However, among the six laureates, only Master Yicheng actually collected his prize in person.
Liu claims that this reflects a defect in their election system. As a consultant to the prize committee, he said he "opposes awarding the prize to incumbent leaders."
But he supports the result. "Mugabe's reappointment came after democratic elections," Liu argued.
However, the US-based NGO Freedom House, which assesses countries' political freedoms and civil liberties has argued in its annual "Freedom of the World" reports that Zimbabwe has not had a truly free election since its assessments of the country began in 1972.
Liu also claimed that Zimbabwe's severe economic problems were mostly caused by Western sanctions.
Yi Minghai, a prize judge and a professor with Communication University of China's school of politics and law, said "the absence of the winners doesn't mean that our criteria for peace is wrong."
There is no law forbidding social organizations or civilians establishing such a prize and many international festivals have grown from small days founded by some individuals, Yi told the Global Times.
Financial woes
Qiao claims he has stable income from teaching at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. But to pay for the prize, their official website and running costs, which come to around 2 million yuan each year, the CIPRC have to hold other commercial activities. Qiao did not elaborate on the nature of these commercial activities.
The qualifications of the judges for the Confucius Peace Prize has also been questioned as quite a few judges are businessmen or lack strong educational background.
Liu said due to financial difficulties, the committee did accept some judges who have donated money to the organization. "But money cannot necessarily buy a membership. The person must be honest and hold similar values to the committee," Qiao said.
Ma Kaide, chairman of the board of Beijing Tongqilin Jewelry Company Limited and one of the judges, told the Global Times everyone who loves peace has right to make a judgment on peace. He claimed that he wasn't seeking reputation or profit by helping fund the prize.
According to Qiao, over the course of the year they collect nominations from the public and judges and the committee's core members will decide on around 10 candidates. In September, the judges will be asked to vote for a candidate. This year, Mugabe won with 36 votes out of 76, according to the committee. After the discussion of the final judging panel made up of 13 members, Mugabe was finally confirmed as the laureate.
According to their official website, the prize committee has eight criteria for candidates, including those institutes or individuals who have made contributions that year to national liberation and unity, and friendship between states, to disarmament, to the destruction of nuclear weapons, to resolving the risk of war, and to economic and social prosperity.
Both Qiao and Liu admitted the committee hasn't yet established a constitution to regulate how judges and candidates are chosen. The number of judges has grown to 76 this year from five in 2010.
Liu said they wish to recruit some foreigners to the judging committee next year and fix the total number of judges at 99.
According to the list of judges, the judges are from various walks of life, including 16 professors; 23 company chairmen or general managers of private companies in various sectors such as real estate, agriculture, textiles; painters; calligraphers; and former officials.
To Qiao, finance is a major challenge. At the end of 2012, he announced the cash prize given to the winner would be 9.45 million yuan ($1.49 million), but this has never been the case as the entrepreneur who promised to pay for this failed to keep their promise.
In fact, the prize has been around 200,000 yuan, although this will be raised to half million yuan this year, according to the judging committee.
"The government hasn't so far clarified their attitude towards the prize. Due to the ambiguous identity, many enterprises are reluctant to donate," he said.
'Betrayed Western values'
Liu said he asked the prize organizers not to bring any trouble to the government or cause any diplomatic incidents. But this has been difficult.
During a press conference on October 28, the question of the Confucius Peace Prize was raised to Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang. Lu replied that "President Mugabe is a well-known leader of African national liberation and key promoter of African integration. He is also an old friend of China," Lu said. "We have also known that the prize was awarded by a civil organization registered in Hong Kong."
Qiao at first ran the prize through a cultural association affiliated to the Ministry of Culture. But following widespread criticism, the ministry issued a notice in September 2011 on its website that ordered the association to scrap the award and announced that the ministry had decided to close the association. This led to Qiao setting up the CIPRC in Hong Kong.
Public opinion, however, was mixed.
Ma Liming, a senior critic, said in an commentary on qq.com that "the Confucius Peace Prize has soured. It represents an outdated and naïve world outlook, carrying some kind of populism. Such thing is hurting our country. I think, such a farce needs to be ended."
Another critic Zhang Chuncheng said different groups of people have different view towards peace. "The opposition the prize received is because it has severely betrayed Western mainstream values," Zhang said in a commentary published on his blog.
Citing Tu Youyou, who he claimed was little-known in China until she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her part in developing an anti-malarial drug, Zhang said Chinese find it easy to recognize such achievements when they are acknowledged by the foreigners.
