China’s Confucius Peace Prize Awards Fidel Castro

Former Cuban military leader Fidel Castro is awarded this year the Confucius Peace Prize, China’s alternative to the Nobel Prize.The 88-year-old revolutionary icon was praised his effort in peacefully resolving international conflicts.

Castro, popularly viewed by the West as a dictator, ran the one-party Cuban state for nearly five decades.

The Confucius prize, launched in 2010, serves as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize, which had just honored detained Chinese dissident writer, Liu Xiaobo.

Report said that China’s government has condemned Liu’s award but has distanced itself from the Confucius prize.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei on Thursday said the award symbolically represented the committee’s own aspirations for world peace, report added.

Confucius prize recipients include former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Asian Correspondent