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This year's Confucius Peace Prize, although cancelled by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, will go ahead, according to a prize committee member. The prize is set to be awarded to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin—not one of the usual rundown or advocates for world peace. Here's more.
Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and the man referred to by some as the "iron hand," is the unlikely winner of this year's so-called "Confucius Peace Prize."
The prize was set up last year supposedly with the official backing of the Chinese regime's Ministry of Culture. The prize was apparently a reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, which enraged the Chinese regime.
Princeton University professor Yu Yingshi says the prize is a joke.
[Yu Yingshi, Princeton University Professor]:
"The so-called Confucius Peace Prize itself is fundamentally a joke, it ultimately has no value. I also feel that Russia's prime minister won't be interested in it, I'm not clear if he will accept it or not. I feel, in brief, this is a really laughable thing, it demonstrates how the Communist Party's propaganda is completely out of touch with the times."
Yet the Chinese regime may have realized many in the West saw through last year's prize as a propaganda trick. This year the prize doesn't have the backing of the Chinese regime. The Ministry of Culture announced in September that the award would not be given this year and disbanded the prize committee.
Yet committee member Qiao Damo says he has set up a new committee in Hong Kong and the prize will go ahead—independently of the Chinese Regime. He cites Putin's opposition to NATO operations in Libya and his toughness in suppressing Chechnyan rebels as Putin's contribution to world peace.
Ben Hedges
