(Image source: Cheers and Jeers)
BY JIM FLINK
Goodwill games in China turn to fisticuffs. Who’s to blame? Visiting American’s Georgetown U -- or the Chinese team that has ties to the People’s Liberation Army. The Washington Post Gene Wang -- has the smackdown.
“The fight began when Jason Clark, a member of the Georgetown basketball team was pushed to the ground by a Chinese basketball player. Jason did not take kindly to that, and had words for the Chinese player, at which point both benches erupted, and on to the court. There were chairs flying everywhere.”
Ugly Americans? It might be easy to blame the Hoyas.
In a physical match -- Georgetown had 28 fouls -- to the Chinese team’s 11.
But WRC-TV notes this has happened before. ...
“In 2005, a brawl broke out in the final minutes of a game against Puerto Rico in Beijing after two Chinese players launched themselves off of the bench to go after the Puerto Rican players.”
Back then -- China needed to play nice.
The New York Times explains why.
“China's basketball association deplored the violence as setting a poor example three years before Beijing plays host to the Summer Olympics. It said it would adopt measures to prevent such violence from recurring.”
And then -- there’s the tiny matter of a Sino-Brazilan smackdown just months ago -- which the Wall Street Journal notes....
“....led to spirited debate among Chinese sports commentators — a number of whom defended the Chinese team’s right to fight. Chinese media have been noticeably tamer...recounting events so far without offering commentary. China’s Internet censors... appear to be playing it safe.”
TIME reports, the brawl undermines U.S. Veep Joe Biden’s trip to China -- drumming up better relations. He hoped to draw a page from history....
“The mix of sport and international relations had prompted suggestions of a return of ‘ping-pong diplomacy,’ the 1970s table tennis exchanges that helped ease Sino-U.S. tensions... surely the vice president hoped the sight of him having friendly chats with Beijingers at lunch would be the defining image of the day. It was not.”
No mention of the fracas on Xinhua. Just smiling faces there...including Mr. Biden with Chinese leaders.
Multiple reports note, Chinese police stood by and did nothing to control the crowd. Players asked for -- but did not receive -- a security escort to the team bus.
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