Nobel peace prize: US lawmakers nominate Hong Kong protesters (original) (raw)

US lawmakers including the Republican senator Marco Rubio have nominated Joshua Wong and Hong Kong’s umbrella protest movement for the 2018 Nobel peace prize in recognition of their non-violent quest for democracy.

Rubio, who heads the congressional-executive commission on China, said in a statement: “Wong and his fellow pro-democracy advocates have been unflinching in their peaceful and principled commitment to a free and prosperous Hong Kong. They are an inspiration and their cause has reverberations far beyond their city.”

Wong was one of the leaders of the 79-day street occupation that paralyzed swaths of the former British colony in late 2014 in a bid to wrestle democratic concessions from China’s authoritarian rulers. The movement took its name from the umbrellas protesters used to shield themselves from police teargas.

Wong has been handed jail sentences twice since last summer. He spent a spell behind bars in Hong Kong but is currently on bail pending appeal.

In their nomination letter to the Nobel peace prize committee, the bipartisan group said the protesters embodied “the peaceful aspirations of the people of Hong Kong who yearn to see their autonomies and way of life protected and their democratic aspirations fulfilled”.

The letter, signed by four Democrats and eight Republicans, including Rubio, said activists such as Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow had shown “civic courage, extraordinary leadership and an unwavering commitment to a free and prosperous Hong Kong”.

They had “made significant contributions to peace by actively seeking to safeguard the future of Hong Kong at precisely the time that Beijing has taken steps to undermine Hong Kong’s long-cherished autonomy”.

Beijing, which has sought to portray umbrella movement leaders as criminals and separatists, would react furiously to such an award. In 2010 China punished Norway with a six-year diplomatic freeze after what it called the “blasphemous” decision to honour Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident and intellectual.

Liu died last year, making him the first Nobel peace laureate to die in custody since its 1935 recipient, the German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who died under surveillance after years in Nazi concentration camps.

Noting China’s reaction to Liu’s award, the lawmakers praised the Nobel committee’s “past willingness to brave the displeasure and outright retribution of the Chinese Communist party”.