A local politician in Helsingør has found himself in hot water after writing some less than endearing words about China in a Facebook update late last week.
Fuat Yalan (Socialdemokraterne) boiled over in the summer heat after seeing a video in which some Chinese people were abusing a little boy.
“I hope that it will be 140 degrees and that all the Chinese will burn, so the world will be free of that Chinese filth,” Yalan blasted on his Facebook page.
Then on Friday, he doubled down on his outburst in an interview with Helsingør Dagblad.
“If there was a Chinese person in front of me right now I would shoot him. I don’t care if I’m thrown out of the party, kicked out of Denmark or shot myself. I don’t care about politics and I stand by my words,” Yalan told Helsingør Dagblad.
Yalan later tried to explain that his words were only directed at the Chinese people who were abusing the little boy in the video, and blamed the newspaper for printing his statement, saying that it was something he said during a moment of emotional duress.
“It’s poor that [Helsingør Dagblad] wrote I want to shoot Chinese people. I did say that to the journalist, but that was right after seeing the video and I was very upset. I probably would have done it just then because I was so emotional,” Yalan told Ekstra Bladet tabloid.
Yalan’s furious words came at an unfortunate time as China endures the worst heat wave in over a century and the Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen was quick to voice its concern.
“We have noted the remarks. We are deeply shocked and vehemently against the irresponsible and extremist comments from a specific Danish politician and we don’t want to see a similar thing happen again,” Fu Wenyan, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy, wrote to Ekstra Bladet. “We also noticed that many Danes have voiced concern over the irresponsible comments. That proves that extremist words and racist actions will not win the day.”
Maja Panduro, a spokesperson for Socialdemokraterne, told Ekstra Bladet that Yalan does not speak on behalf of the party.
