International Law

Time to Hunker Down

By Stan

Strange days recently. The big news in the last 48 hours or so has been the rumors of expats being attacked by unruly mobs. This is competing, of course, with the other bombshell in the press, the looming potash crisis. The latter is understandably freaking out everyone far and wide.

OK - on a serious note. If anyone has really been attacked, then I should not make light of the situation. I also understand that there may be a lot of people scared at the moment. Nothing to do but ride it out, don’t go out clubbing at 3:00am and get drunk and unruly, don’t insult people for no reason, don’t run down the street with a French flag - you know, common sense.

Commentary out there has been focused on how this is like the anti-Japanese commotion that went on a couple years ago. At the risk of looking ancient, it reminds me more of 1999 after the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia was bombed by the U.S. I wasn’t freaked out, but I did at one point have a guy scream obscenities at me from close range (2 cm) while I was walking down Jianguomenwai. Those were the days when all expats, their Chinese language skills notwithstanding, knew how to say "??????."

I have faith in the government, which is reining things in already. They always do.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on April 24, 2008 (boomark / email).