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