As the Nobel Committee announces the 2010 Peace Prize and China reacts, I cannot help wonder how much of China’s not-so-great relations with the rest-of-the-world stems from an inability on the part of the rest-of-the-world to distinguish when China says “blasphemy” and when it says “obscenity”.

Here, for example, is CNN:

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo was “blasphemy against the peace prize” that could harm relations between China and Norway, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Friday.

While Reuters calls it thusly:

It would hurt China’s relations with Norway, said a statement from Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu posted on its website www.mfa.gov.cn.

“This is an obscenity against the peace prize,” Ma said.

Not knowing any Chinese, and having no idea what the original Chinese word was anyway, I’m inclined to side with Reuters on this one. On the principle that a communist regime, with religion ruthlessly purged out of its political soul, has no business using words like blasphemy. (Or certainly not in public.)

Also, while we’re on the subject, how much of China’s not-so-great relations with the rest-of-the-world stems from an inability on the part of the Chinese regime to distinguish between things like the Norwegian government and the Norwegian Nobel Committee?