CHINA:WITH JUST weeks to go until the Nobel committee in Oslo announces the winner of the world's top humanitarian award, China has warned that any attempt to give the peace prize to jailed dissident Hu Jia would earn Beijing's lasting displeasure and hurt the Chinese people's feelings.
Hu and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, who is under house arrest in Beijing with their infant daughter, have made the early list of favourites for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
The country's most renowned human rights defender, who has spoken out on Aids, Tibetan autonomy and free speech, was jailed in April for 3½ years for "inciting to subvert state power" by writing articles about freedom and talking to foreign journalists.
The possibility of the award going to a Chinese activist has been on the cards since 2001 when Geir Lundestad, the influential secretary of the Nobel Prize committee, said that "sooner or later the Chinese question must be tackled".
The timing of the speculation is significant as it comes shortly after the Olympic Games in Beijing. Many international activists say the Olympics did nothing to improve human rights in China and that Beijing fell short on many of its promises to improve freedoms for the Games.
A total of 197 people and organisations are up for the Nobel Peace Prize, the names of which are a tightly guarded secret.
The winner of the 2008 peace prize, which is worth €1 million, will be announced in the Norwegian capital on October 10th. It has a particular importance this year as it is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, China insists that the prize should go to the "right person".
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said that awarding the peace prize to someone like Hu Jia would not be welcomed by Beijing. "I don't know where this news comes from, but we think that the Nobel Peace Prize, if it is awarded to somebody who really protects world peace, should be given to the right person," he said.
"So we hope that related parties make the correct choice on this issue and do not do anything that hurts the feelings of the Chinese people."
Two prominent Norwegians have already backed the idea of the award going to a Chinese dissident, with one specifying Hu for the prize. Stein Toennesson, the head of Oslo's International Peace Research Institute, said his top choice would be Hu as "he has become the most well-known Chinese dissident".
He said China should be able to deal with someone like Hu Jia winning the prize without getting upset and breaking off relations with Norway.
Mr Toennesson's views are seen as close to the inside track. He has also said that Zimbabwe's former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is a possibility, as is Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician and anti-corruption activist freed in July after being held hostage by Marxist Farc rebels.
Last year, he correctly guessed that the prize would be shared by former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN climate panel.
Janne Haaland Matlary, professor of international politics at Oslo University, agreed that the time was ripe to award a Chinese citizen who had fought for human rights. "During the Games, we saw that there was quite a lot of repression, this very immature kind of handling of human rights and of democracy, trying to censor journalists. Obviously this is a golden opportunity to underline that this is not acceptable." However, she added, a Russian rights activist could be chosen instead.