Immediately after the announcement that Liu Xiaobo - an imprisoned Chinese dissident and leading figure behind the Charter 08 Movement - had been conferred the Nobel Peace Prize, the Chinese internet police began censoring all positive comments and messages on the web. The authorities also blocked Chinese language internet searches and text messages regarding the latest Nobel laureate.

china arrest democratic advocator liu xiaobo 250609 01 When I keyed in Liu Xiaobo ( right ) in Chinese on Baidu, China’s answer to Google, all I got were either the angry responses of the Beijing government or articles that painted the award in a bad light. Another attempt with ‘Liu Xiaobo and the Nobel Peace Prize’ returned a simple message: “Your search results cannot be shown as they may not be in line with relevant legal regulations and policies.”

While it is true that the vast majority of the Chinese masses are not aware of who Liu is, let alone of his nomination and award, the news was greeted with joy and ecstasy in the Chinese Twitter sphere. Hu Yong, a professor of internet studies at the prestigious Peking University, risked his academic career in predicting how the social media tool may bring significant changes to China’s political scene.

To the dismay of the Chinese authorities, those who are in the know are celebrating their moral victory over authoritarianism creatively. Since all references related to Liu and the peace prize are censored or heavily restricted online, people are resorting to euphemisms when referring to Liu: the salmon (a Norwegian specialty), Norwegian Forest ( Nuo Wei De Sen Lin , a popular song by Wu Bai, a Taiwanese artist), or any other Chinese characters whose sound resembles his name. It is now cyberspeak versus newspeak and the resistance is unstoppable.

Others congratulate Liu via proxy servers, and there is a jargon for this sort of attempt to circumvent state censorship: fan qiang (jumping the wall).

In the meantime, several people have been detained just because they had uncorked champagne in Liu’s honour.

Ma Chaoxu, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, criticised the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee as being ‘blasphemous’ ( xie du ) of the peace prize because it was given to a ‘criminal’. A dissident whom I personally know well fought back by proclaiming himself an ‘accomplice’ in the crime of subversion.

Elusive Chinese laureate

A long time has passed since the Chinese government last reacted so emotionally to an act that it perceived to be foreign interference. When Beijing and London crossed swords over Hong Kong in the early 1990s, Chinese officials relished in deriding Chris Patten, the last governor, with various labels: ‘prostitute’, ‘shit-stirrer’, or ‘sinner of a thousand years’. His crime? Introducing the first fully-elected Legislative Council that Hong Kong residents had enthusiastically awaited.

NONE But it was the animated lecturing by an irritated Jiang Zemin, the then Chinese president, that remains the most entertaining and memorable.

That Beijing has long coveted a Nobel prize is no secret, but a peace prize for a prominent dissident is one that the Communist Party least desired. As many have observed, Liu is in fact the very first national of the People’s Republic of China to win a Nobel prize.

All other laureates of Chinese origin were either citizens of the Republic of China, popularly known as Taiwan, or foreign nationals. Gao Xingjian was already a French citizen when he won a Nobel prize in literature, while the Dalai Lama is a political refugee and, of course, a Tibetan rather than Han Chinese.

But the outrage over Liu’s Nobel honour only betrays the Chinese government’s façade of confidence eagerly presented in the past decade. For all its pretence of stability and a peaceful rise, the communist regime is psychologically more fragile than it would have the world believe, especially when the bigwigs are anxious to ensure a smooth leadership transition in 2012.

NONE To placate the impact that the prize may have on the Chinese public, pro-Beijing media dismissed it as nothing more than a Western stunt to humiliate China. The writers also reminded the reader that many past recipients were of questionable credentials: Henry Kissinger (whose foreign policies resulted in countless deaths in Indochina) in 1973, Menachem Begin (who used indiscriminate violence in creating a Jewish state) in 1978, and Yasser Arafat (who had justified terror in the name of national liberation) in 1994.

One must also not forget last year’s award went to Barack Obama ( above ), who won it for a peace script yet to be acted out, and will be very likely to fall far short of expectations worldwide.

The criticism, of course, would not be complete without mentioning the most notable missing laureate - Mahatma Gandhi – that is, whose chances were allegedly undermined by Britain and those who were ill at ease with Gandhi’s anti-colonial philosophy.

Taking criticism in stried

But much of condemnation simply does not hold water, however strong-worded they may be. If the peace prize was truly worthless, the Chinese authorities would not be bothered by it at all.

NONE After all, there was no criticism levelled at the Nobel Committee when the prize was awarded to Nelson Mandela ( left ), and the emotionally-charged response by Beijing only reveals its latent fears that Liu’s win could encourage more dissidents to speak out now that international attention is again on China’s human rights records.

I agree the deliberations on the peace prize have not always been consistent, and is even fraught with hypocrisy at times. Still, the prize carries a lot of weight despite its flaws. Like it or not, the world still regards it as a yardstick to measure a country’s state of democracy.

It is very much like the Oscars. Not all the winners have deserved an award, but the audience applauds those who won it by talent and hard work nonetheless. If China earnestly aspires to be a responsible power, it should learn to take criticism in its stride, and start treating all harmless dissidents with respect and dignity.

JOSH HONG studied politics at London Metropolitan University and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. A keen watcher of domestic and international politics, he longs for a day when Malaysians will learn and master the art of self-mockery, and enjoy life to the full in spite of politicians.