From the Readers

Drama over Nobel Peace Prize

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-18 08:04

The decision to award the Nobel Prize for peace to Liu Xiaobo reflects the hypocrisy of the Nobel Committee and seriously undermines the value and work of previous recipients.

The original principle of the Nobel Peace Prize was to recognize the work of a person(s) or organization(s) that had made "the greatest contribution to mankind in the field of peace".

Liu's actions and his proposals for China's future have the potential to cause chaos in China and create mass unemployment. On this front, I guess, he has something in common with the founder of the prize.

Liu has misused his privilege of having received State-funded higher education. He can read Western literature and develop theories that would not work in today's China.

China's economic and social growth has been faster than any other country. It has created more jobs and improved the quality of life of more people than any other country.

And China will ensure that its citizens enjoy more freedom and get more opportunities, but the changes will come at a sustainable pace, not at the whims of a delusional academic.

It's time the West stopped trying to embarrass Chinese policymakers. All the West has succeeded in doing by its crass decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu is to undervalue the prize and show that the members of the decision-making Nobel Committee are puppets of Western politicians.

Brian Thornton, via e-mail

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(China Daily 10/18/2010 page9)