DNV ‘back to normal’ in China [Views and News from Norway]

If this report is true, then there is some evidence that the Beijing Consensus is not loathe to holding grudges. After all, ‘face’ has been paramount to the Chinese as far back as I can remember. Re – Nobel Peace Prize for Liu Xiaobo – A markedly different stance from the pre-Beijing Olympics days. It is also quite interesting that the Det Norske Veritas (DNV) website’s about us page has got three images – Two look distinctly Chinese-like and one’s probably Norweigian. Whether it reflects any intention in terms of representation, is up for interpretation.

(thanks to Hensley for the heads-up)

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DNV ‘back to normal’ in China 
Source –  Views and News from Norway, published April 28, 2011

Large Norwegian risk management firm Det Norske Veritas (DNV) seems to have settled its own risk of doing business in China. After months of disruption following license revocations, DNV has won permission to resume operations once again.

Chinese authorities had suddenly revoked DNV licenses tied to its certification work, in a move that itself was believed tied to China’s official anger over the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to one of its leading dissidents, Liu Xiaobo. The Chinese never gave any reason for their action against DNV, which prevented hundreds of DNV employees from carrying out their work, but DNV officials believed they were made to suffer for the Nobel Committee’s decision that angered and embarrassed Chinese officials.

Now newspaper Aftenposten reports that the license suspension has been lifted following months of “dialogue” between DNV and Chinese officials. “We are back to normal operations in China,” information director Aage Enghaug of DNV told Aftenposten.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Culture, Economics, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Nobel Peace Prize, Norway, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade

Peace prize furore stirs China reformists [The Age]

Peace prize furore stirs China reformists
John Garnaut, Beijing
Source – The Age, published December 10, 2010

TONIGHT in Oslo an empty chair will show how China has inadvertently achieved its Nobel peace prize dream by sentencing the 2010 recipient, political reformer Liu Xiaobo, to 11 years in jail.

For Dr Liu’s supporters, the security crackdown and propaganda blitz before the award ceremony have exposed the Communist Party’s crisis of legitimacy.

“The regime looks so powerful but also so weak,” said Pu Zhiqiang, a leading Beijing civil rights lawyer who was in Tiananmen Square with Dr Liu on June 4, 1989. “It depends on force to maintain itself but force itself is in fact powerless.”

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Communications, Confucius, Education, Human Rights, Influence, International Relations, Media, Nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, The Age, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

China to hand out its own peace prize [CNN]

And China hits back – although exact details are not clear at the moment. Perhaps it is not surprising that a mutually responsive force results, especially since China now has the clout to do so, and backing of its people to think so. I am not sure if this marks a  beginning of a positive new international dynamic, but it sure marks a new height of Chinese nationalism.

“We often stress the need to fight for the right to speak… China’s civil society should consider setting up a ‘Confucius Peace Prize’… to declare China’s view on peace and human rights to the world.” Liu Zhiqin

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China to hand out its own peace prize
By Steven Jiang, CNN
Source – CNN, published December 8, 2010

Protesters in Hong Kong on December 5 demanding the release of Liu Xiaobo from a Chinese jail. Photo – CNN

Beijing (CNN) — China is all set to give out its own first-ever peace prize Thursday, a move apparently to counter the Norwegian Nobel committee’s choice of imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo as this year’s laureate.

Organizers told CNN they will present the Confucius Peace Prize — which comes with an award of $15,000 — in Beijing to promote the ancient sage’s philosophy, a day before the Nobel committee honors Liu in Oslo.

His committee has released a vaguely worded statement on its criteria for choosing the winner, but announced this year’s nominees included Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates and the Panchen Lama, a Tibetan Buddhist leader loyal to Beijing.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Human Rights, Influence, International Relations, Nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, Politics, Public Diplomacy

China condemns Nobel prize as Western ‘plot’ [The Age]

China condemns Nobel prize as Western ‘plot’
Michael Wines, Beijing
Source – The Age, published November 7, 2010

Protesters campaign for Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Photo: AFP

ACCELERATING its assault on the award of the Nobel peace prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, China has denounced the prize as a political tool of the West, and an official warned that countries acknowledging the honour would ”bear the consequences”.

A commentary in the principal party newspaper People’s Daily suggested Dr Liu’s award was a plot by the United States and other Western democracies that ”fear the rise of China” and seek to subvert its political system.

Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai called the prize a ”highly politicised event” and told foreign countries they had a stark choice between challenging China’s judicial system and developing friendly relations with Beijing.

Filed under: Australia, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Culture, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, People, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, The Age

China warns states not to support Nobel dissident [BBC]

“The choice before some European countries and others is clear and simple: do they want to be part of the political game to challenge China’s judicial system or do they want to develop a true friendly relationship with the Chinese government and people?” Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai

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China warns states not to support Nobel dissident
Source – BBC, published Nov 5, 2010

Liu Xiaobo: Jailed for 11 years in December 2009. Photo – AP

China has warned that there will be “consequences” if governments show support for jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo at the award ceremony.

Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said the prize was highly politicised and “a challenge to China’s judicial system”.

Diplomats in Oslo said China’s embassy had sent letters implicitly warning them not to attend the prize-giving.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Human Rights, Influence, International Relations, Media, Nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy

‘China heroes don’t get Nobel’ [Straits Times/AFP]

‘ If you are Chinese, all you need to do is to do something strange against China and then you are very likely to be nominated…’ Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Fu Ying. I am inclined to agree that most Chinese in-the-know now feel this way. The semantic weapons continue to be thrown back and forth, and the net result I think will not be favourable for anyone. If anything, this is a potent nationalistic dividing line – do any of us truly want that? More division? She adds “that ‘the Chinese character for peace is composed of two parts, one is rice and the other side is a mouth… Throughout history we believe that if every mouth is fed, there’s peace on earth.”

Do we have room to accommodate another worldview before it becomes an unavoidable decision?

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‘China heroes don’t get Nobel’
AFP
Source – Straits Times, published October 18, 2010

MARRAKECH (Morocco) – CHINESE Vice-Foreign Minister Fu Ying called Nobel Peace Prize laureat Liu Xiaobo a ‘strange’ person and asked on Sunday why ‘heroes’ who helped resolve Chinese problems were not nominated.

‘The Nobel Peace Prize committee was always naming strange people from China,’ Ms Fu told the World Policy Conference in Marrakech, in what might also be a reference to the Dalai Lama, who won in 1989.

‘If you are Chinese, all you need to do is to do something strange against China and then you are very likely to be nominated,’ she added before asking why someone ‘who said China should be divided into seven parts’ won the award.

Filed under: AFP, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Influence, International Relations, Media, Nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, Peacekeeping, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, Strategy