2 February 2009
Premier Wen Jiabao of The People’s Republic of China made the trip from London to the University of Cambridge this afternoon despite the snowstorm to give the prestigious Rede Lecture at West Road Concert Hall.
He spoke to a packed and receptive international audience of more than 500 staff and students about the history of development in China, the challenges ahead and the present financial crisis. The lecture was entitled: "See China in the Light of Her Development".
He then responded to questions from the audience.
His lecture was briefly interrupted by a member of the audience who was removed from the lecture by University Proctors and has subsequently been arrested by Police on suspicion of breach of the peace and attempted assault.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard, said: "We were much honoured that Premier Wen gave the Rede Lecture this afternoon, and I was delighted to accept his gift of the China Digital Library, in recognition of the University's 800th Anniversary.
"I deeply regret that a single member of the audience this afternoon failed to show the respect for our speaker that is customary at Cambridge. This university is a place for considered argument and debate, not for shoe-throwing."
I would not have used the word 卑鄙 because it does not convey the right meaning.
He may not be eloquent, but it does not disqualify him from being a much-admired leader--having 86,181 supporters on Facebook is not easy for a non-elected official.
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1 comment:
Comments from facebook:
Ji Zhang at 10:07pm February 2
if we have facebook half a century ago, chairman Mao may have more than 1 billion supporters on it.
Lawrence Zhan Zhang at 11:19pm February 2
in 1959 the entire population of China was less than 0.7 billion
Barack Obama has more than 5 million supporters on Facebook. Being supportive can be an entirely ignorant or well-contemplated behavior, so I'm not sure to which direction your analogy points
I personally feel people smart enough to use facebook are generally not that blind
Ji Zhang at 11:40pm February 2
I was thinking people not only in China, but also including people in other parts of the world.
Lawrence Zhan Zhang at 12:12am February 3
Points taken. I might still have some quibble about your estimated number because I think Maoism was in vogue around the world only much later than 1959.
To make my point more blatant: supporters of Mao half a century ago were mostly illiterate, whereas today's facebook users are often quite highly-educated. There is no comparison in terms of levels of enlightenment.
Lawrence Zhan Zhang at 12:21am February 3
funny thing that the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman subtly changed the rhetoric from 卑鄙 to 卑劣: obviously the latter is a much more appropriate way of describing impolite behavior towards a distinguished guest.
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