Chinese technologist Fang Binxing is credited as the father of the Great Firewall of China, the ring of blocks and filters that keeps the Internet in that country under the political control of the ruling regime. Known as the “Golden Shield” in Chinese, is was begun as a way to seize economic opportunities for the country without sacrificing Communist Party control.
Fang, the president of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, was speaking at Wuhan University in China’s Hubei province when he was pelted with an egg (which missed) and a shoe (which did not).
BoingBoing and others credit the attack to an anonymous Twitterer, @hanunyi.
“The egg missed the target. The first shoe hit the target. The second shoe was blocked by a man and a woman,” said @hanunyi
The Guardian reported, “Earlier this year Fang closed a microblog within days of opening it after thousands of Chinese internet users left comments, almost all of them deriding him. They attacked him as ‘a running dog for the government’ and ‘the enemy of netizens.'”
According to the Associated Press, who spoke to local police, Chinese authorities are searching for the egg-loving shoe-thrower. Fang’s office, however, denies the attack happened at all.
The New York Times reported that Fang cut short his speech and made a dash for the airport.
Great Wall photo by Mike Behnken, shoe photo by Steven S.
