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BACKGROUND
Republican White House challenger Mitt Romney on Thursday vowed to act tough with nations like Iran and China if elected, as he blasted his rival Barack Obama for failing to deliver and declared it was time for a "new leadership" in America. Formally accepting the Republican presidential nomination at the climax of the party's national convention, Romney, 65, accused the current Obama Administration of being apologetic and not being tough with countries like Iran and China. Read more >>
THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Chappatte from The International Herald Tribune shows Romney on the back of an elephant heading straight for a china shop. The shop window is full of fragile Chinese vases, and the shopkeeper, standing in the doorway, is sweating in terror.
EXPLANATION
The cartoon is based on the idiom bull in a china shop. A bull in a china shop is a person who is careless, or who moves or acts in a rough or awkward way, in a place or situation where skill and care are needed. • We told her it was a delicate situation but she went into the meeting like a bull in a china shop. In the cartoon, Chappatte has replaced the bull with an elephant because the elephant is the official mascot of the Republican Party. The letters GOP on the side of the elephant stand for Grand Old Party, a nickname for the Republican Party in the United States. There's also a play on the word china/China. China with a capital 'C' refers to the country, while china with a small 'c' is cups, plates, etc. that are made of china, a hard white substance produced by baking a type of clay at a high temperature. See here for an explanation of why China is called China and the connection with porcelain china.
ALSO SEE
• Chinese media slams Romney as convention begins(The Cable)
• China Slams Romney for ‘Pugnacious’ Policies (International Herald Tribune)
