Xi Jinping. Demotix/Gregor Fischer. All rights reserved. After a summer full of bad economic news, Chinese president Xi Jinping enjoyed a successful September, starting with a military parade in Beijing to mark the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II, and finishing with the pomp and circumstance of a state visit to the US and a speech at the UN general assembly. These three carefully choreographed events confirmed Xi Jinping as a strong leader at home and a respected figure abroad.
But October is the time for a different kind of global event – the Nobel peace prize announcement – over which world leaders have little control. As Julia Lovell explains, there is a real hunger in China for the international recognition that only Nobel prizes can provide. That’s why the awarding of the peace prize to dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010 hurt Beijing so much.
Such magnanimity can yield big rewards
