By Wasn’t the Olympics supposed to cause Beijing to open up and embrace democracy and how well did that work out?
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to an imprisoned Chinese dissident sparked praise from Western governments, brought condemnation from Beijing and is exposing the difficulties fitting a powerful, authoritarian China into the international order.
A day after Liu Xiaobo was named the winner, a touchy Chinese government built upon its initially angry response Saturday.
Authorities escorted Liu’s wife from Beijing to the northeastern city where he is imprisoned but did not let her see him to deliver news of the honor. That will have to wait until Sunday, a family member said.
Activist lawyers in Beijing inspired by the award to hold a get-together said police followed them and told them to stay home, preventing them from meeting.
While the government sank into official silence as did much of the state media, a tabloid newspaper affiliated with the ruling Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily caustically criticized the prize as part of a Western plot to sow divisiveness in a rising China.
“Good Chinese have reason to suspect that the Nobel Peace Prize has been reduced to a political tool of Western interests,” said the popular Global Times. “What they’re doing now is using the Peace Prize to tear a hole in Chinese society.” [Associated Press]
This Nobel Peace Prize will probably work out just as well as the Olympic torch protests against the Chinese treatment of Tibetans worked out, which led to no improvement in the lives for Tibetans and a surge in Chinese nationalism against the West. However, the people at the protests felt better about themselves, which is probably what this latest Nobel Peace Prize is all about.
2:52 pm on October 11th, 2010 1
That is one hideous woman. She belongs in prison.
3:15 pm on October 11th, 2010 2
It's a man, Leon.
You know, for someone who used the Olympics for propaganda purposes on a scale only second to the 1936 Games, the Chinese government sure are not one to criticize.
I've been to the Olympics park in Beijing. It was a depressing experience. The buildings looked like caged animals in a zoo. They were surrounded by gates and their entrance were protected by guards who gave admission to only those who had bought tickets, which were about 8$ per building. It's as if the whole thing was meant to symbolize the CCP's grasp on China's economic development and control of whom will benefit from it. If you don't have anything to offer them, you can expect to be left at the gate.
3:22 pm on October 11th, 2010 3
It's a man, baby!
Barnaby Jones? Where have I heard that name before? Xander? Old Spice?
4:15 pm on October 11th, 2010 4
Leon,
Liu Xiabo was one of the chief negotiators for the pro-democracy protesters at Tienanmen Square in 1989. Had it not been for his successfully negotiating their safe passage off the square, far more would have been killed. It's no surprise he dedicated the Nobel Prize to the victims of Tienanmen.
5:07 pm on October 11th, 2010 5
None of this should be a big surprise to anyone. The western world has been taking a 'these are not the droids you're looking for' approach with the Chinese for decades and are now pretty much powerless to do anything about it, since they're all addicted to cheap Chinese labor and manufacturing. The Chinese were shown no penalties for doing whatever they wanted to for years, which included industrial espionage and complete disregard for intellectual property rights and patents. Everyone involved – governments, big business, investors – they all got what they wanted on the cheap, and they took their money and ran while it lasted. Now the Chinese have the economic and military might to make it ugly and it's even harder for some other nation or nations to be the counter-balance. This whole saga has got a long way to go before it reaches a turning point…
6:35 pm on October 11th, 2010 6
You know you're post reminded me — especially after trying to catch up a little bit on whats been going on north of the dmz — is the tragedy that is Tibet. I find it outrageous when during the run up to the Olympics, just thinking of the justifications on the part of the treatment of Tibet (e.g. modernizing a feudal society into the 21st century or as america did this before we can too?)… As for the latter, well, it's pretty, um, self-evident, but for the former… it's a direct contradiction to their policy of non-interference in a way, no?
8:46 pm on October 11th, 2010 7
#5,
I'll agree with you about getting products on the cheap, except that I'm not convinced the products are any cheaper for the consumers than if they were made at home…certainly not when you consider how the middle-class is shrinking thanks the loss of jobs in manufacturing.
As for industrial espionage…You're naive if you think everybody else isn't doing it too.
10:19 am on October 12th, 2010 8
Companies and governments put up with China's BS for years because they all thought it would lead to an open market for 4 bn+ consumers. They were proven wrong recently as China's more or less locked down on any foreign competition with their own domestic companies.
Unfortunately you will always have a high demand for cheap labor, my suggestion is for the USA to move as many of those factories to Mexico as possible. They won't be coming back to the USA guys, the work here is just too damn expensive, especially once your consider unions entering the frey.
11:04 am on October 12th, 2010 9
Too late bung holes. China up to this third quarter alone, has $650 Billion in trade surplus. By end of this year, China's foreign reserves will be officially over $3 trillion. Nobody's going to mess with China. You guys (as in America) are the ones who created them, so you guys should face them like a brave little man, and accept them as they are. China is an integral part of the American economy, they go bad, you go bad. If you're going to start an economic war with China, you will probably not win because they have way more money than you. So they can wait you guys out. It's just time to face the music, America is done.
2:39 pm on October 12th, 2010 10
#9,
Using your logic, South Korea was done for good in 1997/1998 when it had no foreign currency reserves.
9:39 pm on October 12th, 2010 11
#10, with one big exception. The US can't export their way out of the crisis like Korea did. And the US isn't willing to reform their system, they want to keep their corrupted system going as long as possible, unlike Korea who faced the problem and tried to revamp and succeeded to a degree. Third, the scale of financial corruption is not even comparable to Korea.
Actually nobody even comes close to the US mess. 
3:34 pm on October 13th, 2010 12
"The US can’t export their way out of the crisis like Korea did."
Don't you know that the US economy is not dependent on exports like South Korea's?
So, the US dollar has been losing value recently…Did you bother to look at its median value over the last 3 years? It hasn't changed one bit. Yes, you're a fool for believing the propaganda. The US economy is actually getting better.
9:49 am on October 14th, 2010 13
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