Two propaganda flops in less than two weeks: Is Beijing losing its touch?
(Read article summary)The official Chinese media appear to have it in for US Ambassador Gary Locke. But their angry attacks against him are backfiring with Chinese Twitterati.
Beijing
The official Chinese media really have it in for US Ambassador Gary Locke. But now their angry attacks against him are backfiring.
Ever since he arrived here last August, Mr. Locke’s image as a “regular guy” has won widespread admiration from Chinese bloggers and, it seems, irked the authorities.
The way he tried to get a discount at Starbucks with a coupon en route to Beijing, and carried his own backpack, is the polar opposite of the way aloof and pampered Chinese officials behave. So when Chinese citizens praise him, by implication they are criticizing their own leaders.
Lashing out at the US ambassador earlier this month for his role in protecting blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, the Beijing Daily published a strongly worded criticism of his “little tricks.”
But readers’ reactions to the editorial were so negative that within hours “Beijing Daily” was a banned search word on the Chinese Internet, effectively closing down social media debate on the article.
