Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

Chinese tourists have long enjoyed a certain infamy abroad for bad behavior, but now their squabbles have taken to the skies. After a series of in-flight incidents, Chinese passengers have become particularly notorious.

The latest case was dubbed "hot watergate," after a China-bound Thai AirAsia flight had to turn around halfway through after a Chinese female passenger scalded an attendant with hot water. Pictures and cellphone videos widely circulated online offered glimpses of the chaos in cabin. A couple got into a furious and hysterical row with the cabin crew after becoming dissatisfied with the in-flight service. The male passenger threatened to blow up the plane while the woman hit windows and threatened to jump off the plane.

This is not the first time that unruly Chinese behavior forced the airplane to turn back. In September 2012, a flight headed for Beijing was forced to return to Switzerland six hours after takeoff when a fierce brawl broke out between two Chinese passengers over how far back a seat should be reclined.

"They are losing us face overseas," many Chinese netizens lamented after seeing the passengers' rude behavior. There were calls for severe punishment of such "shameful" behavior, such as blacklisting those causing turbulence on board and even forbidding them from going abroad. Apparently, no Chinese wants to be considered a "barbarian" by their foreign counterparts.

In recent years, with the exponential growth of outbound tourism, there have been a deluge of reports concerning Chinese travelers' poor behavior worldwide, such as writing graffiti, jaywalking and quarreling on airplane. Many attributed these uncivilized behavior to the poor "cultural level" of Chinese.

We can certainly see all this bad behavior in China. And air rage is not unfamiliar on domestic airlines. In August 2012, a group of emotional passengers blocked an airplane from taking off in protest against a flight delay in Guangzhou.

The consequences of exporting this unruly behavior are serious. As the news of "hot watergate" spread online, many foreign netizens commented that Chinese are the worst tourists in the world. Some even mocked Chinese with a parody quiz in which the four options to the question "Who are the world's worst tourists?" are all Chinese.

When people travel around the world, like it or not, they are representatives of their country, and their behavior, good or bad, can reflect on the nation as a whole. 

The couple in the "hot watergate" incident who disrupted the flight have been blacklisted by the tourism association in their hometown province as a punishment and as a warning to other travelers. One of the ways to curb uncivilized behavior is to strengthen punishment and issue stern guidelines on poor behavior abroad. But from the long run, it needs self-restraint from all Chinese to advance the country's image.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. yujincui@globaltimes.com.cn