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It will be interesting to see whether China is going to follow through with their threat to downgrade their political relations with Norway now.
by sasvari 16y ago
It will be interesting to see whether China is going to follow through with their threat to downgrade their political relations with Norway now.
- lovskogen 16y agoCould you elaborate? I live in Norway, but isn't known to the China-Norway political relations.
- sasvari 16y agoThe director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute says a high-ranking Chinese official has warned him that giving the peace prize this year to a Chinese dissident would harm relations between Norway and China. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iAekET4T1D_vzDMN4JW_xZyvgezAD9IGQKEG0?docId=D9IGQKEG0 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iAekET4T1D...
- geirr 16y agoNorway started negotiating with China about a new trade policy in 2008. This was going well, and Norway might have been the first European country to get such a deal. According to Norwegian newspapers, it is now a great risk that China cancels the negotiations.
- arethuza 16y agoPresumably Norway is one of the few countries that doesn't have to worry too much about upsetting the Chinese - they have huge amounts of money and oil and Russia in between them and the Chinese.
- jacoblyles 16y agoHaving money doesn't mean that trade embargoes or tariffs won't hurt a country at the margin. The goods that are available to them to buy with that money through international trade will decline in number, which is a clear loss. You can't live on oil alone.
- riffraff 16y agowell, you may not be able to live on oil alone, but the oil funded norwegian sovereign fund already owns 1% of the global equity markets and are heading for 2% of the european stock markets (with the oil still being pumped out). Moreover, an embargo is only effective if it can be enforced, there is nothing stopping chinese goods going from other european countries, they would only have a bit higher overhead.
- superos 16y agoThis is not an award given by the Norwegian government. It is given by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee. If the means anything for the chinese I don't know, but it is a huge difference with regard to the two countries political relations.
- sasvari 16y agoChinese foreign policy is not always following rational paths in regard to Western standards. And this constellation is exactly why I wonder if they make their threat true or not.
- garply 16y agoAs a Westerner intimately familiar with China (live and work here, Master's in Chinese), I find Chinese foreign policy exceptionally rational, if Machiavellian (for examples, I would point to their behavior towards North Korea and their currency policy). What do you find irrational about Chinese foreign policy?
- hugh3 16y agoAh, we're working on two different levels of rationality. Irrational threats ("If you walk on my lawn I will rape your dog") are nonetheless a rational policy (your lawn won't get walked upon).
- Hagelin 16y agoYes, an independent committee whose "five members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and roughly represent the political makeup of that body”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Nobel_Committee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Nobel_Committee
- mbreese 16y agoThat may be true, but they aren't speaking with the authority of the state. There is a difference.
- RaRic 16y agoWhen Dalai Lama received the prize in 1989, the relationship between Norway and China became ice cold for a few years. Then everything went back to normal. Presumably, that will be the turn of events this time as well.