Organizers of the Confucius Prize have defended Zimbabwe’s President Robert for winning the Confucius Prize, a rival Chinese version of the Nobel prize.
Qiao Damo, founder of the little-known China International Peace Studies Centre, which runs the accolade, told AFP that Mugabe had been recognized for his “outstanding contributions” to world peace.
The nonagenarian African leader beat nine other finalists, including Bill Gates, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, he added.
The Confucius prize emerged in 2010 as a Chinese response to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel award, which infuriated Beijing.
The Zimbabwe leader has been accused of human rights violations in the past but the committee that awarded him the award praised him for being “committed to building the country’s political and economic order, for the benefit of the Zimbabwean people”, and for his “strong support of Pan-Africanism and African independence.”
Qiao cited Mugabe’s “ability to stabilize Zimbabwe and at the same time promote peace in Africa” as chairman of the African Union.
“Unrest is quite normal,” he said. “When America was first founded, it was also very chaotic, and Zimbabwe was only founded 30 years ago.”
China’s Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying however dismissed the Confucius prize, telling AFP that the Confucius prize was “not affiliated with the government”.
