Flags lowered to mourn former Cambodian king

By Yang Jingjie Source:Global Times Published: 2012-10-18 0:50:03

 

The national flag at Tian'anmen Square is flown at half-mast Wednesday in Beijing as a sign of respect for the passing of Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk. Photo: Li Hao/GT
The national flag at Tian'anmen Square is flown at half-mast Wednesday in Beijing as a sign of respect for the passing of Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk. Photo: Li Hao/GT



Chinese national flags flew at half-mast Wednesday to pay respect to Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk, whose body was being brought home from Beijing.

Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni, Sihanouk's widow Queen Monique and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen were on a special Air China flight that was returning the former King home. Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo also escorted the coffin to Phnom Penh.

State leaders, led by President Hu Jintao, participated in a farewell ceremony at Beijing Hospital on Wednesday, before Sihanouk's departure.

China's national flags were at half-mast along the route to the airport. The front gate of the central government, the foreign ministry and Tian'anmen Square also saw flags fly at half-mast, China Central Television reported.

It was the first time that Chinese flags had been lowered to half-mast to mourn a late foreign leader in 18 years.

China lowered its flags for foreign leaders including Joseph Stalin, Charles de Gaulle and Ho Chi Minh prior to the 1970s. The last time it had lowered its flags was in 1994, when North Korean leader Kim Il-sung died.

On Sina Weibo, a post questioning the lowering of the flags has been reposted by Web users nearly 16,000 times, and followed with more than 3,000 comments.

The post argued that the government didn't lower its flags to mourn the victims of a Beijing rainstorm which killed 79 this year, nor for those who died in the train collision in Wenzhou last year. It said that the government instead did that for an exiled foreign leader, and that this action alienated the Chinese public.

Jia Qingguo, associate dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, told the Global Times that paying respects to Sihanouk is a diplomatic gesture by China.

"The former King had a close relationship with China for decades. It shows that China values this long standing friendship. And in terms of politics, Beijing values friendly ties with neighboring countries. The respect paid to Sihanouk shows its will to maintain and develop closer ties with Cambodia and the ASEAN," said Jia.

The professor suggested  the State legislature set up more specific standards for national condolences.

According to the current law, flags should be lowered to half-mast for those who made great contributions to the country, world peace and the cause of human progress. It also stipulates that the flags could fly at half-mast for accidents or natural disasters that caused heavy casualties.

In recent years, flags were lowered to half-mast to mourn victims of the Yushu earthquake and the Zhouqu landslide in 2010.

 



Posted in: Diplomacy

blog comments powered by Disqus