LONDON — Nineteen governments have said their ambassadors will not attend a ceremony this week awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, the Norwegian prize committee said Tuesday, more than tripling the number of rejections and reflecting the strong pressure exerted by Beijing to boycott the event.

At the same time, China announced that it would create its own prize for peace, named for the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, and award it for the first time on Thursday, a day before the Nobel ceremony. The choice of recipient offered a stark counterpoint as well: a Taiwanese politician who opened doors to the mainland.

The Nobel committee, in a statement on its Web site, said that as of Monday, 44 embassies in Oslo, the Norwegian capital, had signaled their intention to send a representative to the ceremony on Friday. But the number who “for various reasons declined our invitations” rose to 19, from 6 three weeks ago, the statement said.

Those countries, in addition to China, are Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam.