Empire State Building lit for China, drawing ire

[snopes]

Red and yellow lights shone from the top of the Empire State Building at dusk Wednesday, a tribute to communist China's 60th anniversary that protesters labeled "blatant approval" of totalitarianism and criticized as inappropriate for an icon in the land of the free.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091001/...building_china

[AnglRdr]

The lights atop the building, which is owned by W&H Properties, are often are changed.

So a private business is doing something that isn't illegal?

Isn't that the free market at work or something?

[woodness03]

Originally Posted by AnglRdr

So a private business is doing something that isn't illegal?

Isn't that the free market at work or something?

It doesn't mean that the actions cannot be criticized though.

[jimmy101_again]

I wonder who owns W&H Properties?

Would peoples heads explode if they found out the Chinese gov't does?

[Insensible Crier]

One can say that Empire State Building is what China does.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Originally Posted by woodness03

It doesn't mean that the actions cannot be criticized though.

I certainly think it is wrong to honor the anniversary of a totalitarian victory.

The hundredth anniversary of the Chinese Revolution is coming up in the next 2-3 years. If they picked an event from that revolution to commemorate, and it was the same event the current government of China is focusing on, I would be fine with that. But Mao was arguably the worst killer in human history; his triumph is no cause for celebration.