Ellen Bork’s roundup of Nobel Peace Prize reactions yesterday deserves a postscript. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela sucked up to his ideological comrades in Beijing (not to mention very large customers of Venezuelan oil) in memorable fashion:
“Our greetings and solidarity go to the government of the People’s Republic of China,” Chavez said, adding: “Viva China! And its sovereignty, its independence and its greatness.”
Meanwhile, as noted by UN Watch, U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon also went out of his way to flatter the Chinese government. His October 8 statement read in part:
One way in which China could “join the international mainstream” went unmentioned by the U.N. chief: Beijing could free its Nobel laureate from prison. “The UN’s two leading voices on human rights issues [Ban Ki-moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay] need to be clear and immediately call on China to release Mr. Liu,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.
