iPad 2 Launch Turns Bloody: Apple Sanlitun Locked Down

Firstly people, lets get our facts straight. Chinese is not a race, it is a nationality. Han is a race. I know Uighur, Mongolians, Miao people who are also Chinese. So when use the term Chinese you in a disparaging way, you are referring to their nationality. You cannot be racist for calling an American greedy, rude or stupid. Same goes for Chinese.

But when a Chinese person refers to a non Chinese person as a white, black or brown person, that is racist.

Han people really struggle with the idea of race. They do not think of themselves in a nation-state sort of way, but rather as a 5000 year old civilization who has conquered, oppressed or assimilated the various other races and civilizations around them into Han culture. They relate their nationality with their race and give no thought that their country is made up of many different races who are also Chinese. Mongolians ruled over them for hundreds of years, but Chinese history does not tell the story that way. Apparently the Tibetans were feudal (but the actions of the Great Leap Forward were not).

Don't they have video cameras all over that store? I can't believe they didn't capture the event.

Seems to me it would be in Apple's best interest to make the facts known in order to avoid bad press.

Lesson is: go to any big american brand store, act like a typical chinese person, when asked to leave start a fight and say you were beaten.....20,000 in your pocket!

So this scalper got paid 20,000 to not cut in front of people. 8}

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/05/09/china.apple.iPad.fight/index.html

Look at those flimsy barriers in the photo - that's a crush waiting to happen.

Some "nuance" from a follow-up report:

"The foreign attacker will pay a total of more than 20,000 yuan to the victim for medical costs and nutrition costs."

"Suddenly, a foreigner rushed out of the store and began beating a man down to the ground until his waist bled."

"After questioning the witnesses and watching the surveillance video, police officers affirmed that there were people jumping the queue at the spot. However, they said they can not affirm whether the beaten man is a scalper or not."

Great how the police can watch the footage and still apparently offer no explanation as to what happened. Sure, you can't tell a scalper by looking, but still seems like a weak outcome. Also interesting how in the description of the attack, the "attacker" is no longer an Apple employee. He apparently has no nationality, no name, no motive or explanation for his actions. The "victim" has no name, no occupation, there's no description of what he was doing seconds before the attack.

Everything reduced to "a foreigner," "a man," and a "beating." Lazy, irresponsible and dangerous reporting.

I hate the fact that it seems a laowai was involved in this. He must have been a total dope, and I can see one of these type of incidents turning nasty for all of us one of these days.

But I would bet with 99% certainty that the "victim" was being an absolute turd, and it's a shame that fact is not made clear to everyone reading these reports. If that was made clear, the story would at least look less like a foreigner just beating on an innocent man. Also, it would then be obvious that the people responsible for this farcical incident were a few scumbag idiots and not the average Chinese person, as some of the above commenters lazily imply.

Android!
Android!
Android!

My ayi told me about this today. She saw it on the news. It was reported a laowai threw a computer at a chinese person injuring them. It was on the news. Must be true.

It was because ppl were cutting the line. CHINESE SCALPERS. typical

Sounds like typical behaviour of Beijing people to me. Just as typical as blaming a "foreign worker" for starting it. Not the uneducated rude selfish ill mannered locals who have no regard for anyone but themselves. Nothing is ever their fault.
What a joke.

this story isn't embarrassing just for Beijing. It's embarrassing for humanity, for Western influence, for Apple, for consumerism, etc. (You think the Chinese people decided they'd do anything to get their hands on iPads all by themselves? Apple MIGHT have something to do with that...)

Things like this happen on Black Friday in the US, but it gets lost in all the news about which sales to go to.

if it can happen in the US, where capitalism and status symbols have been going strong for centuries - and where socioeconomic gaps, while appalling, are not nearly as large as China's - then it's easy to see how things like this can erupt...

this might also be more interesting if we can ever find out what ACTUALLY happened. so far still lots of speculation.

My internet cafe is closed!!!

How the fu*k did I miss this???

As a matter of fact there are foreign employees at Apple's SLT. Seen at least 1 before that I'm guessing was hired to cater to foreign customers. Both of you should get your facts right before you start lambasting the Chinese.