Ground Report

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.

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.