Chinese group goes for rebel 'peace prize'
A shadowy Chinese group said yesterday it planned to award a rival version of the Nobel Peace Prize as Beijing ramps up efforts to discredit the Nobel's choice of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The "Confucius Peace Prize" will be awarded on Thursday to former Taiwan vice president Lien Chan, one of its organisers, Tan Changliu, told AFP, just one day before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo to honour Liu and comes as China has stepped up already fierce criticism of the Nobel Committee.
Tan denied that his group had any link with China's government.
The award was announced on a Chinese Buddhist website.
It said other candidates included South African democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela, software tycoon Bill Gates and the Panchen Lama, the second-highest ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
On Tuesday, a Chinese government spokeswoman referred to members of the committee as "clowns" and said most of the world opposed Liu's award -- a claim rejected by the committee.
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