China has awarded a peace prize to Robert Mugabe

Ailing Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe has been announced as the 2015 winner of the Chinese version of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mugabe was honoured with the award for his work promoting "African peace" and for “overcoming a number of difficulties. Contributing to building the government, economy, and order in the country," the award organisers said.

Apparently the brutal repression of his own people during a 28-year-long dictatorship and repeated election violence carried out by the military didn't deter the judging panel of nine "experts and scholars."

The 91-year-old has won a gold Confucius trophy to add to his collection and 100,000 yuan (£10,200) in prize money.

The Confucius Prize, or the 'Chinese Nobel Peace Prize', was established in 2010, which just so happened to be the same year that Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel.

Tan Changliu, the Confucius Prize chairman in 2010, said at the time the board's desire is to promote world peace from “an Eastern perspective.” The prize is not officially linked to the Chinese government.

The five Confucius Prize winners so far are:

• Lien Chan, Taiwanese former Chinese Nationalist Party chairman (2010)

• Vladimir Putin, President of Russia (2011)

• Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General (2012)

• Yi Cheng, former president of China’s Buddhist Association (2013)

• Fidel Castro, former President of Cuba (2014)

¯\(ツ)/¯

HT Quartz

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