Beijing cracks down on sales of bin Laden badges
Authorities in China’s capital have raided street stalls and wholesale markets and seized badges bearing the image of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, an official newspaper said today.
Four types of pin-on badges were being sold, all bearing the now-familiar image of the bearded Islamic militant the US accuses of being behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
It said one badge was printed with the slogan: ‘‘I am bin Laden. Who should I fear?’’
The paper showed the badges being displayed alongside pins featuring favourite cartoon characters and Chinese and Western performers such as Michael Jackson.
Stalls set up near schools were selling up to 20 bin Laden badges a day, it said.
The paper quoted a government commercial regulator saying that, while no specific regulation exists to ban the bin Laden badges, they were considered ‘‘undesirable cultural articles’’.
Bin Laden has recently popped up elsewhere as a marketing ploy. Earlier this month, authorities in Lanzhou, a city in China’s Muslim northwest, closed a restaurant called Bin Laden’s Beef Noodles, after complaints from residents.
Some 18 million Chinese are Muslim. While the communist government has endorsed the campaign to catch bin Laden, Chinese propaganda has long portrayed the United States as a bully bent on world domination.
