British Prime Minister David Cameron faced demands for the return of priceless artifacts looted from Beijing in the 19th century yesterday, the last day of his visit to China.
Cameron traveled to the southwestern city of Chengdu on the third day of what embassy officials said was the largest-ever British trade mission to the country.
British officials say ￡5.6 billion (US$9.18 billion) worth of deals have been signed so far on the trip, but Cameron has been derided by both Chinese state-run media and the country’s sharp-tongued Internet users.
Photo: Reuters
Cameron on Friday set up his own microblogging page on Sina Weibo, attracting more than 230,000 followers by yesterday.
He invited netizens to ask questions, saying that he would aim to reply during the visit.
One of the most popular questions was posted by a prominent Chinese think tank, the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, which is headed by former Chinese vice premier Zeng Peiyan (曾培炎) and includes as its members many top government officials and leading economists.
“When will Britain return the illegally plundered artifacts?” the organization asked, referring to 23,000 items in the British Museum which it says were looted by the British Army, part of the eight-nation alliance that put down the Boxer Rebellion at the end of the 19th century, a popular uprising against the incursion of European imperial powers in China.
To the Chinese, the ransacking of the Forbidden City and the earlier destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 — about which one British officer wrote: “You can scarcely imagine the beauty and magnificence of the places we burnt. It made one’s heart sore to burn them” — remain key symbols of how the country was once dominated by foreign powers.
Even now the Chinese Communist Party appeals to nationalism to bolster its popularity.
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