³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

I'm not sure whether or not Hillary Clinton likes being reminded that she lost last year's presidential race. But this morning in Beijing, on the last day of Mrs Clinton's tour of Asia, one Chinese activist didn't mind raising the subject.

At a women's leadership forum held at the US Embassy, Mrs Clinton went round the room asking the 22 panellists about the obstacles facing women in this country (the event was open to the media, but we weren't allowed to film it.)

When it came to Xie Lihua, the founder and chairwoman of Rural Women, Ms Xie had a story from the 2008 campaign trail.

"I tried to memorise an English phrase my daughter taught me : 'I hope you win!' But when I got to see you [during the campaign] I forgot to say it. If I had said it, you probably would have won!"

Everyone in the room, including Mrs Clinton, laughed out loud.

There was more laughter a few minutes later.

"This is the first time we've met," said another panellist, "But a couple of years ago I went to the US and had my picture taken next to your waxwork. So it's fate that we should finally meet."

During the hour-long meeting there were also some more serious moments. Eighty-two-year-old Dr Gao Yaojie spoke about her lengthy campaign for the rights of Aids patients, during which she has been obstructed by the authorities.

"This is an important issue," Dr Gao told Mrs Clinton, "I am not afraid!"

There were also complaints about a lack of progress for women in China. Mrs Clinton asked whether or not girl babies were more respected than they were 10 years ago, when she was last in China. Several women in the audience shook their heads.

There was even some delicate criticism of China's political structure - one of the most sensitive subjects in this country.

"I think we need more women in our very high leadership in the government," one panellist said.

"Well, I certainly believe every government needs more women," Mrs Clinton replied with a smile.

While this forum was taking place, another group of women gathered near the old US Embassy in a completely different part of town. They hadn't been invited to any official events, but they wanted to catch Hillary Clinton's attention while she was in Beijing, so they decided to go the US Embassy. The trouble is - the Embassy moved to a new location last summer. The women had gone to the wrong place. Despite this, they decided to go ahead with their protest. They raised a banner with words printed in English :

"Dear Clinton, Secretary of State,
13 years ago, you in Beijing with emphasis on all the Government to respect the basic human rights of women and men obligations. You once said that respect for human rights means that "not only because the citizens of the peaceful expression of views and ideas, so citizens from their loved ones taken away while in custody, abuse them, denied their freedom and dignity." I love Bill Clinton Hillary. We are all witnesses of human rights in China!"

(The quote attributed to Mrs Clinton appears to be a slightly garbled retranslation from Chinese into English of a speech she gave in Beijing to the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.)

After about 10 minutes the police arrived. The women put down their banner and dispersed. Several of them were taken away by the police for questioning.

At about the same time, Hillary Clinton left the new US Embassy in her motorcade and was driven to the airport.

During her 42 hours in this country, Mrs Clinton met all of the Communist Party's main leaders, she went to church, visited a power plant, held talks with female activists, gave interviews and a webchat.

But she had very few spontaneous meetings with ordinary Chinese citizens. In the end, some of those trying to attract her attention to remind her of her own words had simply gone to the wrong place.

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?