Time magazine’s Beijing correspondent Simon Elegant writes:
Like all other foreign journalists in China, I get my share of criticism from Chinese readers, mostly about my stories on TIME’s website or my posts on our China Blog. Some of the criticism can be pretty sharp–that comes with the territory. But the opprobrium has taken on a distinctly unpleasant edge in recent weeks as a wave of nationalist anger has roiled China. “Simon, you will be hated by 1.3 billion Chinese,” someone wrote in response to my blog post about the chaotic progress of the Olympic torch through London. “Hope someday someone will spit on your face. Your name will be recorded in Chinese history book forever as one of cold blooded, Hitler-type, murder’s assistant.”
Overkill? Fellow foreign correspondents in Beijing have received much worse, including death threats credible enough to prompt some of them to move offices. The explosion of rage was initially sparked by what many Chinese perceive as biased international coverage of the bloody riots in Tibet on March 14 and the continuing crackdown by Chinese security forces that followed. Then, as the Olympic-torch relay was greeted by pro-Tibet demonstrations in London, Paris and San Francisco, many Chinese felt their national honor had been besmirched.
