Ever since the October announcement that the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize would go to Liu Xiaobo, Chinese officials, the state-controlled media, and "patriotic" bloggers have condemned the Norwegian Nobel Committee for honoring a "criminal" and "traitor." The pro-democracy activist was sentenced in December 2009 to 11 years in prison for subversion after co-authoring the "Charter 08" manifesto calling for non-violent political reform and broader human rights in China. At today's award ceremony in Oslo, Liu will be represented by an empty chair, while actress Liv Ullmann does a reading from his writings. Today's editorial in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times continues the assault on Western values that are seen as a threat to the Beijing regime.A farce that puts China on trial is underway in Oslo. This is not the first time that the Norwegian Nobel Committee has judged a country's politics by its own ideological standards. Even more...(Read Full Post)