U.S. Vice President Joe Biden thought that he had it all perfect: two friendship basketball matches to go with a friendship-building China visit, but things got out of hand on Thursday, when players from both sides broke into a fight.
Just two days before Biden had attended a basketball match between the Georgetown Hoyas and the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons where Georgetown won by 98-81.
But this time the “China-U.S. Basketball Friendship Match” quickly degenerated into a street brawl, with pictures showing the Hoyas and the Bayi Military Rockets clobbering each other. One Chinese member is seen kicking and beating an American while a second American looks on in horror.
The Bayi Military Rockets is a military team whose players have served in the communist People’s Liberation Army. The incident was triggered when Bayi was called for a foul.
Despite the embarrassment, Biden continued on with his second day with the next Chinese communist chief, Xi Jinping, and a U.S.-China Business roundtable on Friday. The vice president then met with premier Wen Jiabao and Chinese leader Hu Jintao in separate meetings.
On Saturday, Biden will spend some time with Gary Locke, the new U.S. ambassador to China, and fellow embassy staff in Beijing. In the afternoon, Biden will head to Chengdu, the western province of Sichuan.
On Sunday, Biden will give a speech on U.S.-China relations at Sichuan University. He will visit Dujiangyan City with Xi, where they’ll visit a high school that was rebuilt after the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.
Biden’s Asia tour will also mark the first time a U.S. vice president visits Mongolia since 1944. After China, Biden will visit Mongolia and Japan.
