BEIJING: China said on Tuesday the "vast majority" of nations would boycott this week's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, but the Norwegian award committee said two-thirds of those invited would attend. China said the granting of the prize to "a criminal" was an affront to its "legal sovereignty" and would not affect its policies. "We will not change because of some wind blowing the grass and because of the interference of some clowns who are anti-China," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said. The Norwegian Nobel Committee offered a picture very different from that presented by Jiang. Geir Lundestad, the executive secretary of the Nobel Committee, said Chinese contention that most nations would stay away was "a very curious way of stating things" because only the 65 countries with embassies in Norway were invited, and 44 of those had accepted. The committee has said China has mounted an unprecedented campaign to keep envoys from attending. "As far as I know, at present, more than 100 countries and organisations have expressed explicit support for China opposing the Nobel Peace Prize, which fully shows that the international community does not accept the decision of the Nobel Committee," the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told a regular news briefing. "After the ceremony, you can see that the vast majority of the international community will not attend the ceremony. Some countries have resident missions in Norway, they will not send representatives to the ceremony," she said. With Liu serving an 11-year jail term, his wife under house arrest and many others prevented from travelling, nobody is expected to pick up the Nobel medal and $1.5 million award on his behalf. The committee said in addition to China, countries declining invitations for the gala were: Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Serbia, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Sudan, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco.
