On Tuesday someone threw a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he delivered a speech at Cambridge University. I read about it yesterday in the South China Morning Post where the newsworthy point was that this incident had actually been given air space on Central Chinese TV, the state broadcaster. Such embarrassing incidents are usually suppressed by China’s tightly controlled media.
Premier Wen described the incident as despicable. The Chinese are acutely sensitive to insults and the British Government, keen as it is to build bilateral ties, will be relieved that his reaction was so restrained. This major sense of humour failure was notably absent when President George W. Bush had shoes thrown at him in Iraq and the Chinese had a good laugh.
Premier Wen was visiting Britain with the aim of improving Anglo-Sino trade during the global downturn. Gordon Brown had been warned not to sacrifice human rights concerns to the prospect of boosting exports. Well that’s good to know. More Waitrose products for the Chinese but still no freedom of speech. They’ll be pleased about that.
The South China Morning Post went on to report that all negative or ironic comments made by bloggers on the subject had been blocked. I must be careful what I say. No irony intended.
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4 comments:
The incident hasn't had much coverage here, in contrast to the Bush shoe throwing. I think it has been pushed aside by the snow news, rather than anything sinister, but maybe not??
Hello Worlds Apart Blogger,
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What would happen if you said something on your blog that was disapproved of? Would that post just not appear? Would the whole blog disappear? Or would it be available elsewhere in the world, but just not China?
Iota I'm not sure. I don't know how they could monitor everything and block certain posts. The very idea has a distinctly Big Brother feel to it. I know the internet is not as free a place in China as it is in other parts of the world. Hong Kong continues to enjoy different levels of freedom and democracy from the rest of mainland China and one hopes that China will catch up rather than requiring the Special Administrative Region to adopt lesser standards.
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