Norway’s government tried to dissuade committee from awarding Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo Nobel Peace Prize, official alleges

Norway’s government tried to dissuade the Nobel Peace Prize committee from awarding the prize to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010, according to a book written by the panel’s former secretary.

Historian Geir Lundestad recounts in his memoir Secretary of Peace some of the backstage goings-on inside the Norwegian Nobel Committee during his time as its influential, but non-voting, secretary from 1990 to 2015.

Lundestad said then foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store tried to dissuade the panel from awarding the prize to a Chinese dissident, fearing it would put a strain on Norway’s relations with Beijing.

“During my 25 years [on the committee], I don’t ever recall seeing anything like that,” Lundestad said.

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Beijing had warned relations with the oil-rich Scandinavian nation of five million people would suffer when Liu was declared winner of the peace prize for his calls for political change in China. Talks on a trade pact stalled in the ensuing years and veterinary controls on importing Norwegian salmon were also stepped up.