Nobel prize tantamount to 'encouraging crime'

China yesterday denounced the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to dissident Liu Xiaobo as tantamount to "encouraging crime," as state media said the award was part of a Western "ideological war" against Beijing.
"Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Awarding the Nobel Prize to him is equivalent to encouraging crime," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters.
Liu, 54, was sentenced last December to 11 years in jail for subversion. He was awarded the peace prize last week by Oslo's Nobel Committee for his advocacy of political reform and human rights in one-party China.
China faced fresh criticism over its angry reaction to dissident Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Prize, with Norway calling it "inappropriate" and Japan urging Beijing to free the jailed peace laureate.
"Liu Xiaobo is a convicted criminal. Awarding the Nobel Prize to him is equivalent to encouraging crime," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told reporters.
The comments came after his wife, Liu Xia, complained bitterly on Wednesday over her "illegal house arrest", a move that had already drawn a rebuke from Washington and Brussels.
She has been largely confined to her Beijing home since Friday, when Oslo's Nobel Committee awarded this year's peace prize to her dissident husband for his advocacy of political reform and human rights in one-party China.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Thursday added his voice to those urging the release of the 54-year-old writer and former professor, risking Beijing's ire just as Japan and China seek to put a damaging diplomatic spat behind them.
"From the viewpoint that universal human rights should be protected across national borders, it is desirable" that Liu be released, Kan told his parliament.
"I think it is important that human rights and fundamental freedoms, which are universal values, should also be guaranteed in China."