It's true, Obama is Nobel Peace Prize winner

By AP in Oslo and Zhang Haizhou in Beijing (China Daily)

There was momentary disbelief across the globe as the announcement stunned people from Norway to the White House. But it is true. US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

In a bemusing decision on Friday, designed to encourage initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to Obama.

Nobel observers were shocked by the choice so early in Obama's presidency.

Obama expressed surprise on winning the prize but said he accepted the honor as a call to action for nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century.

"I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel committee," Obama told reporters in the White House Rose Garden. "I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."

In China, experts were divided on whether the Nobel Prize represented encouragement for or pressure on Obama.

Yuan Peng, head of the Institute of US Studies, affiliated to the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said it was mainly encouragement. "It'll help boost Obama's approval rating at home."

Yuan said the prize honors Obama for his achievement in some areas, including fighting climate change and pursuing a nuclear-free world.

Awarding the prize to Obama, he said, reflects the values of the West.

But Pang Zhongying, an expert on international relations with the Renmin University of China and former visiting fellow at Washington-based Brookings Institution, said it was too early to award Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Obama has said many nice things but is yet to make any concrete progress," Pang said.

Tao Wenzhao, an expert on US studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, sees the prize as a "salute" to Obama's "new ideas".

But "we have to see how many of those ideas become policies", he said.

The prize, however, will add pressure on Obama because the war in Afghanistan remains a tough challenge for his foreign policy, he said. The outcome in Afghanistan will determine his political future and his legacy, not the peace prize.

(China Daily 10/10/2009 page1)