Don't Politicise Nobel Prize, Wang Yi Tells Norway

China's foreign minister on Thursday warned Olso against "politicising" the Nobel by awarding another Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident.

Wang Yi warned against "interference" when asked about a proposal mooted by a Norwegian lawmaker turned minister to nominate the people of Hong Kong for a Nobel.

"In the past, and today, in the future, China will firmly reject any attempt by anyone to use the Nobel Peace Prize to interfere in China's internal affairs. This position of the Chinese side is rock-firm and we do not want to see anyone politicising the Nobel Peace Prize," Wang said during a visit to Oslo as part of a European tour.

Relations between Oslo and Beijing were frozen from 2010 to 2016 after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident, Liu Xiabao.

Negotiations on a free trade deal stalled, but resumed in 2017.

"Given the impact of Covid-19, early completion of the China-Norway FTA negotiations is of great significance to the bilateral economic bilateral relations and trade as well as to the efforts to keep the global supply chain open and connected," Wang told reporters.

"The two sides need to speed up the negotiation and bring it to early conclusion," he said.

Wang Yi also said it was unclear whether the corona virus had first originated in China, casting doubt on the views of health experts and foreign governments.

Wang said that, while China was the first country to report the existence of the virus to the World Health Organisation, "it does not mean that the virus originated in China".

"Actually, for the past months, we have seen reports ... showing that the virus emerged in different parts of the world, and may have emerged earlier than in China," Wang told reporters, speaking through an interpreter.

"Where did the virus first start and how it started ... should be left to scientists and medical experts ... It should not politicised or stigmatised," said Wang, in an apparent rebuke of US President Donald Trump, who has been criticised for describing the coronavirus as the "China virus".(AFP/Reuters)