After Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was awarded the Confucius Peace Prize by a Chinese organization, debate was triggered in both the West and China

After Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was awarded the Confucius Peace Prize by a Chinese organization, debate was triggered in both the West and China. Later, according to a Zimbabwean media outlet, Mugabe’s spokesperson said Monday that the president had decided to reject the prize. This put the Chinese organization in an awkward position

The Confucius Peace Prize was founded in 2010. Taiwan politician Lien Chan was its first winner, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2011 and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro last year. Apparently the winners are mostly political figures not favored by the West. This has made an impressive contrast with the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo

The Confucius Peace Prize has nothing to do with the Chinese government. It is awarded by the Hong Kong-registered China International Peace Research Center and run by people who dislike Western political gestures. The Chinese authorities have drawn a clear boundary with the prize after its improper use of the name of the culture ministry in 2011

But the relation of the prize to Chinese society cannot be elucidated easily. It’s commonplace in China to detest the political leanings of the Nobel Peace Prize and some people want to have a different rejoinder to the prize in place

Yet many people are more realistic and believe that an influential peace prize needs to be bolstered by soft power, which however China falls short of

The Confucius Peace Prize has not been operated successfully, as has been proven by the recent controversy about Mugabe. Frequent disputes bring more harm than good to such a prize and meanwhile it is not well-recognized in China. In this sense, the prize should be properly considered as an attempt by a small group of people that have distinctive values, but it still has rights of existence. The prize represents the attitudes of some Chinese people and has withstood various doubts from mainstream society. If it wants to persist, it needs to first vie for more domestic support and then broader recognition in the world. This will prompt the organization to make adjustments

In China there should be more than the voice resembling that of government spokespersons. Minority groups are empowered to send out their different voices as long as they don’t break the law or conflict with China’s political system and core values