he New York Times’ Michael Forsythe reports on departing United States ambassador Gary F. Locke’s farewell news conference in Beijing yesterday and the racially charged comments from a Chinese news organization that followed:
“His carefully chosen words were not well received by the state-run China News Service. Following Mr. Locke’s remarks, it published a scathing review of his tenure modeled after a famous August 1949 essay by Mao Zedong, “Farewell, Leighton Stuart,’’ slamming the last American ambassador under the collapsing Nationalist government in Nanjing. Gary Lockeis a U.S.-born, third-generation Chinese-American, and his being a banana — ‘yellow skin and white heart’ — became an advantage for Obama’s foreign policy,’’ opened the commentary, written by a person identified as Wang Ping. (Many Asian-Americans consider “banana” an offensive term.)“However,” the commentary continued, “after a while, a banana will inevitably start to rot.’’The “rot’’ included Mr. Locke’s trips to restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, in China’s far west, which stirred an “evil wind,’’ the commentary continued. Like other essayists with a nationalist bent, Wang Ping also took aim at Mr. Locke’s portrayal as a humble person who carried his own bag and flew economy class. Such gestures, which the commentary cast as insincere, were broadcast widely on China’s social media when Mr. Locke first arrived in Beijing in 2011 and won him admiration from many Chinese, who couldn’t imagine their own officials abandoning their privileges.[...] “When Gary Locke arrived, the skies in Beijing became hazy,’’ the commentary said. “When he left, the skies suddenly became blue.’’ [Source]
At The Diplomat, Zheng Wang describes how Mao Zedong’s 1949 condemnation of Leighton Stuart has played a role in negatively impacting state media reporting on Locke:
In 1949, Chairman Mao wrote a famous article on Stuart called “Farewell, Leighton Stuart,” which is included in official middle school textbooks in China. Mao associated Stuart with theUnited States’ “cultural aggression” in China. Mao was worried about Stuart’s influence, particularly on intellectuals. And history sometimes repeats itself, because much of China’s official media often use the term “United States’ cultural aggression” to refer to Gary Locke’s actions in China. For instance, Locke carried his own luggage when he arrived in Beijing and he took economy class flights when traveling in China, which embarrassed the Chinese government.
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