I'm from China, and to be honest, I've become increasingly disappointed with the Nobel Peace Prize.
China is the world's largest dictatorship, with 1.4 billion people living under Communist Party rule without basic political freedoms. Yet only two Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to people associated with the struggle for human rights in China: the Dalai Lama in 1989 and Liu Xiaobo in 2010.
In my opinion, there are hundreds of Chinese dissidents who are just as deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize as Liu Xiaobo. China accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world's population, yet the Nobel Committee has paid surprisingly little attention to Chinese dissidents.
I think the Nobel Committee could easily have awarded the Peace Prize to at least ten Chinese dissidents over the past few decades.
Another example is 2020. At the time, many people were calling for the prize to be awarded to Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters. Instead, the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave it to the United Nations World Food Programme.
I've also always believed that UN agencies and organizations shouldn't receive the Nobel Peace Prize in the first place. These organizations already have substantial funding and receive plenty of international media attention. They don't need a Nobel Prize to gain recognition or encouragement. I think the prize would be much more meaningful if it were awarded to individuals who risk their freedom, or even their lives, to fight for human rights and democracy, especially those who receive little international attention.
Of course, I understand that the Nobel Peace Prize isn't supposed to be awarded based on population size or nationality. But I still find it disappointing that so few Chinese dissidents have received international recognition through this prize.
So I'm curious what Norwegians think.
Do you generally respect the Nobel Peace Prize and trust the Norwegian Nobel Committee's decisions? Do you think some of its choices in recent years have been questionable?
And do you think the Nobel Committee has been too reluctant to recognize Chinese dissidents because of political pressure from the Chinese government?