American attack sparks rage

last updated 8 January 2015

Tianjin, China

China this week demanded that the U.S. conduct a high-level investigation into the beating of a Chinese tourist by a U.S. Homeland Security inspector. The tourist, businesswoman Zhao Yan, was visiting Niagara Falls when the American officer, Robert Rhodes, threw her against the wall of an inspection station, knocked her head on the floor, and beat her up. Rhodes said he mistakenly thought she was the companion of a man who had just been caught with marijuana. Pictures of a black and blue Zhao, her eyes swollen shut, dominated newspapers in her home province of Tianjin and prompted angry denunciations of the U.S. “I have been to many countries for business purposes,” Zhao told the Beijing China Daily, “and the United States is the most barbarous.” Rhodes has been charged with violating the woman’s civil rights.