Hooray for Dr. Wang

The woman who heckled Chinese President Hu is the big story today no matter what the MSM does with it. This event stands to upstage the entire visit, simply because it was something that needed to be done--and simply because we know the Chinese leader won't be saying anything important anyway.

Reaction is mixed so far. Not sure if the following represents mock outrage, feigned indignation, or something else entirely:

It's hugely embarrassing," said Derek Mitchell, a former Asia adviser at the Pentagon and now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worst fears and suspicions about the United States, into mistrust about American intentions toward China."

Let's clear up the suspicions--we don't trust China either, and communism still sucks.

But to answer his insinuation, there will certainly be speculation as to whether the event was orchestrated by Karl Rove as one final political stunt for the road before being un-portfolioed. It makes sense--Bush certainly can't talk smack like that to a leader without causing an international scene, so why not use a proxy? It would be nice to think he's capable of such a thing. Meanwhile, the MSM is more enamored with the fact Bush finally apologized for something.

As to the hypocrisy angle (the right is always condemning people for interrupting Bush's speeches) there's a tad of that here, but people holding that view should consider the consequences of similar outbursts in China. If the Kos kids moved to China they'd soon see four interior walls without passing go. Meanwhile Bush-bashing occurs here on a daily basis and nobody ends up disappeared or dead. The Chinese president desperately needed an earful of dissent. After all, he's fouling up the air, making bombs and missiles and sending people to secret prisons just like Bush is accused of doing.

With that you'd think the collective left would rise up in full support of Dr. Wang, but so far there doesn't seem to be a groundswell. We might also expect a fair and balanced left to immortalize Dr. Wang just like they do everytime an audience member stands up and courageously questions a republican. We'll see.

In the meantime somebody should introduce Mr. Hu to Mr. Wu:










UPDATE 4/22/06

Well, this stinks.



edit for grammar