Spielberg said last week that his conscience would no longer allow him to work on the Olympics as an artistic consultant while Sudan’s China-backed government carried out genocide in its western Darfur province.
Spielberg’s films have been box office hits in China but the producer has come under regular attack after his withdrawal from the Beijing Games.
“This person is completely living in his sci-fi world and cannot distinguish dream from reality,” said a commentator in the China Youth Daily.
The official Xinhua news agency said Chinese people were baffled by the behaviour of the man behind blockbusters like E.T., Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List.
“Mr Spielberg knows nothing about China’s endeavour to solve the Darfur issue,” Xinhua quoted a commentary in the Guangming Daily as saying. “He is unqualified to blame the Chinese government.”
Actually, everyone is qualified to “blame the Chinese government” if they so choose. It’s called freedom of expression and there will be none of that in evidence this August in Beijing.