China's "Confucius Peace Prize," the Prize You Are Not Quite Sure You Want to Win.

Friday September 30, by Jerome F. Keating Ph.D.

Recall last year when Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was about to win the Nobel Peace Prize, many of China's loyal professors and academics decided they would show the world that they too could offer a peace prize, the "Confucius Peace Prize." They then awarded it to Lien Chan of Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) who thought twice about it, and after looking this strange gift horse in the mouth, said "Thanks, but no thanks." Such a prize was too politically sensitive even for the deep blue, "China-loving" KMT Lien Chan. A surprising response for those who had watched Lien Chan traipse over to China in 2005 in his own pandering way.

This year, it seems like the prize will be very, very short-lived and die the death of past "bright ideas" of ministers avoiding any association of being named. China's Culture Ministry scrapped the ceremony, and thus far the China Native Art Association's Traditional Culture Protection Bureau was not given an OK to promote it.

Dear me, the only two contenders for the prize seem to be China's personally selected Panchen Lama (not followed by Tibetans) and Vladimir Putin of Russia. Will they be disappointed also?