An editorial article appears this morning in Xinhua, China’s official news agency. In it, the arguments made by the committee’s chairman to explain why the Chinese dissident was awarded the prize are deemed “fallacious” based on a “partial value system”.

Beijing (AsiaNews) – The Chinese government has again attacked the Norwegian Nobel Committee for the “fallacious arguments” based on a “partial value system” that led to its choice for Peace prize laureate this year, Xinhua wrote today. In the editorial article, China’s state news agency slams Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjørn Jagland for the explanations he gave for awarding the prize.

Exactly three weeks after Liu won the prize, Beijing is not letting up on its attacks against Norway’s choice. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in 2009, but his case “is a sheer law issue that concerns China's judicial sovereignty, and it is by no means an issue about human rights,” the news agency wrote.

Xinhua’s editorial is a response to an article Thorbjørn Jagland recently published on the New York Times titled "Why We Gave Liu Xiaobo a Nobel". In it, he wrote, “international human rights law and standards are above the nation-state, and the world community has a duty to ensure they are respected.”

For Beijing, the notion that "human rights [come] above sovereignty’, preached by some Western nations,” has “been opposed by a majority of countries in the international community.”

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