United Airlines Overbooked Flight Incident (Photo : Getty Images)
Chinese social media users erupted over a viral footage of an Asian man being forced off an overbooked United Airlines flight. People have felt racism in the incident and are now calling for a boycott.
The flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday was overbooked, according to the airline. Passengers were asked to give way to airline employees but no one volunteered so officials “randomly” selected who will be forced off the plane.
Fellow passengers took videos of the incident and posted them on Twitter. It can be seen in the footage that the man was screaming as he was dragged off his seat by security personnel.
The man was identified to be David Dao, a 69-year-old doctor. In another video, he was seen bleeding as repeatedly said: “Just kill me.”
The footage was reposted on Sina Weibo, the Chinese counterpart of Twitter. The video quickly went viral and a top-trending topic with more than 270 million views. Most of the 150,000 comments have highly nationalistic tone.
“Shameless! We won’t forgive them. Ethnic Chinese around the world please boycott United Airlines!” a social media user said.
“There is a long history of discrimination against Asians. I hope Chinese people realize this reality and support domestic products,” said another commentator, adding, “Don’t feed those who look down on us!”
Tyler Bridges, a fellow passenger, said to The Washington Post, referring to Dao, “He said, more or less, ‘I’m being selected because I’m Chinese.’”
Chinese in the mainland commonly view ethnic Chinese who are living abroad as compatriots, even if they no longer have ties to China.
United Airlines is the biggest carrier to China, providing more direct U.S.-China flights and to more cities in China, the airlines’ official website claims.
The video was also featured across Chinese media.
“Savage!” the state broadcaster CCTV captioned photos of the passenger’s bloodied face.
The ruling Communist Party’s flagship newspaper China Daily rebuked United Airlines for failure to denounce the incident.
The viral footage revived the long time issue of racism against Asians. Chinese social media continues to express outrage over the case.
