A reader writes, “Has anyone touched on the fact that the 2009 peace laureate is entertaining the jailer of the 2010 peace laureate?” Oh, yes. Hu Jintao is also the jailer of many, many others who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, not to mention simple freedom.
Here’s another fact for you: One of the reasons Obama won the 2009 award was his “cooperation with Beijing.” I am quoting the words of the Nobel chairman, in his presentation speech. The next year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which is definitely a cooperate-with-Beijing type of body — did not cooperate with Beijing. They did the very opposite.
And that is to the committee’s eternal credit — like the award for 1935 to Ossietzky (a political prisoner of the Nazis) and the award for 1975 to Sakharov (the Soviet Union’s hero physicist-dissident).