American Free Speech: ‘Kill Everyone in China’

By Yuan Changming

During ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired on 29 October 2013, a 6-year-old boy proposed to ‘kill everyone in China’; in reply to the wide protest against such verbal violence, the White House later declared: “the principle of protected free speech is an important part of who we are as a nation."

Apparently, it is not the tiny guy

But his big parents

Who would very much like

To kill everyone in China

No, it is not even his parents

But his teachers, the picture

Books he reads, the movies he watches

The computer games he plays, and

The media bombs he hears constantly

That encourages him to do so

On the other hand, it is not the yellow-skinned

Yellow-hearted Chinese really

But anyone that has a hue different from a wasp

That may turn out more civilized, less hypocritical

Or as innocent as the little angel sitting at the ABC’s

Round Table that Uncle Sam and his dogs of war

Aim to kill, destroy, wipe out from the earth

Just to get rid of any debts they owe

To you and me

Yuan Changming co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. With 16 published collections and 15 Pushcart nominations, Yuan has appeared in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) and 2,207 other literary publications worldwide. A former poetry juror for Canada's National Magazine Awards, Yuan began to write prose in 2022 and released a cnf collection (Return to Roots) and novel trilogy (Towards) in Feb, 2026.