China's UN diplomat in drunken rant against Americans

China's UN diplomat in drunken rant against Americans - Telegraph

I have always been admiring Sha for his unique personality.
It is so rare to see a Chinese diplomat who can be as straightforward and outspoken as him, which just makes him very special.

This incident may be awkward to Mr Sha, but it has nothing to do with China. Technically speaking, Mr Sha, who is the UN undersecretary general for Economic and Social Affairs, works for UN, not for China. Hence what he says only represents himself.

BTW, i love this part

the clueless and stupid Ban Ki-moon deserves such a rant.

China's UN diplomat in drunken rant against Americans

Mr Sha, who was appointed the UN undersecretary general for Economic and Social Affairs in 2007, also made no secret of his fractious relationship with Mr Ban, although did say he'd grown to respect the South Korean.

"You've been trying to get rid of me," said 62-year-old Mr Sha according to the senior UN official present, "You can fire me anytime, you can fire me today."

Later in his impromptu speech Mr Sha turned to an American colleague, singling out Bob Orr, from the executive office of the secretary-general.

"I really don't like him: he's an American and I really don't like Americans," he said.

A second senior UN official who was at the dinner said: "It went on for about ten or fifteen minutes but it felt like an hour."

Officials present at the dinner suggested that Mr Sha might have been the victim of a misguided attempt at humour.

The next morning Mr Sha requested a meeting with Mr Ban during which he was "deeply apologetic" according to Farhan Haq, the acting deputy UN spokesman.

Mr Farhan said: "Mr Sha told the Secretary General that he realised that the way that he spoke, coming as it did after he had had a few drinks, was inappropriate, as it went too far. He was also aware that his statements had embarrassed and irritated other senior advisers."

It is not the first time that Mr Sha, a career diplomat, has let the mask of diplomacy slip. In a BBC interview in 2006 he was goaded into a furious, shrieking attack on American criticisms of China's rapidly growing defence budget.

"It is much better for [America] to shut up, keep quiet. Are you the number one? Is it true that the US has almost 50 per cent of the world's military budget?"

The Chinese population is five or six times bigger.

"Why blame China? Forget it. It's high time to shut up. It's America's sovereign right to do whatever is good for them. But don't tell us what is good for China."

China's UN diplomat in drunken rant against Americans - Telegraph

Chinese are proud that their representative got drunk and lashed the Americans. They must encourage all its politicians to get drunk so that they be straight forward.

I cant see what wrong thing he said ?

neo29, I admire Mr Sha because he is different, he is special. If every Chinese diplomat conducts themselves like Mr Sha, then he is not special. So i don't encourage all Chinese diplomat to imitate Mr Sha. Neither should they, because wearing a diplomatic mask is a must for most of them.

And Mr Sha tells truth when he doesn't get drunken. Like i said, he is a outspoken person. But this time the fact he got drunken does add some dramatic effect to this incident.

It's one thing to freak out during a private conversation, and quite another to stand on stage with a microphone, sozzled and ranting. It may please the fan boys but is is very bad manners.
Chinese people are generally quite well-mannered- this was inappropriate and will bring a bad name to Chinese people.
He should be reprimands by whoever reprimands these guys.

bold truth is always better than insincere "polite fomula"!

^^ At a personal level may be, but at a diplomatic level that's a big NO. Diplomats are paid to maintain a polite facade to serious and contentious disputes. So if a diplomat starts talking blunt truth, then he/she is not doing their job.

Good diplomat knows to tell the blunt truth at the right time, that is what Mr Sha does.

Mr Sha is not always as aggressive as being portrayed by western media, he maintains good manners at most occasions and has good relations with many foreign diplomats. But he does stand up to those by whom he feel offended, most of which happens to be americans.

We should understand he get promoted to what he is for a reason, time proves he is a qualified diplomat despite this episode.