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Comment by Razengan | Hacker News Reader

The depressing zeitgeist going on everywhere honestly makes me wonder if he would be able to freely make any remarks in support of Hong Kong vs. China without having this prize revoked.

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I don't see why not? The prizes are handed out by the Nobel foundation, which is independent of government, and as far as I know, financially self-sustaining, so there are no sponsors to upset, and no government that has oversight.

-That they are, but by foreign powers (China is not the only one!), its independence is often cast in doubt. Doubly so as the Norwegian parliament elect members to the Nobel committee, and they tend to choose has-been politicians to put them out to pasture.

The result being that while the committee is nominally independent, its ties to government are strong enough for China, for instance, to put relations with Norway in the freezer for several years after Liu Xiaobo was awarded the prize in 2010.

I'd think that proves the opposite: Even though it hurt the Norwegian government's relationship with China, the committee still went ahead with their decision.

I agree, but the Chinese saw it differently, to put it mildly.

The committee awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident was led by a former prime minister, its members two former members of government and two former members of parliament.

If you are a country in which the powers that be control just about anything, I guess you could be forgiven for being doubtful as to the committee's independence...

Curious why do you wonder that. Is there something in the structure or composition of the Nobel Committee that ties them to China ? (I could not see anything obvious from the current composition [1].)

[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Nobel_Committee

It's the current pet topic of some posters. Which means every thread must devolve into a discussion of China.

Last week it was RMS.

Just flag it.

Fair enough. I had a hunch I was just taking a bait.

I think his work has been impactful in his immediate neighbourhood. Hong Kong/China is too far away for his opinion to make a difference. Plus, why limit his opinion to only China/Hong Kong. Should his opinion about the USA and Cuba also matter? What about Russia, Turkey, EU and the USA in Syria? Should his opinion on Trump and the Republican's attitude towards migrants in America also matter? I think the only thing that should matter is based on the resources and opportunities under him what has he done with them.

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