Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host heard by millions of Americans, came under fire on Thursday from Asian Americans after he mocked the way visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) speaks.
The commentator lampooned Hu — who he called the “ChiCom dictator” — over his joint news conference on Wednesday with US President Barack Obama that was marred by a delay in translation.
“He was speaking and they weren’t translating. They normally translate every couple of words, but Hu Jintao was just going, ‘-ching chong, ching chong, chong,’” Limbaugh said, continuing his imitation at length.
Representative David Wu, the first Chinese American to serve in Congress and a member of Obama’s Democratic Party, criticized Limbaugh for his “pathetic childishness.”
“In doing so, he ridicules one of the world’s oldest languages, insults the Chinese American and Asian American communities and disrespects the 1.3 billion people of China,” Wu said.
Representative Mike Honda, a Japanese American Democrat who heads the Asian American caucus in Congress, accused Limbaugh of trying to “outpace others on all things inflammatory, ignorant and inane.”
Honda said that House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, met “diplomatically” with Hu on Thursday despite US differences with China.
“If we are to outpace each other on anything, let it be -statesman-like diplomacy, not grade-school incivility,” Honda said.
Limbaugh, a critic of Obama and his Democratic Party, is the most heard radio talk-show host in the US. Trade journal Talkers estimates he has a weekly audience of more than 15 million people.
Limbaugh, whose humor frequently causes controversy, was critical of Obama’s black-tie dinner for Hu. He said that China was detaining Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), the writer and rights advocate who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month.
“Imagine if we had Al Gore locked up in jail. I know, we can dream. But imagine,” he said jokingly, referring to the former US vice president who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for drawing awareness to climate change.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
RSS