Annan, agriculture scientist win Confucius Peace Prize
Former UN chief and agricultural scientist who hybridised a high-yielding variety of rice to receive Beijing's alternative to Oslo's award
Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan and Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping will share this year's Confucius Peace Prize, its organiser, the China International Peace Studies Centre, said yesterday.
Annan was given the prize for "his enormous contribution to the reform and revival of the United Nations and bringing a new spark of vitality to the organisation during his time as its secretary general and as the UN and Arab League special envoy to Syria".
Yuan, known as the father of hybrid rice in China, was cited for "achieving a historic breakthrough in hybrid rice breeding and solving the problem of food safety for people today".
The chairman of the Confucius Peace Prize Committee, Qiao Damo, said the pair would share a cash prize of "many, many" times the 100,000 yuan (HK$123,000) awarded to former Taiwanese Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan, the first Confucius Peace Prize laureate in 2010, but the committee was still working out the exact amount.
"It'll be surprisingly high," he said. He said the centre would also set up a foundation in Hong Kong, similar to the Nobel Foundation, to guarantee sustainable funding for the award.
Annan and Yuan were chosen from a shortlist of eight nominees, which also included Microsoft founder Bill Gates, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Gyaincain Norbu, the 11th Panchen Lama chosen by mainland authorities, and Wang Dingguo, the sole surviving woman to have taken part in Mao Zedong's Long March, who is little known outside the mainland.