I did a double take when I first read the title. A Peace Prize for deciding to go to war? Is this a Chinese method of improving relations with Russia (or just Putin)? The Chinese committee awarded this year's Confucius Peace Prize honoured the winner, Vladimir V. Putin, prime minister of Russia, for his decision to go to war with Chechnya.
Even the author (Edward Wong) seemed a little doubtful about this. Where did this dubious award come from? Wong mentioned how the organising committee awarded "what they call their" peace prize and there was "curiously little reporting" in the Chinese media about the award. In fact, the news of how Putin received the Confucius Peace Prize was hyped up through Twitter. The previous winner of this prize, Lien Chan, a Taiwanese Politician, had never heard of the award, and his prize was curiously given to "a young girl with no relation" to him.
On the committee that gives out this award sits a self-acclaimed descendant from Confucius' lineage and a professor at Peking University, Kong Qingdong, who is asked to leave because of his rude actions towards a journalist. Another member of the committee who had left the group is starting another award with the Americans. All these strange characters on the judging committee truly reflects the kind of award the Confucius Peace Prize.
Apparently this publicised (or rather the lack of) Confucius Peace Prize is a phony award presented to Putin with the borrowed namesake of the Culture Ministry. The original award was supposedly the Confucius World Peace Prize. After this incident, the Culture Ministry decided not to give out the Confucius World Peace Prize award. Perhaps they decided not be embarrassed any further...
The award itself is really a dubious one and I wondered why Lien Chan was award one too. I went on to search and he was awarded the prize for developing positive ties between Taiwan and China on the 9th of December 2010. Well, reason accepted. However, in that same year, 2010, on the 10th of December, 2010, Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. What a coincidence. Something to think about !
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of appalling that year after year, some "student" or "girl" accepts the award on behalf of the actual winner. I fail to understand how this is even possible...If this award was genuine enough, this will certainly not be entertained. The whole concept of this award seems to me like a spoof or a dig at the notable awards from the west.
ReplyDelete@Joo Fei:
ReplyDeletehaha i feel that anyone can award you something just because they say so but the award doesn't really mean anything unless it is recognised by people. I don't really understand what you mean by the coincidence !!
@Sreshta:
haha I feel the same way, this award is really strange. Your point about this award being a "spoof or a dig at the notable awards from the west" is really interesting ! I didn't think of that but it's a great suggestion of their motives :-D
Nice visuals, Vanessa. And, good for everyone for doing some research! The mini-debate on this page touches on various possible researchable issues.
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