China is Near?

The United States was able to indulge in some self-righteous posing when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo, who was a prisoner of the Chinese government.  Things played out in such a way that China challenged the Nobel Committee, boycotted the ceremony, and even instituted its own peace prize.  Meanwhile, the Nobel awards ceremony made a big point of representing Liu by an empty chair.

Well, it looks like the United States is about to be tested over just how much they respect the Peace Prize going to those with the courage to speak when others try to enforce silence.  Here is the news that Al Jazeera English has pulled from their wire sources:

Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian politician behind the proposal said, a day after the deadline for nominations expired.

Snorre Valen on Wednesday said that the whistleblowing website was one of the most important contributors to freedom of speech in the 21st century.

Valen said that by disclosing information about corruption, human rights abuses and war crimes, WikiLeaks was a "natural contender" for the peace prize.

For those who have forgotten, the American government is trying to extradite Julian Assange to the United States in order to prosecute him for treason.  There is thus the possibility that next year the Nobel Peace Prize will go to another individual being held in prison, but this time the prison will be on United States soil.  What’s Chinese for “What goes around comes around?”  We may be hearing a lot of it in the near future!