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CHINA’S CULTURE MINISTRY disbanded the Confucius Peace Prize committee earlier this year and does not stand over the award to Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.
According to the BBC, the committee re-established itself after the government dismantled it in September.
The 16-strong group from the China International Peace Research Centre revealed its winner on Sunday despite not having the backing of the administration.
The New York Times says there was little reported in the Chinese media about the press conference but details eventually emerged through Twitter.
Background
The Confucian Peace Prize was established as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize after the Scandinavian committee named Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo as its 2010 recipient.
The administration said the decision interfered with China’s legal system as Liu was jailed in 2008 for co-authoring an appeal for political reform.
Although Beijing was enraged by the announcement, it is still unclear if the Culture Ministry was actually behind the award.
Taiwanese politician Lien Chan was the first recipient of the prize but the ministry has since chastised the group for handing it out in its name.
In September, the ministry moved to dismantle the committee altogether and told the scholars not to present a prize this year.
Defying the order
In a statement declaring him their winner, the Confucius Peace Prize committee branded Putin an anti-terrorist and national hero because of his “iron hand and toughness” in the Chechnyan war in 1999.
They also praised his refusal to support the “NATO bombing of Libya” this year.
The committee insists that the prize-giving ceremony will go ahead, stating they would defy the order from Beijing. The China International Peace Research Centre, which is independent of the government, said it will now present the awards on 9 December.
The other nominees for the award were Microsoft founder Bill Gates, South African President Jacob Zuma, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Kremlin has said it only heard about the award through the press.
-Additional reporting by AP
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The general of the presidential guard was going to lose his job and was not happy about it. Calling this high treason is ironic when he is the one who did a coup against a democratically elected president and government. The coup is high treason.
@ForrestG45: Yes, it is, in this case, and in every other case. But at some point (I’m not talking about this one), if someone is committing treason or doing something so bad, like declaring war when the people don’t want it, or malnutrition its people, kind of like Kim Jong Un, then only by committing treason you can depose a tyrant. The people in power write the laws and defines treason.
This should be done here with the current cabinet.
Am sure some democracy bombs will sort them out. Just like Libya.
Under the Bazoum ‘democracy’ the natural resources were taken by France under the guns of the French and US military. Bazoum was handsomely rewarded for this treachory while the people of (name of country censored) go hungry. This coup was carried out without a single death because it had he support of the people of (name of country censored).
@Fearg: (name of country censored)? NIGER is the name of the country it’s clearly not sensored so why claim it is?.
@Fearg: I think you will find that resources were bought with hard currency rather that ‘taken’ (stolen) as you suggest
@donal O’brien: They were not bought they were taken. French companies own the mines. Niger only gets 14% of the value of what France takes. 1 in every 3 houses in France is powered by uranium from Niger while 90% of Niger’s population don’t even have electricity.
The people of Niger are 100% correct to take back the resources from any western nation that claims them and charge a fair price for them. Will the military junta do that remains to be seen but that’s nothing to do with us
@Roy Dowling: incorrect. Less than 10% of Niger’s uranium is used in French nuclear plants. France and the EU have diversified their supply in the last while to counter such risks, with the likes of Kazakhstan, Canada and soon Uzbekistan.
@ForrestG45: sorry meant less than 10% of uranium used in French nuclear plants is coming from Niger.
Any chance of a report on the voter fraud operation in Michigan that was operating during the 2020 election? A paid election worker has been indicted after she registered approx 10,000 dubious voters. That was in one Michigan county. She was also operating in several other Michigan counties.
Plus she was part of a larger team of paid election operatives.
@Monetpenny: She was operating in several different counties at once? Right. Is she there with you now?
@F Fitzgerald. Yes she was. She didn’t perform the miracle of bi-location but you do understand people can operate on different counties at the same time? I have a friend who is a business rep for Kerry, Limerick & Clare. That is possible. It doesn’t mean he is in the same county at the same time nor does his employer expect him to be in the three counties at the same time.
Perhaps if the Journal did a report on it you might understsnd.
have your say