Thursday 16 December 2010

CHINA TONES DOWN

The Diplomat

CHINA FOREIGN POLICY SHIFT?

Will China tone down its more assertive foreign policy? Straws in the wind suggest that it might.

Rajeev Sharma

The Diplomat, December 16, 2010

The first indications came from Chinese-controlled state media on December 10—the day the Nobel Committee went ahead with its scheduled function to award this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm, but in Oslo. And, despite Chinese threats over the prize, Norway ignorered Chinese pressure and went ahead with the prestigious annual event. The presentation ceremoney was attended by representatives of 46 of the 65 countries that maintain diplomatic missions in Norway.

The same day, an article in the Communist Party of China-backed Global Times talked about the countries that succumbed to Beijing’s pressure and boycotted the ceremony. Russia, Iran and Pakistan were among the 19 absentees from the award presentation. However, the Global Times quoted Shi Yinhong, a researcher at the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, as saying: ‘It has done harm to the bilateral relations between China and Norway. But China's expressing of discontent with Norway on this specific issue does not represent the long-term direction that China will adopt toward Norway.’

(...) [artículo aquí]

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