Editorial: Reflections on the Nobel Peace Price

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3059 Edition

October 11~17, 2010

Editorial

Editorial: Beyond the Nobel Peace Price

Translated by Lydia Ma

As the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights in 

2008, somewhere in China, a group of human rights activists led by 
Liu Xiaobo unveiled 

China's own version of a human rights declaration which has now 
become known to the world 

as Charter 08. 



Charter 08 makes a point in criticizing the "New" China founded in 
1949 which bears the 

words "People's Republic" in theory, but actually operates as a de 
facto autocratic, one-party 

system. It goes on to call for sweeping changes to China's political 
system, including a 

democratic legislature and an independent judiciary, to protect basic 
human rights and dignity.



Soon after Chinese authorities got wind of Charter 08, Liu, now a 
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 

was arrested on the charges of "suspicion of inciting subversion to 
state power," and later 

sentenced to 11 years in prison. Many human rights groups have since 
appealed to Beijing for 

his release.



Unfortunately, as the world reached out to Liu Xiaobo, the Ma 
administration in Taiwan was 

dead silent. A quick glance at the clauses contained in Charter 08 
reveals it's an extremely 

ordinary document - at least from a mature democracy’s point of view. 
Its ordinariness is 

precisely the reason we cannot fathom the Ma administration having a 
hard time speaking out 

on Liu's behalf. We shudder to think that all those China-leaning 
policies served more than 

purely economic goals after all - lest it be true that our 
government's attempts to be in step with 

Beijing ultimately narrows down to being one in autocracy. 



To those people out there who still think they can change or 
liberalize China's political system 

through liberalizing its economy, we suggest they think again. China 
seems to have taken a 

page from Myanmar by arresting and imprisoning its own Nobel Peace 
Prize laureate. Not only 

has Beijing declared Liu Xiaobo a criminal, but it has also accused 
those who awarded him 

such a prestigious prize as accomplices. It criticized the selection 
committee of cheapening 

the Nobel Peace Prize by awarding it to Liu and even protested its 
decision to Norway's 

foreign ambassador to China.



Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize because of his vision that love and 
non-violence could trump 

everything. Just before he was imprisoned last year, he remarked, 
"Hate will only cloud a 

person's judgment and goodness. The enemy wants a nation to go to war 
with itself and 

destroy all traces of compassion and humanity and obstruct that 
nation’s path to democracy. I 

want to overcome these and I want to respond to a government's enmity 
with goodness and 

love."



It takes a lot of courage to choose love and non-violent reform, but 
the results are beautiful and 

well worth all efforts. Jesus himself taught us to love our enemies 
and pray for those who 

persecute us. So, let’s try our best even though doing so may sound 
utterly incomprehensible.



Starting today, let’s start offering prayers of blessing for our 
government leaders and pray they 

will clothe themselves with justice, compassion, and kindness, and 
have contrite and 

introspective hearts.



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