http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080809/ap_on_re_as/oly_china_american_killed

Quote :

"BEIJING - Beijing authorities say a Chinese man attacked two American tourists on the opening day of the Olympic Games, killing one of them before committing suicide. The Beijing Municipal Government says the attack happened in downtown Beijing at noon on Saturday. Officials issued a statement saying the 47-year-old attacker, Tang Yongming, also injured an American woman and her Chinese tourist guide. The attack took place on the second level of the Drum Tower, a popular tourist attraction in north Beijing. Tang threw himself from the ancient monument used to tell time centuries ago."

Re-stirring the pot of Anti-Chinese sentiment on TWW in 3...2...1...READYGO!

8/9/2008 5:12:00 AM

who cares...with 1 billion + people you cant expect all of them to be sane...i mean look at the US for christ sakes...we got enough fucked up people over here as it is

8/9/2008 5:41:24 AM

^^you're an idiot

8/9/2008 5:44:21 AM

thread title is incorrect.

failboat.

8/9/2008 6:22:20 AM

Apparently a fight broke out after the assailant put pee pee in the tourists' coke.

8/9/2008 10:47:03 AM

Ban knives

and possibly tall buildings, too.

8/9/2008 10:57:36 AM

Quote :

"who cares...with 1 billion + people you cant expect all of them to be sane...i mean look at the US for christ sakes...we got enough fucked up people over here as it is"

I don't get it, how is it sometimes you seem like a perfectly reasonable and capable of rational thought human being...and other (most of the time) you seem like a total idiot.

8/9/2008 11:08:13 AM

His name would imply the reason is that, at least sometimes, he is drunk and loaded.

8/9/2008 11:58:14 AM

i'm not sure if thats a comment you find rational or idiot

[Edited on August 9, 2008 at 2:01 PM. Reason : imo its like "common sense" but whatev...]

8/9/2008 2:01:13 PM

I like how they threw in the bit about the drum tower at the end there. I think that was more interesting to me than the story.

8/9/2008 2:34:40 PM

the statement he quoted seemed legit

8/9/2008 2:34:53 PM

^ Honestly. Wherever you go, there are going to be fuckups who cant just operate like a normal person. They either dont get it or are sick in some way. Its pure chance whether they come around at times like these. People shoot presidents, bomb the olympics, etc.

If you think thats dumb, I think youre being a little naive. People are going to be people. Not everyone is a productive member of society. Some people are just off and mess things up for everyone. Not a ton you can do about it. Its honestly bound to happen in some form sooner or later.

8/9/2008 6:53:16 PM

This is an embarrassment to the Chinese government not because some foreigner was killed in their nation but because foreign tourists were murdered at a major tourist attraction in the heart of Beijing while the Chinese government had the entire city under lockdown for the Olympics. Throw in the fact that they were connected to the US Olympic team, and it makes them look even worse.

I'm pretty sure the dude was nuts and a significant outlier in the 1.3 billion person gene pool of the People's Republic of China. A crazy determined guy can certainly do a lot of damage no matter how much security you put down. Even with existing tensions, the vast majority of Chinese, rational or mostly-rational, probably want to put up a good face for all the visiting foreigners. Killing foreign tourists so publicly in the heart of Beijing is not a way to accomplish that goal.

8/9/2008 10:49:03 PM

I also liked this user comment from the Washington Post:

Quote :

"It's a good thing that guy killed himself. For marring the Chinese games he probably would have received a punishment that would make Guantanamo Bay look like Disney World."

8/9/2008 10:54:58 PM

Maybe he was the sole person not to make the cut for the big Tai Chi display during the opening ceremony.

8/9/2008 11:07:09 PM

^/thread

8/9/2008 11:41:12 PM

Quote :

" This is an embarrassment to the Chinese government not because some foreigner was killed in their nation but because foreign tourists were murdered at a major tourist attraction in the heart of Beijing while the Chinese government had the entire city under lockdown for the Olympics. "

I don't see why it would make them look particularly bad. Didn't we have a bombing during the Atlanta games?

8/9/2008 11:56:21 PM

Quote :

"The U.S. Olympic Committee said the man who was killed was Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of men's indoor volleyball head coach Hugh McCutcheon. Mr. Bachman's wife, Barbara, "suffered multiple lacerations and stab wounds," the USOC said in a statement, but "after undergoing approximately eight hours of surgery, she is in critical but stable condition at a Beijing hospital.""

8/10/2008 4:23:26 AM

It's an embarrassment in light of how belligerent the Chinese government has been. They act -- to put it colloquially -- like their shit doesn't stink. And we see now that it does, and how. That is an indictment not of the rule of law in China, but their PR and its utter lack of pragmatism.

The Chinese authorities at the highest levels would do well at this juncture to call for a national day of mourning for the deceased and an permanent end to such violence -- the point being to admit that such violence exists and the state is fallible, if only for a moment.

[Edited on August 10, 2008 at 6:14 AM. Reason : foo]

8/10/2008 6:11:55 AM

^ I can't see any country on the planet (except maybe Canada) having their leaders go on TV, especially not during the Olympics, and acknowledging their country has flaws. They know their country has flaws, we know it has flaws, but now that they have the spotlight, they have to run it like a giant PR campaign, which means NOT acknowledging those flaws. I know that we wouldn't do this either (and i'm sure many in other countries would argue that we do in fact have many flaws).

8/10/2008 10:51:44 AM

^^ ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

National leaders should declare national days of mourning for random acts of violence? Does this only apply to China, or does it also apply to the other ~192 countries of the world?

8/10/2008 11:33:13 AM

^^

You're nuts. The Chinese government has bumbled through every aspect of their "PR" campaign since the Olympics started. They have acted like paranoid, tin foil hat dictators since this whole thing started.

Countries have to acknowledge their flaws because of this tiny little thing called "credibility." A PR campaign isn't the same as a propaganda campaign; admitting mistakes and flaws can be a powerful device for building credibility when it's done right.

8/10/2008 1:45:21 PM

Quote :

"I don't see why it would make them look particularly bad. Didn't we have a bombing during the Atlanta games?"

I don't disagree that the bombing in Atlanta was an embarrassment to both Atlanta PD and the US government. However, we don't have a large historical chip on our shoulder that we're trying to remove by hosting the Olympics. The Chinese do however, and given that they've really promoted these games as a sort of Debutante Ball, this sort of ugly incident, as random as it is, still makes them look rather bad.

8/10/2008 1:56:31 PM

Smoker4 makes me scratch my head sometimes.

8/10/2008 2:30:34 PM

Quote :

"However, we don't have a large historical chip on our shoulder"

LOL

youre funny

8/10/2008 4:41:27 PM