- TOKYO: The Dalai Lama criticized China on Monday for its response to the Nobel Peace Prize award to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported Kyodo quoted the Tibetan spiritual leader, who was transiting through Tokyo’s airport on his way to the United States, as saying China’s government “must change” and “does not appreciate different opinions.” The Dalai Lama himself won the Peace Prize in 1989.
Kyodo said the Dalai Lama said must recognize that fostering an open society is “the only way to save all people of China.” Chinese authorities called Liu a criminal shortly after his award Friday and said his winning “desecrates the prize.” The state-run Global Times newspaper said in an editorial that the award was “an arrogant showcase of Western ideology” and disrespected the Chinese people.
Liu was sentenced last December to 11 years in prison for subversion. He has called for sweeping political change in China. The Norwegian-based Nobel committee said it chose Liu for his more than two decades of advocacy of human rights and peaceful democratic change.
