Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe awarded 2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been awarded 2015 Confucius Peace Prize by China. The Prize is dubbed as Chinese equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize. He has been chosen for this edition of prize for his inspirational leadership and service to pan-Africanism and African independence. The prize also has recognised his efforts to overcome difficulties of all kinds and his commitments for constructing his nation’s political and economic order.

Mugabe is the founding leader of Zimbabwe and has ruled the country since it gained independence in 1980 from United Kingdom. He was elected as Prime Minister in 1980 and served in that office till 1987. He became Zimbabwe’s first President in December 1987 and since then he is in office for past 28 years and in January 2015, he was appointed as Chairman of African Union (AU).

The prize was established in 2010 by China’s Communist Government after it was angered by Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. It is bestowed for promotion of world peace from the 21st-century interpretation of Confucianism i.e. universal harmony in the world. The award carries monetary prize of 500,000 Renminbi (nearly 80,000 dollars). Some of it’s previous recipients include Vladimir Putin (2011), Kofi Annan and Yuan Longping (2012) and Fidel Castro (2014).