International Law

Shoe Commentary

By Stan

The big news is about shoes:

A protester threw an athletic shoe at the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, during his speech at Cambridge University’s concert hall on Monday, seven weeks after a similar incident involving President Bush in Iraq. The shoe missed Mr. Wen by at least 30 feet, but security officials promptly escorted the protester from the hall.

I’m a big supporter of free speech, so my fundamental problem with this has nothing to do with this guy’s right to express himself. I do have the following comments, however:

1. Throwing a shoe is not free speech, it’s an assault. If the throw is successful, it’s a battery. Pardon my being a geek lawyer, but those things are illegal notwithstanding why the shoe is thrown in the first place.

2. By emulating the journalist in Iraq, this joker in Cambridge is (perhaps unwittingly) making a comparison between Wen Jiabao and George W. Bush. Even folks with huge disagreements with PRC domestic and/or foreign policy can’t admit with a straight face that a comparison like that is valid. Chinese citizens have reason to be outraged by this issue alone.

3. Throwing a shoe at good old Grandpa Wen? That shit just ain’t right.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on February 03, 2009 (boomark / email).