China punishes Norway via visa snub

China is offering tourists from every European country except Norway entry to Beijing without a visa, in the latest in a series of snubs since the Scandanavian country awarded Liu Xiaobo, an incarcerated Chinese dissident, the Nobel peace prize in 2010, Financial Times reported. Beginning January 1, Beijing will allow citizens from 45 countries 72 hours of visa-free access to the capital during transit, it said Wednesday. Countries were excluded because their citizens or government are “of low quality” and “badly behaved,” said Wang Qing, a senior official of the Beijing government, when asked why Norway was the only European nation without access. Separate reports said Guan Moye, the 2012 winner of the Nobel literature prize, declined to repeat the endorsement of freeing Liu from his 11-year jail sentence he had made at an October news conference.