*sigh*. Pericles, you are of course, quite right.

Though given that this is the first time a Chinese citizen has one a peace prize, it will at least ensure that when he retires, Liu will be able to get lots of well paid speaking engagements.

Which isn't what he really wants though. The CCP has been encouraging him to move overseas for quite some time.

At the very least, some curious Chinese citizens will want to find out why. At present, he's almost totally unknown. Even if 0.001% of Chinese internet-using citizens take the time to find out something about him, well, that's something given there are 300 million of them.

Bazz, I don't think China would put the rare-earth thumbscrews on that obviously, for the simple fact that they import and export a great deal. That means threats in terms of restricted imports, as well as the threat of tariffs.

If they strongarmed Norway in such a manner, I think the US would be quite likely to slap tariffs on Chinese products which would open the door for Europe to do likewise.

The situation with Japan was much more subtle than most commentators have indicated. China has been under-supplying Japan for a long time. Their demand is very high. So, Japanese manufacturers have taken to buying rare earths on the black market.
China threatened to crack down on that black market. Technically, their rare-earth export totals remained the same.
The threat was much more difficult to counter in Japan's situation - you can't really complain as easily when a country just says it's going to do a better job of enforcing its laws.