What shoe? Chinese media silent over flying shoe

The Chinese Prime Minister narrowly avoided being hit by a flying shoe yesterday as his three-day visit to Britain ended with an Iraqi-style protest from a member of the audience at the University of Cambridge.

Wen Jiabao was nearing the end of his lecture to a hand-picked audience of Cambridge students when a young man in the auditorium blew a whistle and shouted: “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator?”

As security guards converged on him, the man, who had a pronounced German accent, continued to shout. “How can you listen to these lies?”

Before the guards could stop him, the unidentified protester took off his shoe, a heavy grey trainer, and threw it at the stage, missing Mr Wen by a few feet. Two large security guards immediately moved on to the stage at the West Road Concert Hall to shield the Prime Minister.

The man was bundled away, still shouting. The audience, mostly composed of Chinese students studying at Cambridge, shouted “Get out! Get Out!” as he was removed.

Mr Wen, who seemed unruffled, paused for a moment and then said, in Chinese: “This despicable behaviour cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK.”

The episode, which echoed the moment in December when a protester hurled his shoes at George W. Bush during a press conference in Iraq, came at the end of a diplomatic visit that has been marked by a number of protests and arrests.

Mr Wen was in Cambridge to give the Rede Lecture, a 500-year-old tradition at the university. He took the opportunity to describe China’s efforts to combat the financial crisis, to emphasise that China had no lust for world power, and to excoriate the “immorality” of unfettered market greed. “The argument that a big power is bound to seek hegemony does not apply to China,” he said. “China’s development harms no one and threatens no one.”

Earlier, at a press conference with Gordon Brown, Mr Wen laid the blame for the economic downturn at the door of the West. “Some economies have imbalances in their economic structure,” he said. “For a long period of time, they have had trade deficit and fiscal deficit. They have been overspending by borrowing.”

He quoted Adam Smith, the economic theorist, as saying that the fruits of economic development “must be shared by all”. He added: “Through the body of every businessman should flow the blood of morality.”

Mr Wen’s first visit to Britain since 2006 has been a mixed success, with a warm diplomatic tone marred by the embarrassing protests. Standing alongside Mr Brown yesterday, he said that Anglo-Chinese relations were at “a fresh new starting point”. Mr Wen added: “There has been no baggage of history between us, so that both sides now stand at a higher plane and look to the future with a broader vision.”

Mr Brown said that his target was to increase British exports to China from £5 billion in 2008 to £10 billion in 2010. He added: “I believe that there is much scope for trade and investment to expand between our two countries even in these most difficult of times for the global economy.”

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