Members of the U.S. Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties this week nominated the Hong Kong protest movement for the Nobel peace prize.

The protest movement’s receiving the award would be well deserved. In their struggle for freedom, Hongkongers have defended the cause of human rights the world over. As the Senators and Representatives put it in their nominating letter, “A number of [Hong Kong] democracy advocates are already in jail, some in exile, and many more awaiting trials where they are expected to be convicted and sentenced in the coming months for the sole reason of peacefully expressing their political views through speech, publication, elections, or assembly.”

This is a statement of fact. But not one that Xi Jinping and his Communist minions would have the world recognize. Instead, they claim that Hongkongers who take to the streets to defend their rights are actually insurrectionists. They fail to explain a few things, however.

First, they pretend that it is the protesters and not the Hong Kong police who have precipitated acts of violence. Hongkongers have simply sought to march through their city, reminding themselves and Beijing that the city belongs to them. Not to the Communist Party apparatchiks.

Second, Xi does not articulate how one can be an insurrectionist when said person is defending values the government has already sworn that they are due! The rights of Hong Kong to its democratic system of government and rule of law are not theoretical, after all. Instead, they are enshrined by China’s own treaty commitment under the Sino-British Joint Declaration! For Xi’s insurrectionist allegations to make any sense at all, Xi would thus first have to admit that China’s treaty signature is worthless. I suspect he’ll never do that. Even if Xi’s signature is worthless, and it clearly is, the Communist leader needs to persuade more gullible governments around the world that he can be trusted. Whether it’s trade deals with Angela Merkel, or carbon reduction deals with John Kerry, Xi has to at least pretend that when China puts its signature to a deal, it means something.

Third, Xi refuses to admit the reality of his crackdown on Hong Kong. He and chief executive Carrie Lam insist that the city’s police force only respond to criminal acts taken against either Hong Kong law or in serious breach of the national security law. In reality, those who have been charged with serious criminal offenses tend to be candidates for office, or business persons – such as the former owner of this newspaper, Jimmy Lai - or other individuals who have real influence and power. Beijing is targeting these individuals with the whole range of its security apparatus, including a significant covert role on the part of the Ministry of State Security intelligence service.

That takes us back to the Nobel peace prize.

Faced with the reality of Hong Kong’s protest movement and the Communist repression that targets it, the Nobel committee should recognize a basic truth. Namely, the truth that peace is not simply a condition of society outside war. Ultimately, peace is the condition of a society in which the people exist as the ultimate authority over those who control the coercive instruments of power. Where, as is now the case in Hong Kong, the state uses force to deny basic rights, there is no peace. There will only be peace when Hongkongers eventually triumph over the tyrants deployed against them.

The Nobel committee faces what should be an easy choice. It can recognize those who have shown the courage to confront tyranny in pursuit of a better peace, or it can kneel like the European Union before Beijing. If it chooses the latter option, the committee will forever stain its credibility.

Let us hope it chooses wisely.

(Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner foreign policy writer)

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