China censors flying shoe

In China, the shoe that missed Premier Wen Jiabao did not hit national television screens and websites either, reports Reshma Patil.

IN China, the shoe that missed Premier Wen Jiabao did not hit national television screens and websites either.

HT Image

On Sunday, just a day before the Cambridge protestor tossed his shoe at Wen, the State-run media Xinhua had carried photographs of the shoe monument in Iraq, erected and dismantled after a protestor recently flung his shoe at former US President George Bush.

But the Communist Party's controls on the media do not allow uncomplimentary reports of national leaders. "Chinese culture is a face culture. We want to give face to our Premier,'' Shi Anbin, a media studies professor at the Tsinghua University, told the Hindustan Times in Beijing. "This is the Chinese way of dealing with the incident, not censorship.''

Shi watched the speech telecast on China Central Television and heard the shoe thudding on stage while the cameras were fixed only on Wen. "The media does not want to compare Wen with Bush,'' Shi pointed out.

The foreign ministry in Beijing voiced 'strong dissatisfaction' over the 'despicable incident' but made no reference to the shoe. Chinese search engines and websites blocked details of the protest. State newspaper and television reports of Wen's 'successful' speech said nothing about the flying shoe.

Since Tibetan activists disrupted the Olympic torch relay in Paris last May, French products have faced incessant calls for boycotts by nationalistic Chinese bloggers. This time, netizens who accessed the news through English websites and television, left notes supporting Grandpa Wen.

Several commented that the protest was a sign of a world jealous of China's development. "Are they afraid of the rise of China or just jealous?'' said a blogger at the popular Chinese portal sina.com. "Premier Wen is now the national hero!'' said another blogger.