Beijing paper brands Locke a 'troublemaker'
Source: Agencies |
May 5, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE of China's main newspapers yesterday accused blind Chinese citizen Chen Guangcheng of serving as a tool for American subversion of China and called the United States ambassador a backpack-wearing, Starbucks-sipping "troublemaker."
The commentary in the Beijing Daily was the strongest Chinese media condemnation yet of the US administration in a standoff over Chen, who sought protection in the US embassy in Beijing, then left, and has now said he regrets that choice and wants exile in the US.
The paper accused the US Embassy and US Ambassador Gary Locke of engineering incidents intended to sully the Chinese government's reputation and to foment social discontent.
It said the embassy's sheltering of Chen was the most recent and most egregious example of this.
"This so-called 'rights defence hero' has been packaged by the United States and Western media and given an eye-catching political label, (and) set up as a representative figure against society and against the system," the paper said of Chen.
"Chen Guangcheng has become a tool and a pawn for American politicians to blacken China," it added. Chen and his demands for protection, it said, "fully demonstrate just how desperate American politicians are in sparing no effort to cause trouble for Chinese society."
Unusually, too, the Beijing Daily took very personal aim at Locke, the former US commerce secretary, who won plaudits from some Chinese citizens for his low-key, low-cost demeanor on taking up his diplomatic post.
When Locke arrived in Beijing last year, Chinese Internet users circulated pictures of him carrying his own backpack and buying a cup of Starbucks coffee with coupons.
"Unfortunately, throughout the Chen Guangcheng incident, the US ambassador to China has insisted on performing a role that is far from glorious and even could be called low and petty," said the paper.
"Ever since he flew in economy class, carrying his own backpack and buying coffee with coupons, putting on a charade of being a regular guy, what we have seen is not an ambassador to China who is prudent in his words and actions, but a standard-issue American politician who goes out of his way to stir up conflict," the paper said.
The paper asked how the US would have reacted if during the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, a foreign embassy had "brazenly and openly received those condemned by American politicians as 'rabble' and 'rioters'."
The "farce" over Chen, the paper said, "again validates the old Chinese saying that when a weasel pays a new year's visit to a chicken, that's no reason for comfort."
The commentary in the Beijing Daily was the strongest Chinese media condemnation yet of the US administration in a standoff over Chen, who sought protection in the US embassy in Beijing, then left, and has now said he regrets that choice and wants exile in the US.
The paper accused the US Embassy and US Ambassador Gary Locke of engineering incidents intended to sully the Chinese government's reputation and to foment social discontent.
It said the embassy's sheltering of Chen was the most recent and most egregious example of this.
"This so-called 'rights defence hero' has been packaged by the United States and Western media and given an eye-catching political label, (and) set up as a representative figure against society and against the system," the paper said of Chen.
"Chen Guangcheng has become a tool and a pawn for American politicians to blacken China," it added. Chen and his demands for protection, it said, "fully demonstrate just how desperate American politicians are in sparing no effort to cause trouble for Chinese society."
Unusually, too, the Beijing Daily took very personal aim at Locke, the former US commerce secretary, who won plaudits from some Chinese citizens for his low-key, low-cost demeanor on taking up his diplomatic post.
When Locke arrived in Beijing last year, Chinese Internet users circulated pictures of him carrying his own backpack and buying a cup of Starbucks coffee with coupons.
"Unfortunately, throughout the Chen Guangcheng incident, the US ambassador to China has insisted on performing a role that is far from glorious and even could be called low and petty," said the paper.
"Ever since he flew in economy class, carrying his own backpack and buying coffee with coupons, putting on a charade of being a regular guy, what we have seen is not an ambassador to China who is prudent in his words and actions, but a standard-issue American politician who goes out of his way to stir up conflict," the paper said.
The paper asked how the US would have reacted if during the "Occupy Wall Street" protests, a foreign embassy had "brazenly and openly received those condemned by American politicians as 'rabble' and 'rioters'."
The "farce" over Chen, the paper said, "again validates the old Chinese saying that when a weasel pays a new year's visit to a chicken, that's no reason for comfort."
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