A man
nabbed for attempting to smuggle 94 smartphones into China by strapping them to
his body was mocked by amused netizens Tuesday after pictures of his "iPhone armour" went viral.
Online images of the man show him covered in dozens
of handsets, held together under his outer clothes with clingfilm and masking
tape, with commentators comparing him to comic superhero Iron Man.
He was held in the southern city of Shenzhen as he tried to
enter from neighbouring Hong Kong with his hidden cargo, the People's Daily
said Monday.
The former British colony is controlled by Beijing but maintains
separate trade rules from the mainland under the "One country, two
systems" principle.
"When the person passed through the metal detector gate, it
made a loud and clear alarm," the report said.
Despite being made in China, iPhones are relatively expensive in
the country, with many users having to sign up to long-term contracts with
mobile companies, and there is a thriving trade in informal imports from Hong
Kong.
Netizens on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo labelled the man
"Apple Man", using a
Chinese character commonly used for superheroes, particularly Marvel's Iron
Man.
"I just keep thinking this guy is trying to imitate Iron
Man," one commented on Tuesday.
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