Torch relay goes from victory lap to PR crisis

By Richard Halloran

Monday, Apr 21, 2008, Page 8

Two of vigorous anti-Chinese protests by Tibetans and their Indian sympathizers culminated on Thursday in New Delhi when 17,000 policemen and soldiers allowed Olympic torchbearers to run in lonely splendor through nearly deserted streets.

The India Express newspaper said the capital had been turned into a “security citadel.” The Hindustan Times said members of parliament accused the government of setting up a “police camp.” A headline in the Times of India asserted: “Cops kill spirit to keep torch burning.”

Instead the image of progress that China wanted to project, security arrangements to subdue demonstrations against Chinese suppression of Tibetans reinforced the impression of China as an authoritarian state. Moreover, protests are likely to continue along three parallel paths until the Olympics open in Beijing in August.

The first will follow the Olympic torch as it wends its way through Australia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Chinese handling of protests will probably be tested in Hong Kong and Macau early next month.

Second, the Dalai Lama has an extensive speaking schedule in the US, India, Germany, Britain, Australia and the US in coming months. Particularly in Germany next month, he plans to speak on human rights, a core issue in the dispute between Tibetans and Chinese.

Lastly, the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement, formed by five expatriate Tibetan organizations in January, will continue to seek the end of what its members, mostly younger Tibetans, call China’s “colonial occupation” of their country. They have demanded that the Beijing Olympics be canceled.

All of this will confront US President George W. Bush with a decision on whether to attend the opening ceremony of the games. The issue has seeped into the presidential election campaign with Democrats, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama urging Bush not to go.

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, has said Bush should not attend the opening ceremony unless the Chinese opened a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

Bush insisted he will go but that could change as his choice is sharpened because his trip will be seen as either condoning China’s crackdown on Tibetans while his absence would condemn the crackdown.

The torch relay was intended to draw worldwide attention to the Beijing Olympics, China’s economic achievements and the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

Instead, this year’s torch relay has turned into a nightmare of anti-Chinese demonstrations, deception over routes and anger at the tactics of Chinese “escorts.” After they roughed up demonstrators in London, the usually circumspect Economist magazine called them “thugs.”

Next runners are scheduled to carry the torch through Nagano, Japan, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics.

But Buddhist monks have withdrawn their Zenkoji temple as the run’s starting point to protest Chinese treatment of Tibetan monks; protesters say they will raise banners along the route but not confront runners; and a closing festival has been canceled.

Japan’s National Policy Agency, special riot police, the prefectural government, local police, and 1200 private citizens and city employees will be mobilized for security. The police have said Chinese security escorts will not be permitted to run alongside the torch bearers.

The Dalai Lama is scheduled to finish a 10-day stay in the US tomorrow with an address billed as one of a series of lectures by global leaders at Colgate University. His topic, “The Art of Happiness” comes, ironically, at an unhappy time for many Tibetans.



Richard Halloran is a writer base in Hawaii.