Some contenders for this year's Nobel Peace Prize may have breathed a sigh of relief when they learned the award went to someone else.

After the Norwegian press speculated that exiled Chinese dissidents Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan were nominees for this year's award, they and their families faced harassment from the Chinese government.

Humanitarian groups hope Wei, Wang and their families may escape further persecution now that the award has been presented to Doctors Without Borders, a group of physicians who revolutionized the field of humanitarian aid.

On the midst of festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the rumored nominations drew international attention to the country's bad record on human rights.

After learning of Wei's and Wang's nomination, Chinese officials censured both the Norwegian government and the Nobel Committee, claiming the two men were "common criminals" not worthy of such an accolade.

China also reacted furiously in 1989 when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, that country's exiled spiritual leader. China has occupied Tibet since troops first invaded the mountain nation in 1950.

Wei, 49, is a former electrician and soldier who lost faith in China's communism based on Mao Tse-tung's radical policies. Wang, 31, was a student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China and participant in the protests at Tiananmen Square. Before they were forced into exile, both men spent many years in jail for criticizing the communist regime.

But because both Wei and Wang, who is currently a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, are beyond the physical reach of the Chinese government, officials threatened their families instead.