The video shows Stephen Ellison taking off his shoes and jumping to rescue the woman.
Beijing:
Beijing on Tuesday praised a British diplomat who was filmed plunging into a river in southern China to save a drowning student, a rare warm moment between two countries at odds on human rights.
The British mission in the southwestern city of Chongqing said Monday that Consul General Stephen Ellison went into action over the weekend to save a woman who had fallen into a river running through a nearby resort town.
The video on Chinese social media, viewed more than 170 million times in China, shows Ellison taking off his shoes and jumping to rescue the woman, who was floating upside down.
“I think he should be commended for his act of bravery. I would like to give him a big, big thumbs up,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a routine briefing on Tuesday.
We are all immensely proud of our Chongqing Consul General Stephen Ellison who jumped into a river on Saturday to rescue a drowning student and take her to safety. pic.twitter.com/OOgXqsK5oe
– United Kingdom in China ???????? (@ukinchina) November 16, 2020
Ellison’s actions also drew praise from British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who tweeted: “Your courage and commitment show the best of British diplomats around the world.”
The 61-year-old former engineer had recently been appointed to the post in the southern metropolis after serving for years at the main embassy in Beijing, and is an accomplished triathlete, according to local media reports.
The eulogy comes at a time of heightened tension in the UK-China relationship, as Britain has frequently criticized China for its human rights record on issues such as Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and has excluded Huawei from their national 5G networks.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
.
