Beijing: Nobel push is meddling, must stop

Beijing has called for a halt to interference in China’s domestic aff airs after 12 US lawmakers nominated three leaders of the illegal “Occupy Central” movement for the Nobel Peace Prize.Hong Kong aff airs belong to China’s domestic affairs, and Beijing “opposes inter-ference of any form by any individual”, the Foreign Minis-try Spokesperson’s Offi ce told China Daily in a written reply on Friday.A letter of nomination, signed by a dozen members of the US Congress — four Democrats and eight Repub-licans, including Senator Marco Rubio — was sent to the Nobel Peace Prize Com-mittee, Reuters reported on Thursday.On Thursday, the lawmak-ers announced that they had nominated Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of “Occupy Central” in 2014, and two of his allies for the Nobel Peace Prize.Wong has been known for illegal assembly over leading the storming of the Central Government Complex in Hong Kong, a prelude to the 79-day “Occupy” blockade and ensuing chaos on several busy streets and in other pub-lic spaces. China urges the Congress members involved to stop meddling in Hong Kong’s internal aff airs, cease interfer-ing in China’s domestic aff airs and do more to facilitate the development of China-US ties, not the opposite, the spokes-person’s offi ce said.It also said “Occupy Cen-tral” is an utterly illegal activ-ity, and the Hong Kong Spe-cial Administrative Region government, with resolute support of the central govern-ment, has tackled it in accor-dance with laws.The rule of law and social order in Hong Kong have thus been championed, and lead-ing participants of the illegal “Occupy Central”, including Wong, have been brought to justice in accordance with laws, it added.Tim Collard, a former Brit-ish diplomat who once worked in Beijing and is a Sinologist, said the award “should not be a stick for one country to beat the other over the head with. That is hardly going to be conducive to world peace.”The nomination makes “a travesty of the Nobel Peace Prize by honoring violent pro-test leaders”, Collard said.Ho Hon-kuen, chairman of Education Convergence — one of Hong Kong’s largest groups for educators — said the nomination would do no good but would harm the “Occupy” trio as well as young people in Hong Kong, since it would encourage more radi-cal action in the future.