
Chinese authorities seem to have a real obsession with the Nobel Prize. The government run Global Times noted that for the fourth consecutive year Western politicians have nominated Hong Kong opposition leaders for the Award. In 2018 the young activist Joshua Wong was indicated; in 2019 it was the turn of the "people" of the city and in 2020 the democratic movement.
In recent days, two members of the Norwegian parliament also supported the candidacy of Martin Lee Chu-ming, Hong Kong’s "father of democracy" and one of the founders of the Democratic Party. Lee, 82, is a profound Catholic. He was a parliamentarian before and after Hong Kong's passage to China in 1997, and is also one of the staunchest defenders of freedom in the territory and in the motherland.
Chinese winners of the Prize include writer Liu Xiaobo, left to die in prison in Liaoning. It was only towards the end that he was hospitalized.
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