BEIJING: Images of a bloodied passenger being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight have drawn widespread condemnation in China following a witnesses' report that the man said he was targeted because he was Chinese.
Video of the violent incident posted on China's popular Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo had been viewed more than 190 million times by late Tuesday.
Many responded with outrage over perceived ethnic bias against the passenger and ridiculed United's response. Some called for a boycott of the U.S.-based airline.
Rowdiness has long been associated with air travel in China, including passengers getting into fights with crew members and a vicious assault last year on an airline check-in clerk.
The United incident appeared to feed into such customer frustrations — only this time with the passenger as victim.