China has a little problem with the Nobel Peace Prize. It seems that China’s communist government has some issues with a recent Nobel Prize winner. No, not 2009 winner Barack Obama; the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who won his prize for his long-standing fight against oppressive, human-rights-crushing dictatorships like the one that currently runs China. To properly express their anger, China has created its own version of the Nobel Peace Prize, dubbed the Confucius Peace Prize.
“China is a great nation that has been influenced by the Confucian concept of peace for a long time. We want to promote world peace from an Eastern perspective,” said Tan Changliu, chairman of the awards committee. “Europe is full of small countries that had fought each other for centuries. We don’t want to see people who don’t understand peace to ruin the concept.”
The Confucius Peace Prize, which also comes with $15,000, will be awarded on the same day as the real Nobel Peace Prize is handed out in Oslo, Norway. The first recipient will be Lien Chan, a former vice president of Taiwan who helped foster greater communication between the mainland and the island. His staff, who did not know the award existed, expressed surprise at the honor. I assume Mr. Chan will not be in attendance, unlike winners of the Ig Nobel prize for dumb science.
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