The Semi-Attacked Politicians' Club
So, Wen Jiabao survived his .
The Chinese government has - it's called the shoe-thrower's actions "despicable". (Compare this to after a shoe was thrown at former US President Bush in Iraq.)
Perhaps China's Premier should have seen it coming. After all, Mr Wen was welcomed to the UK on Saturday by the patron saint of the Semi-Attacked Politicians' Club - John Prescott.
Mr Prescott was Britain's deputy prime minister during the government of Tony Blair. He was also a tempting target for protesters.
In 1998, a singer from the group Chumbawumba during an awards ceremony. Then, during the 2001 general election campaign, as he walked by. Mr Prescott responded with a hefty left hook ("John is John," Tony Blair later commented.)
Wen Jiabao's response was much more restrained. But China is a country which is acutely sensitive to insults - particularly from the West (as I've written here before, all Chinese schoolchildren are taught about this country's "Century of Humiliation" from 1842 to 1949, in which China was occupied by Western powers).
One of the most famous insults is The Jilted Handshake. A widely-told story says that, at the Geneva Conference in 1954, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai offered his hand to the US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. At the time, the two countries had no diplomatic relations, and the US Secretary of State was particularly well-known for his anti-Communist passion. So, Mr Dulles refused to shake Mr Zhou's hand. This insult was keenly felt in China. (America made up for it in 1972 when President Richard Nixon landed in Beijing and came down the steps of Air Force One with his hand outstretched.)
And a colleague of mine has just come across to count how many times China has been offended over the years. Out of interest, Japan comes top with 47 insults.
PS: I wonder whether that shoe was made in China.
PPS: A fascinating update. When the news first broke, the Chinese state media skirted around the story, referring to the shoe-throwing obliquely as a "disturbance." But I've just watched the main evening TV news bulletin broadcast by CCTV (the state broadcaster). The bulletin featured a prominent, detailed report on the incident - complete with the protester's shouts, Wen Jiabao's reaction to the shoe landing nearby, and footage of the protester being removed from the hall.
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