Protester throws shoe at Chinese PM in Britain<\/strong><\/p>\nby Robin Millard Robin Millard <\/p>\n
CAMBRIDGE, England (AFP) \u2013 A young protester hurled a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he gave a speech at Britain’s Cambridge University on Monday, in a dramatic end to a five-nation tour of Europe.<\/p>\n
In a clear echo of the Iraqi journalist who threw his footwear at then US president George W. Bush in Baghdad in December, the Western-looking man shouted “This is a scandal” as he interrupted Wen from the back of the auditorium.<\/p>\n
“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 the sports trainer at Wen, who had been discussing China’s role in the globalised world.<\/p>\n
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 moved across and kicked the shoe off the stage.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
After the interruption, Wen reproached the demonstrator.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
The incident — following the protest by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who gained global fame by throwing his footwear at Bush on December 14 — came after Wen gave a largely anodyne speech in Cambridge, southeastern England.<\/p>\n
Security had been tight for entry to the concert hall where the speech took place in front of about 500 people. Outside some 200 demonstrators, apparently mostly pro-Chinese, were kept at bay in two pens on the pavement.<\/p>\n
Before the event began supporters waved red Chinese flags, while some banged drums and there was a colourful paper dragon — although one banner from a protester said: “Remember Tiananmen.”<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day Wen had held talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London where he promised to join urgent and coordinated action to avert a global economic disaster.<\/p>\n
Wen’s first trip to Britain since 2006 marks the end of a high-profile visit to Europe that has taken him to Germany, Spain, the EU headquarters in Brussels and the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n
But the European tour has been clouded by pro-Tibetan protests which regularly target trips by Chinese leaders.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 talks with the prime minister. Five pro-Tibetan protesters were arrested Sunday.<\/p>\n
In Cambridge, police said the man — who appeared to have a non-English, European accent — had surrendered peacefully after the protest.<\/p>\n
“He didn’t resist at all. We ushered him out and he went peacefully,” said one of the constables, or university police, who escorted the young man out of the hall.<\/p>\n
A proctor — an official responsible for university discipline — added: “When he stood up and started making his protest, the proctors asked him to stop shouting and sit down. <\/p>\n
“He continued, took off a shoe and then threw it towards the stage. The constables got to him and took him out. The shouting was legitimate protest but throwing a shoe is something different,” the proctor told AFP. <\/p>\n
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police said the man was arrested on suspicion of committing a public order offence, but gave no further details. <\/p>\n
A University of Cambridge spokesman said: “The incident was extremely regrettable, but didn’t spoil the event. Our university is a place for debate, discussion and considered argument, not for shoe throwing.”<\/p>\n
http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/afp\/20090202\/wl_asia_afp\/britainchinadiplomacyshoe<\/p>\n
Protester throws shoe at Chinese premier on visit to Cambridge<\/strong><\/p>\nMan arrested on suspicion committing public order offence following incident at Chinese leader’s speech<\/p>\n
Julian Borger, diplomatic editor
\nguardian.co.uk, Monday 2 February 2009 17.59 GMT <\/p>\n
![shoe2.jpg](\"http:\/\/blog.jackjia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/shoe2.jpg\")
\nA security guard picks up the shoe thrown at Wen Jiabao today. Photograph: Darren Staples\/Reuters<\/p>\n
A protester threw a shoe at the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, as he gave a lecture at the University of Cambridge at the end of his three-day visit to the UK tonight.<\/p>\n
Sitting about 20 rows away from the premier, the man stood and shouted: “How can you listen to this unchallenged?” The shoe landed on the stage but missed Wen. Police said last night that a man had been arrested on suspicion of committing a public order offence.<\/p>\n
Outside the hall, demonstrators objecting to Chinese policy in Tibet were penned in a corner about 50 yards from the entrance, with pro-China supporters closer in.<\/p>\n
Earlier today, in talks in London, Wen and Gordon Brown presented their planned expansion of bilateral trade as an example to the rest of the world, demonstrating that the slump could be combated by free trade rather than protectionism.<\/p>\n
Brown said that the Chinese government’s huge economic stimulus package would help lead the world out of recession, and set a target of doubling British exports to China in the next 18 months, from ?5bn to ?10bn.<\/p>\n
A Chinese ministerial delegation is expected to come to Britain in the next few weeks with a shopping list of what Beijng wants to buy with its 4tn yuan (?400bn) fiscal stimulus package. The business secretary, Peter Mandelson, and the environment secretary, Ed Miliband, will then fly to China in April, to help match British companies to China’s plans and to discuss how to ensure that the eventual upturn is a “high growth but low carbon recovery”.<\/p>\n
Brown said that the sectors of British industry most likely to benefit would include aerospace, hi-tech manufacturing, education, and pharmaceuticals. The two leaders also signed agreements to harmonise the two countries patent systems and to open up China’s provincial cities to British investment.<\/p>\n
“By taking this action now, we believe we can expand trade between our two countries immediately and the benefit will flow to British workers in terms of jobs and British companies in contracts,” Brown said. He described the export boost offered by the Chinese stimulus package as “absolutely crucial to helping the world’s economy recovery”, because it sent “a signal the world can only move forward out of this recession by trading with each other”.<\/p>\n
“Premier Wen and I agreed that the biggest danger the world faces is the retreat into protectionism, which is the road to ruin. The best attack on protectionism is to demonstrate today the benefits of trade for jobs, for businesses and for eventual prosperity,” Brown said.<\/p>\n
The need to head off protectionism, in the EU but particularly in the US, has been at the top of Wen’s agenda during his three-day visit to the UK.<\/p>\n
He made clear that he sees Brown, who will be hosting the G20 summit of major and emerging economies in April, as an important ally in support of free trade moderated by greater regulation of international finance.<\/p>\n
“Some financial institutions pursued profit in a blind way without effective regulation. They have been using excessive leverage to gain huge profit, but when the bubble bursts the world is exposed to disasters,” Wen said, in an implicit criticism of US and British free market policies leading up to the crash.<\/p>\n
However, he said his visit to Britain and to other EU members last week had been “successful”. The Chinese premier said: “I feel that the economies of the European Union and China enjoy huge potential. Both sides have strong capacity to address the current crisis. For China the fundamentals of the economy are sound and the long-term trend remains unchanged. So Chinese and European leaders need to be brave in shouldering our responsibilities so that we can give hope and confidence to our people and our business communities.”<\/p>\n
Brown has been warned not to sacrifice human rights concerns to the prospect of boosting exports. Wen’s visit has been marked by raucous street protests. Five pro-Tibet demonstrators were arrested in London on Sunday. Brown insisted that human rights concerns had not been forgotten in the bilateral relationship.<\/p>\n
“The UK will continue through our regular dialogue to seek rapid progress towards all international human rights standards and I urge further dialogue on the Chinese government to resolve the underlying issues in Tibet,” the prime minister said. He tempered this implied criticism, however, by crediting Wen’s social and economic policies with “lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty”.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/politics\/2009\/feb\/02\/gordon-brown-wen-jiabao-china-trade-talks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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