China asks Japan not to attend Nobel Peace Prize ceremony: Maehara

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TOKYO, Nov. 9 Kyodo -
Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday that China has asked Japan
not to send a representative to a ceremony to be held in Oslo next month to
honor imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with the Nobel Peace Prize.
''It is true that we received a request (from China) through diplomatic
channels in Tokyo and Norway to refrain from having our representative attend
the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony,'' Maehara said at a House of Representatives
budget committee session.
The minister said he will ''make an appropriate decision'' on whether the
Japanese ambassador to Norway will attend the ceremony.
China has reportedly been demanding that European countries not attend the Dec.
10 ceremony for Liu, winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. The United States
said it has not received any such request from China and that it is likely to
send its ambassador to Norway to the ceremony.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, speaking at the same Diet session, expressed hope the
decision on sending a representative will be made bearing in mind that the
prize highlights universal values.
Kan, who earlier cited universal values as human rights and freedom, also
reiterated his position that the release of Liu would be ''desirable.''
China has called Liu ''a criminal'' and accused the Norwegian Nobel Committee
of desecrating the prestigious prize by honoring him.
The first Chinese to win the prestigious prize, Liu is a key author of Charter
08, a democratic manifesto that called for sweeping political change in China,
and is currently serving an 11-year prison term for subversion.
He has been detained repeatedly by Chinese authorities over his two decades of
activism, including involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests.
==Kyodo
2010-11-09 23:57:20