China’s campaign to boycott this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was shown to have had some success after 18 countries joined Beijing in declining invitations to Friday’s award ceremony for Liu Xiaobo, a jailed democracy activist.
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Colombia and Pakistan are among 19 countries, including China, that have declined invitations to the prize-giving.
The Norwegian Nobel committee has accused Beijing of applying “unprecedented” pressure on countries to boycott the Oslo ceremony, amid Chinese anger over the award to the jailed dissident. The other absentees are expected to be Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco, according to the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which is organising the ceremony.