KIEV, Dec. 7 – Ukraine on Tuesday joined China and 17 other countries that have declined to attend this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Nobel officials said Tuesday.

Chinese officials in Beijing called Liu's backers "clowns" in an anti-Chinese farce - comments that came only three days before the Dec. 10 Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo, The Associated Press reported.

Beijing considers Liu's recognition an attack on China's political and legal system, and says the country's policies will not be swayed by outside forces in what it calls "flagrant interference in China's sovereignty."

Hanna Herman, deputy chief of staff at President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration, denied on Tuesday that Ukraine is boycotting the ceremony.

“Ukraine is not boycotting,” Herman said. “We haven’t made any demonstration, any statement.”

Herman argued that Ukraine’s ambassador did not join the ceremony because of a meeting of diplomats that is apparently due in Kiev on Dec. 10.

Liu, 54, is serving an 11-year sentence on subversion charges brought after he co-authored a bold call for sweeping changes to China's one-party communist political system known as Charter 08.

Nobel committee secretary Geir Lundestad said countries gave various reasons for not attending but "some of them are obviously affected by China." He said the committee was pleased that two-thirds of embassies had resisted Chinese pressure and accepted the invitation.

"We are especially happy that important countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa are coming," Lundestad said.

Countries that have turned down an invitation to Friday's ceremony include Chinese allies Pakistan, Venezuela and Cuba, Chinese neighbors such as Russia, the Philippines and Kazakhstan, and Chinese business partners such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Other countries not appearing at the Oslo City Hall ceremony include Ukraine, Colombia, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Serbia and Morocco.

The move by Ukraine underscores China’s growing clout among Ukrainian decision-makers amid attempts by Kiev to increase trade with China, the world’s No. 2 biggest economy.

Yanukovych, on a state visit to China in early September, pledged to never have any official contacts with Taiwan, and secured about $4 billion in Chinese investments for infrastructure projects in Ukraine.

At a meeting with Chinese leader Hu Jintao, Yanukovych assured him that Ukraine supports the “one China” policy, which rules out independence for Taiwan, a sensitive issue for the Chinese.

Yanukovych also promised to never support the idea of Taiwan being elected as a sovereign member of any international organization. (tl/ap/ez)