NEWS REAL BLOG

BY JOSEPH KLEIN
POSTED ON JANUARY 24 2011 12:00 PM

While Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller engaged in silly banter on “The O’Reilly Factor” about the menu at last week’s lavish state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, Jay Leno got right to the point with this scathing joke:

There was one really awkward moment when Hu found out that Obama was a Nobel Peace Prize winner and, out of force of habit, tried to have him arrested.

Leno was referring to the incarceration of Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an eleven year sentence on subversion charges after he called for sweeping political reforms and an end to Communist Party dominance. The Chinese dictators have followed up with a harsh crackdown on Liu’s supporters.

Liu Xiaobo, a leading Tiananmen Square protester, is not in jail for the first time, by the way. He has also served time in labor camps or under house arrest since that failed uprising.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama swept the ‘minor’ embarrassment of the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner’s incarceration under the red carpet rolled out for the Red Chinese dictatorship. After all, when your banker is in town, you have to show him a good time. And you even let his favorite performer get a dig in at the host country.

On this occasion, the state dinner program included a performance by Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang, who performs regularly in the United States and has entertained Obama on two prior occasions.

Lang Lang decided to play an anti-American propaganda tune entitled “My Motherland,” which is the theme song from the Chinese-made Korean War movie “Battle on Shangangling Mountain.” This movie celebrated an attack by Chinese reinforcements on U.S. soldiers, whom had pinned down some Chinese troops on the mountain that gave the movie its name.

The song played by Lang Lang included this verse:

When friends are here, there is fine wine/But if the jackal comes/What greets it is the hunting rifle.

The not-too-subtle jackal reference is to our troops.

Lang Lang defended his song selection on a blog this way:

Playing this song praising China to heads of state from around the world seems to tell them that our China is formidable, that our Chinese people are united; I feel deeply honored and proud.

Lang Lang considers himself a man of the world, but first and foremost a Chinese citizen. As he told Cindy Adams in an interview:

I am in Vancouver touring. Night before the concert I performed in San Francisco. Then fly to DC, then lunch with Vice President Biden then, next morning 8 a.m. flight to Seattle, then three hour drive to Portland for an Oregon Symphony Orchestra concert. I am a Chinese citizen, but I live everywhere – Beijing, Philadelphia, two years ago New York…The WhiteHouse wanted an all-American jazz evening…No advance time to rehearse in the White House. I had to practice at the hotel. And I wore a Calvin Klein black suit with white shirt.

Poor thing. He had no time to rehearse in the White House, so he decided to fall back on his favorite propaganda piece.

While a brave Chinese dissident languishes in jail for speaking truth to power, his fellow Nobel Peace prize winner Barack Obama is serenaded by a spoiled brat who chose an anti-American song to please his patron President Hu. One blogger proudly gloated on a Chinese blog:

Those American folks very much enjoyed it and were totally infatuated with the melody!!! The US is truly stupid!!

Michelle Obama was so infatuated that she thanked Lang Lang for inspiring her daughters to learn piano. It wouldn’t surprise me if Lang Lang has taught the Obamas’ daughters how to play “My Motherland.”

Joseph Klein is the author of a recent book entitled Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations and Radical Islam