Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe has been awarded the Confucius prize, China's version of the Nobel prize. The 91-year old beat off competition from Bill Gates and South Korea's president Park Geun-Hye. A statement from the prize committee declared that Mugabe had helped to improve the welfare of his people, despite his continual use of intimidation and detainment.
'Ever since Robert Mugabe was sworn in as the president of Zimbabwe in the 1980s, he has worked hard to bring political and economic order to the country and to improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people by overcoming hardship,' the statement said.
'If Zimbabwe did not have Mugabe as its president, the country would be facing great difficulty – even public security might be in danger,' he told The Guardian.
The Confucius prize was set up in reaction to the Nobel peace prize committee's decision to award imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010. Past winners of the award include Russian president, Vladimir Putin and Cuban despot Fidel Castro.
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