Putin Wins China’s Confucius ‘Peace’ Prize for Opposing UN on Libya

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.

Yet Russia, along with China, actually abstained from voting against the UN resolution 1973 imposing a no-fly zone over Libya. Putin’s career has also been stained with accusations of foul play. Former Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko, after defecting to the UK, accused the Russian secret services of staging several terrorist incidents in order to bring Putin to power. Litvinenko later died from radiation poisoning, believed to be an assassination. Litvenenko’s father accuses Putin of orchestrating the murder.

[Zhang Weiguo, Editor, Hong Kong’s Trend Magazine]:
“Right now he wants to put Russia’s process of democratization into reverse, if he comes back and runs for president again, this would go in the opposite direction than those who are involved in the current wave of development of democracy and political culture throughout the world. He was chosen for the Confucius Peace Prize, either they chose the wrong person or the Confucius Peace Prize itself is just draped in the clothing of Confucius.”

Yu Yingshi also believes the prize and its recipient are out of touch with the values of Confucius—China’s respected moral educator.

[Yu Yingshi, Princeton University Professor]:
“The Communist Party has never truly respected Confucius, but now the theories of Marxism are bankrupt, they have no theoretical basis. So people searched and searched, and you get some people who want to exploit Confucianism and exploit the traditions, it is crucial to the nationalist sentiment. Yet, whether the CCP truly recognizes Confucianism and its relationship with the single party system is an issue.”

The prize ceremony is set for December 9th, one day before this year’s Nobel Prize ceremony. It’s not clear if Putin will attend.

– NTD TV