Another World Leader, Another Thrown Shoe

Protester Throws Shoe at China's Premier

A protester at Britain's Cambridge University has thrown a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as he delivered a speech on the world economy.
The shoe missed its target, and security guards detained the protester, who called Mr. Wen a dictator. The premier paused for a few seconds, then continued his speech.

China's media, quick to report when a shoe was thrown at former President George W. Bush last year, fell silent Tuesday about a protester hurling his shoe at the Chinese premier during a speech in Britain.

What shoe? Chinese media silent on shoe toss

Unlike the now-famous incident when an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at Bush in December, covered widely not only in China but around the world, state-run newspapers and Web sites in China carried stories on Wen's speech but had no reference to the shoe-throwing. Content mentioning it on Internet forums also appears to have been deleted.

The official Xinhua News Agency issued a story saying that Britain apologized for an incident and that China had "expressed its strong feelings against the occurrence of the incident." However, it did not say what the incident was.
China's state-run CCTV network reported Foreign Ministry comments, which acknowledged a "disturbance" during the speech, but made no mention a shoe had been thrown at Wen.
China keeps a tight grip over the Internet, blocking any content deemed as a challenge or insulting to the ruling Communist Party or the country's leaders.