With the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony set for Friday, China is making clear its disapproval of the Nobel Committee’s having given this year’s award to political activist Liu Xiaobo. China is not only publicly boycotting the ceremony, but also encouraging other countries to follow their lead. 18 countries have followed China’s lead in refusing to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony; what are their motivations? And how is all of this going over with the Nobel Prize committee?

With 19 countries and its honoree absent, Geir Lundestad, permanent chair of the Nobel Prize committee, and the Institute’s director and the Committee’s secretary, says the show still must go on, and says they will have a chair set up with Liu Xiaobo’s picture on it.

Patrick Tyler, former Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, and author of “A Great Wall – Six Presidents and China,” will look at the reasons why each of these countries has decided to join China in boycotting the ceremony.