Shoes thrown at a leader, but not G.W Bush this time
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was greeted by a shoe thrown at him during his speech in Cambridge University, England. The lecture was about building harmonic international relations.
The protester hurled a shoe at Wen, yelling, “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator? How can you listen to these lies?” He then blew the whistle, and was shortly removed by security. The London Times described him as a “young, Western-looking man with dark hair”, a possible pro-Tibet or human rights activist.
Wen came back to his lecture soon, commenting on what happened: “this despicable behavior cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the U.K.”
Wen's speech in Cambridge is one part of his 5-day European visit. The trip is considered an effort to repair the relationship with Europe which was damaged by Tibet riots and protests during the Olympic torch relays. On the other hand, with a stable and strong, though slightly slowed economic growth, China is trying to exert its influence and signal friendship in a time of global financial crisis.
Wen's lecture is also a call against protectionism, which may greatly undermine China's export-oriented economy. Wen has criticized the U.S and some enterprises for the cause of the crisis, blaming them as irresponsible and immoral.
France is not on the Wen's visit schedule. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, met with the Dalai Lama last year, which was considered a particularly unfriendly action by Chinese.
Protests accompanied Wen during his visit, most of them concerning issues about Tibet.
Pissed off by the shoe
Unlike the way many Americans reacted to their former president Mr. Bush's embarrassment in Iraq, it seems that this time the shoe thrown to Wen has really pissed off a great many people.
In Xiaonei, the Chinese copy of facebook, a post named “Britain, do you still wanna play?” showed up shortly after the incident. It aggregates a few furious comments.
吕洋 Ivan, a Xiaonei user, commented:
操他妈的藏独个王八羔子，早知道今天没课跟丫们干仗去，看谁鞋多。别忘了砸布什的鞋都是made in china的.
F–k Tibet-separatists, I'd go fighting with you jerks if I had known I had no class today. Let's see who has more shoes. Don't ever forget that the shoes that flew at Bush are both made in China.
In DWnews, an independent media publication, someone, obviously reminded of Bush, commented:
没有创意。
And another netizen followed:
呼吁人肉搜索，把肇事者暴露出来！
On Youtube, the video gathered a group of comments written in both English and Chinese.
guanchyun applauded for Wen
没给中国人丢脸，牛
qujiahe felt sorry for Wen
这么慈祥一老头都被扔鞋，剑桥那哥们脑子坏了么
ddream777 commented in English
Shame on this jerk. And it's such an ugly shame the Cambridge lecture hall is as sacred as a Baghdad tent.
siuhuen said:
Answer to your question – Cambridge Uni invited the Chinese PM.
Such a shame though – one student threw a shoe at the speaker just becoz he has a different political view, and the respect the entire world has for Cambridge Uni just came tumbling down.
But Jianghua2 replied to the comment above:
siuhuen, inviting Wen Jiabao to this university already lowered it s respect, come on CCP is known for it s genocide tendencies. Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao are both responsible for crimes against Humanity in China and Tibet (if you believe is not part of China). So Campbridge lost all it s honor already!
And in Xiaonei, not everyone is so much indignant. User 张胜蓝 commented on the news:
难道只能布什给人扔鞋子，轮到温家宝就气愤了？
另外温家宝那番话讲得也太官话，这样都热烈鼓掌？怀疑剑桥里面都是些什么人……
Regardless of how the internet and overseas media react to the shoe, however, the state-media covered up the news determinedly. In discussion boards and blog servers, also, nothing related to the incident can be found. It seems as if the shoe has never been thrown in this harmonic world.
Follow-up: After a short time of black-out, the authority is likely to have approved the report on the incident on Chinese media. The delay can be interpreted as a necessary time for the top officials to assess the situation and public opinion, in order to determine in what way the story be told.
94 comments
shame on the western democracy! while the Europeans eagerly pushed China for their so called democracy and human rights, they are also supporting a Tibetern slave master, who used to kill his slaves easier than kill a fly. Now Dalai is shaking his blooded hands with our european democracy, and dreaming of going back to his good old time. What a dream of Dalai. What a shame of democracy. And those stupid european politicians,for fear of China’s getting stronger, is doing something that makes China stronger. A country that has survived thousands of years and has the wisdom out of that thousands of years, has much more for you to learn than to teach.
Funny how different the reactions of Americans are and Chinese are. Just shows that Chinese have absolute blind faith in their leaders. When China comes crashing down because of their own apathy I will be LAUGHING MY ASS OFF at all the people eating sh!t from garbage cans because they were so stupid to LOVE the government.
And why do Chinese link EVERYTHING negative about China with Tibet? Could is possibly be that the guy threw the shoe for one of the THOUSANDS of other things China has done to piss people off?
Its wrong to throw a shoe, but its extremely dangerous and stupid to have such love for government leaders whome you don’t even know the history of.
shame on you,cambridge.
Get used to it! Maybe Chinese people never see neagative things happen to their leaders in China, and so get upset when it happens abroad, but that is how the world works! If China wants to become a real part of the international community then you’ll have to accept protests, people causing Chinese leaders to loose face and, apparently, shoe throwings.
The CCP may be the source of all that is good in the PRC, but people elsewhere know what happened, tens of millions dead in the Great Leap Forward, millions dead in the Cultural Revolution, the loss of the traditional way of life for the ethic minority groups including Tibetans, continued oppression, etc. Some people think that’s not worth it to have economic growth, which mostly makes CCP leaders richer.
So if you don’t like getting protested then don’t go abroad! The rest of the world won’t change the way it works just for China.
I find that some people haven’t realized the fundamental difference between Wen’s and Bush’s experiences. Bush was greeted by a shoe thrown at him because the U.S. is always interferencing in other countries’ internal affairs. However, the reason for this event is that some guys like interferencing China’s internal affairs!
Quote:“Regardless of how the internet and overseas media react to the shoe, however, the state-media covered up the news determinedly. In discussion boards and blog servers, also, nothing related to the incident can be found. It seems as if the shoe has never been thrown in this harmonic world.”
—- Never make such comment so soon! Just now CCTV gave a full coverage of the incident. BTW, I watched the live last night in Beijing and CCTV News Channel did not cut the speech at all. However you guys may not easily find the Chinese articles or disccusions about it as most of the Chinese are still in the mood of Chinese new year. We simply do not want this sinky shoe to spoil our holiday mood. Peace.
Oh, should be “stinky shoe”.
Chinese people are not fools!
We have our own freedom and rights to distinguish true facts from prejudice.I never feel people in so called ‘blind faith’. As for me,when talking about those political issues with friends,we can see the two different sides clearly and rationally.
I think Premier Wen is really a paragon of Chinese virtue.So you westerners,knowing more about manners has been an urgent task since then!