The awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo has again revealed the double standard of the West.

It is unbelievable that US President Barack Obama got the prize in 2009 after being in office for less than a year and without doing anything for peace but Mahatma Gandhi was not given one. There is no doubt that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is hypocritical and politically biased.

If the committee wants China to expedite reform by giving the prize to Liu, it should have looked at what China has already achieved on the political, social and economic fronts.

The committee should know that it cannot impose the "democratic blueprint" of the West on China. Every country has the right to choose its development path, and China has chosen Socialism with Chinese characteristics for itself.

If a person joins hands with his/her country's enemies to advocate "independence" of any part of that country through unconstitutional means, he/she will be guilty of treason. Liu has done exactly that.

Yet the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the peace prize to him. This is direct intervention in China's internal affairs and a disgrace to the memory of Alfred Nobel, the founder of the prize.

James Chatwin, via e-mail

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