Emily Chang, CNN Reporter, Detained In Shanghai Over Obama-Mao T-Shirt
Orders to prevent sales of T-shirts showing Obama dressed like communist revolutionary Mao Zedong are in force during the president's visit -- and Chinese officials mean it, as a CNN reporter found out.
Correspondent Emily Chang reported that she went searching for Oba-Mao souvenirs at Shanghai's Yatai Xinyang market. Finding none, she pulled out a T-shirt she bought before the ban was imposed to record a report in the market.
Security guards pounced, telling her she did not have permission to film there and trying to grab the shirt, according to a report on CNN's Web site.
Chang was detained for two hours before being let go, with the shirt, the report said.
A cottage industry in T-shirts and other Oba-Mao trinkets catering mainly to foreign tourists has thrived in recent months. Bans such as the one that commercial regulators ordered in recent weeks are usually temporary. When U.S. or European government officials come to Beijing for trade talks, local markets typically remove copies of brand-name designer clothes -- until the foreign negotiators leave town.
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Correspondent Emily Chang reported that she went searching for Oba-Mao souvenirs at Shanghai's Yatai Xinyang market. Finding none, she pulled out a T-shirt she bought before the ban was imposed to record a report in the market.
Security guards pounced, telling her she did not have permission to film there and trying to grab the shirt, according to a report on CNN's Web site.
Chang was detained for two hours before being let go, with the shirt, the report said.
A cottage industry in T-shirts and other Oba-Mao trinkets catering mainly to foreign tourists has thrived in recent months. Bans such as the one that commercial regulators ordered in recent weeks are usually temporary. When U.S. or European government officials come to Beijing for trade talks, local markets typically remove copies of brand-name designer clothes -- until the foreign negotiators leave town.