Sentence:  For a student to <WSD>downface</WSD> and humiliate the Premier in a televised debate, to speak to him as a rather high-handed superior might a junior, as Wuerkaixi did to Li Peng on May 19, was very brave, but also unwise and flatly contradictory to Chinese culture. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To disparage; to cause to lose face.