China cancels meetings and a musical after Nobel award (Roundup)

Oct 12, 2010, 14:51 GMT

Oslo/Beijing - China's ire over last week's decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo on Tuesday saw the cancellation of planned performances of a musical starring the Norwegian winner of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

'We have been told that as punishment for awarding the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, we will not be allowed to go ahead with the tour,' Norwegian composer Thomas Stanghelle told the Dagbladet daily.

In addition to Eurovision winner Alexander Rybak, other Norwegians were among the 200-strong troupe in the opera musical, Some Sunny Night, that was to have been performed early November in Beijing and Wuhan. The Chinese culture ministry has now halted the plans.

Chinese officials have earlier cancelled two planned meetings with Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen over the peace prize award.

Berg-Hansen had been due to discuss food security and food quality with officials in Beijing on Wednesday but was informed that 'they were too busy to meet her,' Norwegian newspaper Nordlys reported from China.

'It is unfortunate that also this meeting did not go ahead,' Berg- Hansen told the paper.

The minister said she would not fly to Beijing as planned but remain in Shanghai where she was to attend events centred on seafood and fisheries exports at the Norwegian pavilion at the ongoing World Expo.

Shortly after Berg-Hansen's arrival Monday, she was told that her first planned meeting with governmental officials - with fisheries authorities in Beijing - had been cancelled, public broadcaster NRK reported citing members of her delegation.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store said he regretted the moves by Beijing, pointing out that the Nobel award is handled by an independent committee not linked to the government in Oslo.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the peace prize to Liu for his 'long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China'.

The Chinese government reacted with anger, saying Liu is 'a criminal' and that the award violates the principles of the prize.

Liu authored Charter 08, a political manifesto similar to the Charter 77 of one-time Czech dissidents. He was arrested at his Beijing home ahead of the charter's planned release.

Liu is currently serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion of state power in China.

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