Depicted as a “smiling angel in a wheelchair”, she was exactly the hero China needed to boost national pride in the face of the embarrassment of protests over the Olympic torch relay.
Jin Jing, a little-known disabled fencer who has now become a household name here, drew sympathy and publicity in state media when he stubbornly held the Olympic torch as a Tibetan fan tried to snatch it away during the relay. The relay will take place on April 7 in Paris.
Ten days later, Kim seemed overwhelmed by the public attention and said she still didn’t understand why protesters wanted to carry the torch. She said that before the events in Paris, she had never heard of some Tibetans wanting independence from China.
“I don’t care about politics,” she said Thursday during her first meeting with foreign journalists, surrounded by publicists from Lenovo Group, the torch relay’s sponsor, who at least once whispered to her about Tibet-related issues.
Jin’s self-proclaimed innocence is part of her appeal to the Chinese, who have been celebrating her since photos of her struggle in Paris went viral online.
The torch relay disruptions in London, Paris and San Francisco shocked many Chinese, overshadowing expected moments of Olympic glory and fueling a furious, beleaguered nationalism.
China is trying to use the August 8-24 Olympics as an opportunity to show it is an open and modern country. Protesters say China is unworthy of hosting the Olympics because of its human rights record, harsh rule in Tibet and friendly relations with Sudan.
Kim is now seen as a champion of China’s dignity, embodying national pride wounded by protests that have squashed the torch relay and criticism of China’s crackdown on Tibet. Although the first photos of Kim on the Internet came from onlookers in Paris, state media soon began telling and retelling her story.
She joins a roster of heroes promoted by the communist government’s propaganda arm who often appear in times of tension with the outside world. In 2001, a Chinese pilot killed in a plane crash became a national hero after a US spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet in southern Chinese waters. The Pentagon said the pilot’s reckless flight led to the crash.
While Jin was praised, the angry Chinese sought revenge. Nationalism is rampant online, with users using “doxxing mechanisms” (online campaigns that incite offline behavior) to target those they perceive as enemies.
A Chinese Duke University student drew attention this week for attempting to negotiate peace between pro-Tibetan and pro-China protesters on campus.
Her photo was taken during the afternoon standoff as the torch relay passed through San Francisco and was quickly posted on an online forum for Chinese students. The forum called her a “traitor to her country” and included her name, Chinese ID number and home address in China.
A photo posted online this week showed a bucket of faeces allegedly dumped on her parents’ doorstep in the port city of Qingdao.
The “search of human flesh” also tracked down the man who tried to take the torch by falsely accusing a 44-year-old Tibetan man living in Utah.
Lobsangendong, whose name, address, phone number and even a map of the area were posted on a number of Chinese websites, was so targeted by phone and online that he moved into a hotel.
Meanwhile, continued feelings of humiliation over the clashes in Paris have sparked an online campaign to boycott French retail chain Carrefour. China’s Foreign Ministry also joined the chorus of criticism of CNN, demanding that the network apologize for comments made by a commentator who called China’s leaders “thugs” and its products “garbage.”
In recent days, many Chinese users in MSN chats have placed a heart icon with the word “CHINA” next to their profile names.
One analyst played down the impact of the Chinese government’s impassioned rhetoric about media control. “Governments are allowing this to spread online in a completely harmless way,” said Paul French, chief China analyst at market intelligence firm Access Asia. “When it happens on the street, I’ll be very interested.”
Jin was previously a member of the Shanghai wheelchair fencing team and did not attract much attention. The 28-year-old Paralympian had his leg amputated as a child due to a malignant tumor.
A spokesman for Chinese computer maker Lenovo, the relay’s sponsor, said the constant attention was overwhelming and chose Jin to run in the relay. The Paralympic Games will be held in Beijing from September 6 to 17, following the Olympic Games.
During his 20-minute speech, King avoided politics, even though it dominated reporters’ questions. Why was she attacked? She said she still doesn’t know: “I hope you, the media, can help me answer this question.”
She repeated the Chinese government’s position on the issue: “Tibet has always been part of China,” and a Lenovo trustee sitting next to her whispered sarcastically when asked if she had considered Tibet’s point of view.
“Everyone has an opinion,” King said. But she added to protesters: “What you are doing is wrong.”
The torch incident in Paris apparently did not dampen King’s enthusiasm. A Lenovo spokesman said talks were ongoing about the possibility of the fencer carrying the Olympic flame again, this time in Shanghai.
From June 24 to June 30, the Liberty Times (a sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published an interesting article on May 5, 1996, entitled “Taiwan’s Earliest UFO Photo Was Taken 29 Years Ago.” “This flying saucer was colored,” the citation reads. The black and white photo was taken by Tsai Changhong in Taipei on June 28, 1967, but he said he never made it public because he wasn’t sure what it was. ., worrying about being laughed at. With the establishment of the Taiwan UFO Society (TUFOS, Taiwan UFO Society) in 1993 and the increase in sightings in the mid-1990s, Tsai felt that he had finally
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President Lai Ching-te was running for a second term in office against his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen. In government, he kept his word, continuing her policies and selecting several familiar faces from the Tsai Ing-wen administration into the new cabinet. While he may be trying to preserve her legacy in government, he has taken away from her an important legacy within the DPP that could destabilize the party. In the first two columns, we have checked respectively that most of the candidates for Lai Ji’s cabinet are worthy people. However, if we take them together,
Post time: Jun-27-2024