Chinese government officials should wipe shark fin off their
reception menus before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing to help impress
foreign visitors with a favorable national image, a lawmaker said
on Tuesday.
"Serving shark fin to foreign guests during the Olympic Games
could greatly hurt China's national image, and officials should
start to remove the dish from the dining table right now," said Xu
Zhihong, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's
top legislature.
Xu, president of the prestigious Peking University, said that
shark fin is quite often a must on local governments' reception
menu.
Restaurants should also scrape other wildlife, such as snakes,
from their menu during the Games, otherwise it could easily
irritate foreign visitors, in particular, animal rights activists,
Xu told Xinhua News Agency on the sidelines of the NPC's annual
full session.
"It is not only an environmental issue, but one that has a
direct bearing on the image of Chinese people," the lawmaker
said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2007)