Racism in China

The Wall Street Journal reports that Obama’s visit to China has raised the specter of racism in China.  Here’s an excerpt:

The changes are prompting some Chinese to confront issues of racism and discrimination for the first time. Attitudes towards black have come into especially sharp relief in recent weeks, thanks to an incident involving a nationally televised talent show. One contestant on the show, called “Oriental Angel,” was a young Shanghai woman named Lou Jing who is the child of a Chinese mother and an African-American father-a relatively rare combination in China. Her participation in the show prompted a firestorm of epithets from viewers-and criticism of that reaction from others.

I got a taste of Chinese racial attitudes during a lunch I was at early last year during the presidential primary campaign.  I sat next to a woman who was a deputy minister in the Ministry of Commerce.  She declared fervently that “Americans will never elect a black man as president!”  I took exception and expressed my admiration for Obama and said that he was getting large crowds in his appearances.  She claimed that the crowds were generated by antipathy to Hillary Clinton.

She clearly believed that America was a racist country.  I wonder where she is today, as Obama visits Beijing.