Reflection on “For Putin, a Peace Prize for a Decision to Go to War”

I found it disheartening that human rights abuses occured as a result of the Chechnya war, and even more so that Putin, the deciding factor that led to the war, earned a peace prize for a decision that brought about harm to the innocent. However, what is more perturbing is the calibre of the Confucius Peace Prize committee members. Since their votes and opinions would directly affect the eventual prize winner, it seems to be the case that the quality of these members are to be doubted. Given that the President, Qiao Damo was self-described as the co-founder, and with another committee member, Mr. Kong Qing Dong, who is also famously known for cursing in public, and not to be left out- Liu Haofeng, who has split off from the Chinese group to work with the Americans instead. It could also be possible that the Confucius Peace Prize could just be a form of retaliation of the authorities towards Liu Xiao Bo's Nobel peace prize, which had met with strong opposition from the Chinese government when he was awarded. With the credibility of the Committee members diminished, this leaves much to be debated as to whether the prize still carries along the prestige and 'celebration of righteousness' it initially intended.