BEIJING (AP) – Images of a bloodied passenger being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight in Chicago drew widespread condemnation in China following a witnesses’ report that the man said he was targeted because he was Chinese.
Video of the violent incident posted on China’s popular Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo had been viewed more than 210 million times by late Tuesday. Many responded with outrage over perceived ethnic bias against the passenger and some called for a boycott of the U.S.-based airline.
“Rubbish!” writer Su Danqing posted on Weibo. “When they were treating this Asian man, they never thought of human rights, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it that way.”
“Damn it! This airline must be boycotted!” said a posting from Liu Bing, a telecommunications company worker.
State-run media fueled the anger with reports that noted the unidentified victim was an “Asian passenger.”