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Beijing Calls Nobel Insult To People Of China

BEIJING — The Chinese government continued its vilification campaign against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed dissident, Liu Xiaobo, by canceling another meeting with Norwegian officials and denouncing the award as an affront to the Chinese people and a ploy to try to change the country’s political system.

“Some politicians from other countries are trying to use this opportunity to attack China,” Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters during a regularly scheduled news conference on Tuesday. He added that the prize, announced Friday, “shows disrespect for China’s judicial system” because the recipient is a convicted criminal.

Mr. Liu, 54, a veteran pro-democracy advocate, is serving an 11-year sentence for his essays and a manifesto he helped draft, Charter 08, that demands political reform, human rights guarantees and an independent judicial system.

Although initially signed electronically by thousands of intellectuals, students and former Communist Party officials, Charter 08 has since been blocked on the Internet and is largely unknown to most Chinese.

While criticizing the Norwegian committee that made the award, the Foreign Ministry spokesman provided no insight into whether the laureate’s wife, Liu Xia, would be allowed to collect the prize for him in Oslo.

Ms. Liu, a photographer who generally steers clear of politics, is under a form of house arrest at the couple’s apartment in Beijing.

She spoke briefly to The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying she hoped she could pick up the award for her husband, but indicated that could be difficult given the constraints on her.

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Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu during a news conference on Tuesday.Credit...Alexander F. Yuan/Associated Press

“I am not allowed to meet the press or friends,” Ms. Liu told The A.P., which said she was using a cellphone given to her by a brother, after the police shut off her old one.

“If I have to do any daily chores, like visiting my mother or buying groceries, I have to go in their car,” Ms. Liu said, referring to a police car.

Ms. Liu’s new cellphone was briefly working on Tuesday but by early evening it, too, had been disconnected.

“Her rights should be respected, and she should be allowed to move freely without harassment,” Richard Buangan, a United States Embassy spokesman, said in an e-mail. “We urge China to uphold its international human rights obligations and to respect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all Chinese citizens.”

Although it is unlikely that Mr. Liu will be set free soon, he appears to have received one small windfall since the Norwegian Committee anointed him a Nobel laureate: his prison meals have improved slightly. In recent phone conversations with friends and The A.P., Ms. Liu said officials were allowing him to buy individually prepared meals.

For the second time this week, Chinese officials canceled a meeting with Norway’s fisheries minister, according to the Norwegian newspaper Nordlys. The minister, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, was to have met China’s deputy minister for food safety on Wednesday.

News of the canceled meetings was not reported by the Chinese news media, which has effectively excised any mention of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

As part of their efforts to reduce any impact of the prize domestically, the authorities have placed restrictions on scores of intellectuals, academics and bloggers who have previously expressed support for Charter 08 or Mr. Liu. Several have been given eight-day administrative detentions, while others have been placed under an extralegal form of house arrest that often includes the loss of cellphone and Internet service.

Among those who have disappeared in recent days is Pu Zhiqiang, one of the country’s best-known rights lawyers. Although his phone was turned off Tuesday, a colleague in his Beijing law firm confirmed that he had been taken away by the police.

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting, and Zhang Jing contributed research.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: Beijing Calls Nobel Insult To People Of China. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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