CHINA’S CONFUCIUS Peace Prize, an alternative to the Nobel version so reviled in this country, is up for grabs again and this year Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin is in the running, as is, for a second time, Beijing’s controversial choice as the Panchen Lama.
The Nobel Prize is attractive to China because of its international prestige and also irritates the government because it tends to honour those Beijing loathes, such as the Dalai Lama and, last year, jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
This year’s list of nominees includes Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for a second time, former UN leader Kofi Annan and German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was reportedly chosen because of her “contribution to regional peace in Europe”. The others on the list were South African president Jacob Zuma, Yuan Longping, a Chinese agricultural scientist known as the father of hybrid rice, and the Taiwanese politician James Soong, who leads the People First Faction of the Kuomingtang party that favours closer relations with Taiwan.
The prize is named after the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, whose teachings have become a crucial part of contemporary Communist Party thinking.
China’s network of cultural institutes are called “Confucius Institutes”. The Chinese believe that the Nobel prize does not reflect “the interests of the East”.
The prize first emerged last year after the idea floated in an editorial in the party-approved tabloid the Global Times, and was subsequently announced by a loose alliance two days before Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel version amid furious protests from Beijing. China said it was an "obscenity" that the Nobel was given to a man it considers a subversive.
China exerted pressure on 18 countries to boycott the prize-giving ceremony, including longtime allies like Pakistan, Venezuela and Cuba as well as business partners Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The Panchen Lama was shortlisted for promoting “harmony”.