More shoes for Wen Jibao or Hu Jintao

Wen Jibao is on the last legs of his kiss 'n make up tour of Europe. China with its bags of reminbi yuan is making the rounds to soften the hard knocks it took last year thanks to tthe uprising in Tibet and the mud on its face for its steel gloves approach to the Summer Beijing Olympics and its handling of dissent. Not only that prime minister Wen and president Hu have had to face the winds of internal unrest, corruption, and the spill over of get rich quick friends of theirs who built bad schools and poisoned baby formulas. Well, the last thing Wen Jibao wants is a loss of face, and that he got as he addressed a gathering at the prestigeous Cambridge University. An angry student threw a shoe at him. Wen hasn't the presence of mind to laugh it off like George Bush did in Baghdad's Green Zone. On the other hand, we know that the protester won't be the victim of police violence. Wen uttered a menace saying this incident won't derail good economic ties with 10 Downing Street. Nonetheless these words surely should send a shiver down the already failing British economy. What Wen is not saying is that as the 50 anniversary of the takeover of Tibet and the flight of the Dalai Lama, who enjoys respect and international prestige and honours, has cleared the field for a warlike crackdown on Tibet and neighbouring provinces with a strong Tibetan minority. In other words, he's softening his critics with promises of buying them off with Chinese money. Wen & Hu & the whole corrupt Communist Party deserve our contempt, and an international programme should begin by sending them our old, smelly shoes. Internally with its road to capitalism gone wrong, these old men are forever fearful of their own people. And they should be...for time is no longer on their side.