CTVNEWS

Ties with Norway strained since Nobel decision: China

The Associated Press Published Thursday, December 2, 2010 9:34PM EST

In this photo taken in 2005 in China, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo speaks during an interview with Japan's Kyodo News. Imprisoned Liu won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights", a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him. (AP / Kyodo News)

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BEIJING - China said Thursday its ties with Norway continue to be strained, following the decision by the Oslo-based Nobel Committee to award this year's peace prize to a jailed Chinese dissident.

The Chinese government's anger has been on public display since October, when the Nobel Committee selected activist Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion for co-authoring Charter 08, an appeal for democratic reforms in one-party China. The committee operates independently but a furious China holds Norway responsible.

Beijing has launched a propaganda campaign in the state-controlled media to demonize Liu as a criminal and portray the Nobel award as a political tool used by the West to undermine China.

"The Norwegian government expressed their open support (for the prize.) It is difficult to maintain friendly relations with Norway as in the past," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu at a regularly scheduled news conference Thursday.

Beijing has also sought to persuade or pressure foreign governments to boycott the Dec. 10 award ceremony in Oslo. A handful of countries, including Russia and Cuba, have declined to attend.

Neither Liu nor his wife, who was placed under house arrest shortly after the award was announced, are expected to attend.

Nobel officials have said the ceremony will proceed but most likely without a presentation of the award because none of Liu's close relatives have been allowed to leave China to collect it.

If the award is not presented, it would mark the first time that has happened since the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler prevented German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from accepting the prize.