the Nobel prize committee not to award Liu is unacceptable." On the other hand, an article in The Guardian pointed out Liu's support for "the total westernisation of China" amongst other policies, such as the US invasion of Iraq, and on the tenor of the debate in the West: "Liu Xiaobo's politics have been reduced to a story of a heroic individual who upholds human rights and democracy. His views are largely omitted to avoid a discussion about them, resulting in a one-sided debate." Its survey of 500 press articles published in Hong Kong about Liu showed "only 10 were critical of the man or peace prize." News agencies reported the Confucius Peace Prize, established at the suggestion of Global Times in response to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed dissident. The organiser denied any involvement of the Chinese government in the award and the Minister of Culture said they only became aware of the prize due to the press coverage. Hong Kong's Ming Pao, which had obtained a copy of the letter from the organisers of the Confucius award to the 'winner', suggested that this was indeed unofficial – the letter did not bear the Ministry of Culture's official seal. Die Welt said the rival award was "stupid". The Economist recalled how the Soviet Union prevented Andrei Sakharov from accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, and suggested that Chinese leadership would probably have expected such a comparison. Both it and Die Welt made direct reference to the creation of a similar German National Prize for Art and Science by Nazi Germany after von Ossietzky was prohibited from leaving the country to collect the 1935 prize. Other Nobel Prize laureates 4 December 2012, 134 Nobel Prize laureates wrote to new General Secretary of Communist Party Xi Jinping, calling for the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo and the lifting of the house arrest of his wife Liu Xia. Runup to the Award ceremony Diplomatic pressure In the lead-up to the award ceremony, the Chinese authorities began a campaign through state media to criticise both Liu and the prize; the Chinese foreign service in Beijing and abroad targeted Western government officials, urging them to stay away from the award ceremony in Oslo on 10 December and refrain from issuing any statements of support for Liu. At least two European embassies in Norway were sent letters by their