FURIOUS at the decision to give the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, China has started its own award and will present the “Confucius Peace Prize” to former Taiwanese vice-president Lien Chan one day before the prize in Oslo.
The newly created Confucius prize is named after the ancient Chinese philosopher whose teachings have become a crucial part of contemporary Communist Party thinking as the leadership tries to promote “harmony”.
The idea of the prize was originally floated in an editorial last month in the Communist Party-approved tabloid the Global Times.
China has succeeded in persuading 18 other countries to boycott the upcoming ceremony, including long-time allies like Pakistan, Venezuela and Cuba as well as business partners Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Lien Chan won out over five other nominees: Nobel Peace Prize winners Mahmoud Abbas and Nelson Mandela, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Chinese poet Qiao Damo and the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s second most important figure, who was appointed by Beijing against the wishes of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
“Lien Chan stood out from the six nominees as he built a bridge of peace between Taiwan and the [Chinese] mainland, bringing happiness and good fortune to the people on both sides of the [Taiwan] Strait,” the organisers said.
Mr Lien travelled to China in 2005 as chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, in the first such trip since the Communists won control of the mainland in 1949 after forcing the KMT to flee into exile in Taiwan.
Relations between mainland China and Taiwan have improved in recent years, especially since the election of KMT president Ma Ying-jeou, though Mr Lien’s trips to China have had a strong symbolic effect.
The award ceremony will take place in Beijing on Thursday, the day before Mr Liu is formally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
The Chinese government is conducting a sweeping crackdown on dissent ahead of the Nobel award, casting the net wide to prevent friends and family of Mr Liu from attending the ceremony.