Canada’s ambassador to China, David Mulroney, is whisked around the streets of Beijing in his official government car, a Toyota Camry that cost less than $30,000. Hardly any news there. The Camry is a relatively modest vehicle and was purchased and is operated entirely within the federal government’s “Fleet Management Directive”.
But when Mulroney blogged about the car he is assigned, it sparked a wave of reaction from Chinese readers, garnering more than 1,000 comments and more than 3,000 ‘shares.’ Why the interest? Canada’s modesty when it comes to official vehicles is being compared to the gross immodesty of Chinese government officials. And China’s citizenry are angry. Here’s the L.A. Times today:
Even the police are driving Porsches.
Chinese officials love their cars — big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue.
And just in case it needs to go racing off to war, the Chinese army has a black Maserati that sells in China for $330,000 . . . [Read the full story]
Now, the Chinese government-controlled English-language media outlet China Daily has also taken note of Mulroney’s Camry and the ensuing blog furor with this rather anodyne entry:
Canadian Ambassador David Mulroney has created a mild Internet sensation with microblog posts about his car, a modest Toyota Camry. Otttawa’s Fleet Management Directive limits some ministers to $32,400 and others to $27,000 for official cars, which should be hybrids or low-fuel emission vehicles, Mulroney had posted.
His post received 1,145 comments and 3,176 forwards.
The Canadian embassy’s microblog launched June 29 to “demystify” the embassy and make it more “interesting, informative and transparent”. Mulroney held an open question-and-answer chat on the blog about his car.