China PM's trip to Britain ends in shoe protest
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AFP - Tuesday, February 3
CAMBRIDGE, England (AFP) - - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's European tour ended dramatically when a protester hurled a shoe at him as he gave a speech at Britain's Cambridge University.
Police in the eastern English city later charged a 27-year-old man with a public order offence in relation to the incident, which came at the end of a three-day trip to Britain that included talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
In a clear echo of the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at George W. Bush in Baghdad in December, the Caucasian protester had shouted "This is a scandal" as he interrupted Wen's speech from the back of the auditorium.
"This dictator here, how can you listen to the lies he's telling? You are not challenging him," he said before blowing a whistle and hurling a sports trainer at Wen, who had been discussing China's role in the globalised world.
The shoe landed about a yard from the Chinese premier, who glanced sharply to one side to watch it hit the stage, but did not appear frightened. A security man kicked the shoe off the stage.
As the protester was bundled out, he shouted to audience members: "Stand up and protest," to which some of the spectators -- most of whom appeared to be Chinese students -- retorted: "Shame on you, shame on you."
After the interruption, Wen reproached the demonstrator.
"This despicable behaviour cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK," he said, receiving a round of applause from the audience.
China said Tuesday it had expressed its strong dissatisfaction to the British government over the throwing of a shoe at Wen, but emphasised that bilateral ties would not be harmed.
The Chinese government appeared to want to play down the embarrassing incident domestically, with the state-run press either censoring or ignoring the event and Internet chatter about it restricted to a few pro-China comments.
"The Chinese side has expressed its strong dissatisfaction about the incident," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement.
But it then acknowledged the British government had expressed "deep regret".
The incident echoed the protest by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi against then-US president Bush on December 14, which won him global fame.
A spokeswoman for Cambridge police said: "Following an incident in the auditorium during the premier's speech earlier today, a man has been charged with a public order offence." He will appear in court on February 10, she said.
She gave no information about the nationality of the man, who appeared to have a non-English, European accent.
Wen was interrupted as he delivered a largely anodyne speech in front of about 500 people in a concert hall here. Security was tight, and outside about 200 mostly pro-Chinese demonstrators were kept in two pens on the pavement.
Supporters waved red Chinese flags, some banged drums and there was a colourful paper dragon -- although one banner said: "Remember Tiananmen."
Earlier, Wen held talks with Brown in London where he promised to join urgent and coordinated action to avert a global economic disaster.
Brown said Britain wants to double its exports to China within 18 months, and stressed the relationship between the two nations would be a "pivotal force" in weathering the global economic storm.
Wen's first visit to Britain since 2006 came at the end of a high-profile European trip that included Germany, Spain, the European Union headquarters in Brussels and the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.
But the tour was clouded by pro-Tibetan protests which regularly target trips by Chinese leaders.
China is particularly sensitive about Tibet questions ahead of the 50th anniversary of the March 1959 uprising that led to the escape of Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile.
In London, some 50 pro-Tibetan and 100 pro-Chinese demonstrators gathered outside Brown's Downing Street office for rival protests to coincide with Wen's visit there. Five pro-Tibetan activists had been arrested in a protest Sunday.
Chinese state television CCTV broadcast Wen's speech in Cambridge but abruptly cut away from the coverage when the protest happened.
A proctor, who is responsible for discipline at the university, told AFP that university officials asked the protester to stop shouting and sit down.
"He continued, took off a shoe and then threw it towards the stage. The constables (university police) got to him and took him out," he said.
University Vice-Chancellor Professor Alison Richard said she "deeply regret" the outburst, saying: "This university is a place for considered argument and debate, not for shoe-throwing."
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The next time, all attendees will have to remove their shoes when attending any forums with foreign Head of State as invited speakers.
The prevention of "flying shoe missile" may also result in other hard objects from one's personal attire also being removed - belts, wallets, bags, mobile phones, pens and any other hard objects that can cover some distance when thrown.
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Soon, all reporters and journalists would have to take off their shoes when attending press conferences with heads of states.
On a side note, UK is that desperate to export to China huh?
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Looks like the head of USA and China are in the same shoe, the shoe that was thrown at them. hahaha....
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so next time when LHL speak there is a net infront of the stage you know why.....
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such a shameful thing to do in e face of Premier Wen..
if he does that at Bush, i wont mind
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Originally posted by Shotgun:
Soon, all reporters and journalists would have to take off their shoes when attending press conferences with heads of states.
On a side note, UK is that desperate to export to China huh?
who isnt?
itis a big fish over there....
now that de eagle is bald and dying....
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Is this going to be the start of some new fad?
If you don't like a politician, you "do the shoe" .
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After the Bush episode, seems like this practice has caught on, shoe throwing is the new 21 Gun Salute, the highest honour the public can bestow on a foreign dignitary. Oops, I mean be sole a foreign dignitary.
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Originally posted by charlize:
Is this going to be the start of some new fad?
If you don't like a politician, you "do the shoe" .
Look at it this way........at the end of the day is the pair of Old Shoes that keep the politician weary of what they do as a leaders....i like that.
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I wonder what charges are the police going to slap on this person.
Assault with a smelly weapon?
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Originally posted by maurizio13:
I wonder what charges are the police going to slap on this person.
Assault with a smelly weapon?
You see it depend on who you throw to.....
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wonder who is next to be thrown at
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Originally posted by Fantagf:
wonder who is next to be thrown at
throwing shoes is common lah, nothing special, we singaporeans dun like to thrown, we burnt only. -
Originally posted by angel7030:
throwing shoes is common lah, nothing special, we singaporeans dun like to thrown, we burnt only.
Angel, singaporeans more sophisticated than this fellow, singaporeans burnt the nasty arrogant seng han tong, ha ha ha. -
Next time use molotov cocktail to burn people...
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I think shoes tossing is going to evolve into a
International Finger on Politician.....Now read this.......
SARAJEVO (AFP) - A few hundred Bosnians on Saturday vented their spleen at political leaders in a shoe-throwing protest in Sarajevo inspired by an Iraqi journalist's footwear attack on George W. Bush.