Acting against the will of Alfred Nobel
On October 8th, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, a law offender who was convicted by China's judiciary of agitation aimed at subverting the government. Just as the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson puts it, the Nobel Committee's decision was blasphemy to and a violation of the principles of the Peace Prize. Norwegian jurist and writer Fredrik S. Heffermehl calls it a wrong decision and a distortion of Nobel's wishes by politicians. Rebelión, a Spanish newspaper, asks in a commentary: what has peace got to do with opposition groups, which are ever present in all nations? The decision, a brazen challenge to China's judicial authority which deeply hurts Chinese people's feelings, raises serious doubts to the motivation, sincerity and credibility of the Nobel Peace Prize – is the current peace prize still the peace prize of what we remember or imagine? What intentions and purposes lurk behind the frequent "surprise" prize winners?
A Peace Prize shrouded in constant skepticism
On December 10, 1896, the 63-year-old Alfred Nobel died of a stroke at Sanremo, Italy, after spending much of his life in disease-afflicted pain. The year before, on November 27, the Swedish chemist and inventor, who won 355 patents, had written his third – and last – will, in which he dictated that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. On December 10, 1901, the fifth anniversary of Nobel's death, the prizes were first awarded.
According to Nobel's wishes, the Peace Prize should be awarded to those who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the peace prize each year. It is consisted of five members, whose term is six years. All five members are elected by the Norwegian parliament. Since the peace prize was first handed out, 98 persons and 20 organizations have been awarded.
When Nobel first set up the peace prize, he knowingly moved the award to Oslo, Norway – which was part of Sweden at that time, but far from the political center – to reduce the influence of Swedish political parties in light of the controversy the peace prize might arouse. Over the past century, the prize winners have gained considerable respect from the international community, including the general public in China. However, Nobel would never have imagined that his ingenious plan still could not prevent the peace-promoting prize from degenerating into a political tool. In the wake of the changing international climate during the Cold War, the peace prize gradually took on an ideologically-tainted cover, turning into an instrument of "peaceful evolution" in countries whose political systems didn't square with those of the West. From Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov to Lech Wałęsa to Mikhail Gorbachev, the change in the peace prize winners is just a reflection of East Europe's sea transformation, the disintegration of the former USSR, and the end of the Cold War with the West as victors. Mr Nobel's sincere wish to safeguard peace and ethnic unity has been distorted, and that's why people begin to doubt the meaning of the peace prize.
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