No way to treat a friend: China kicks out Mugabe
I originally missed this in The Sydney Morning Herald a few days ago:
ZIMBABWE’S President, Robert Mugabe, has been forced to return home following intense political pressure from the Chinese Communist Party not to attend Friday night’s opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
The Herald understands high-powered lobbying from political leaders who will be attending the ceremony prompted the highest levels of the Chinese Government to convince him not to attend. It is understood he had arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday but could get no further.
After coming under considerable pressure from world leaders China had little choice but to send their good buddy packing, lest Hu Jintao found himself looking at a lot of empty seats in the emperor’s box tonight. Instead he gets to chat with Dubya, whose been saying nice things about China on his tour of Thailand.
While I applaud the act of refusing to allow Mugabe to get further than the men’s room at Hong Kong airport, I have to question why he was extended an invitation in the first place. That was not very savvy of face-conscious Beijing when their big show requires world leaders to show up by the dozen.
I wonder how many guns China promised the despot in return for not causing them embarrassment.