By Shi Tian
Guri Melby, a Norwegian member of parliament, tweeted Tuesday that she nominated the people of Hong Kong, “who risk their lives and security every day to stand up for freedom of speech and basic democracy,” to the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020, and hopes her move “will be further encouragement to the movement.” She also urged the people of Hong Kong to continue the fight in a “nonviolent” way.
But the “people of Hong Kong” refers to whom: The majority of Hongkongers who oppose violence or a small group of rioters? Melby and many others in the West never make this clear.
Confusing these two groups is, in fact, advocating violence. And encouraging a “nonviolent” way is actually an attempt to cover up their motives. With their encouragement and instigation, the rioters in Hong Kong will only become increasingly rampant.
Melby and her supporters may need to know something first: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to those who 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.”
Do violent Hong Kong protesters match any of these conditions? Although there is still a long way to go before next year’s award, the nomination is seen as absurd.
Four months ago, Hong Kong was a stable city with a booming market economy and a good connection with the Chinese mainland. Citizens could walk along the streets with ease. However, what is the city like now? Didn’t the violent protesters throw the city into chaos and place ordinary citizens on tenterhooks?
Just two days prior to Melby’s nomination, a Hong Kong police officer was stabbed in the neck by a 19-year-old middle school student at a street protest and was rushed to the ICU. Is this what Melby referred to as “nonviolent?” Is this what a potential Nobel Peace Prize winner should do? I call it the opposite of peace.
A group, which has turned a stable and peaceful region upside down, was nominated to a peace prize and gained widely support from the Western community. It is completely absurd. If this is how a “peace” prize works, many anti-government forces and violent demonstrators in the Western world should also be regarded as honored guests at the award ceremony. But why do they receive warrants of arrest instead of invitation letters in the West?
In the past 19 weeks of unrest, Hong Kong has increasingly become an arena of political games where certain anti-China forces and some Hong Kong protesters take advantage of each other. Some Western politicians have long seen China with hostility, and Hong Kong has just given them an opportunity to make a big fuss.
This is an old trick of the West. In 2018, a bipartisan US group of lawmakers nominated Hong Kong secessionists, including Joshua Wong and the “pro-democracy Umbrella Movement,” for the Nobel Peace Prize.
It is sincerely hoped that some Westerners stop using their double standards on China, and stop further staining the Nobel Peace Prize, which should have been entirely independent of politics.
[Cover Image: IC]
