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Last updated on June 24th, 2017 at 10:19 am
Just a few months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese have suddenly made it more difficult for Westerners to visit. And now:
Fresh anti-Western protests broke out in China Sunday with angry demonstrators targeting US broadcaster CNN and French store Carrefour in rows over perceived bias, Tibet and the Beijing Olympics …
“This was a patriotic movement, people want CNN and Carrefour to apologise,” Wang Zheng, a protester at a Carrefour store in the northern city of Xian, told AFP by telephone.
Anti-western protests someplace other than the west. We live in strange times.
Not to mention all the drama about the Olympic torch’s run through Canberra this week.
10,000 Chinese residents of Australian, possibly some even non-residents, heading to our capital to show their support China and the Olympics and head off demonstrations by those nasty Tibet protesters (who are, I must admit, very nasty at times).
After previously saying it wouldn’t permit anyone other than Australian federal police and Australian security personnel to supervise the run, the Rudd Government is now permitting two Chinese security personnel (aka paramilitaries) to run alongside the torch but “only for the purpose of relighting the flame if it goes out”. Quite a few others will, however, be in a bus following the torchrunner.
Kevin07, demonstrating that he truly has the courage of his convictions, will “not be in Canberra” on the day of the torch run.
We do live in interesting times …
Next we will have Tiananmen Square protests again. Tanks for the memory.
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 20 at 08:28 PM • permalink
If anybody seriously believes that this “protest” was not sponsored, supported, motivated and endorsed by the PRC junta, they have rocks in their heads. Nothing happens in the PRC unless the despots agree. This ‘protest’ was about as spontaneous as an unexpected sunrise. No doubt our brave media will report this as a spontaneous outpouring of support for the Chinese people against those murderous malcontents in the West.
‘No doubt our brave media will report this as a spontaneous outpouring of support for the <insert country eg Zimbabwe> people against those murderous malcontents in the West.’
Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 04 20 at 09:10 PM • permalink
#8 Rather well put. According to some reports, there may be enough Chinese spies in Australia to create a pretty decent rent-a-crowd.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 04 20 at 09:51 PM • permalink
#8 is correct.Where are similar protests on other issues? The answer is that such protests if any, are quickly “discouraged”.
I had to laugh though at the protestor shown on the HK news who was saying that her protest was in response to attacks on China’s dignity. Which, judging by the protest itself, is pretty ironic.
Sometimes things happen in the PRC that the junta doesn’t want. A couple of years ago there were large denmonstrations over a few Japanese exchange students who had some phrase on their shirts for a play or something that the Chinese students took umbrage to. The government forces had to rescue the Japanese and douse the riots, but they started up again when the Japanese apologized but not abjectly enough or something.
Still, demos against furriners dissing China for brutality in Tibet would, one might think, be welcomed by the government as a sign that the people were behind them, on this issue if no others. And China has basically transitioned from Communism to Fascism, not halfway decent goverment. But the New Mandarins may so distrust the people that any spontaneous action by them is not approved. You never know where the sparks might fly when somebody strikes a match.
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2008 04 20 at 10:39 PM • permalink
sorry link hereAl Gore Pointless
From the excellent Hemlock:
CNN, widely vilified by China’s xenophobic on-line youth for its supposedly biased Tibet/Olympic coverage, hits back by declaring the Chinese to be goons and thugs, and the country’s products junk. Beijing’s official spokesmen respond with the usual tear-jerking ‘hurt feelings’ bed-wetting, while the nationalist netizens pile on even more venomous hysteria. The remarks, which topped off a fairly uninteresting discussion, were clearly aimed at the Communist leadership, but why let that spoil a good orgy of mouth-frothing about racism? Anti-foreign public opinion is a tiger, which the Chinese Government is riding and mischievous Westerners are baiting with sharp sticks – and the entertainment gets even better in a few months when barbarian medal winners whip out Tibetan flags on the podium.
“Well, I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. We’re in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They’re holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper. We also are running hundred of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them, as we continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart. So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”
Both CNN and Jack Cafferty had already apologised for the ‘offending’ comment, their capitulation including the removal of said comments from their site, while allegations about the supermarket chain supporting the Dalai Lama include no specifics. Given that they block all Western news reports about Tibet, how would they know if they’re biased?
Without going all conspiracy theorist on you, the West’s, and especially Australia’s, large intake of students from China provides somewhat of a fifth column to disseminate propaganda. Few of the Chinese who will descend on Canberra will be from Cabramatta or Hurstville.
Check out this poster for an Auburn rally that appeared around Sydney a couple of years ago:
Oppose the Anti-China Missile “Defence” (ABM) Scheme of the U.S., Australian and Japanese governments!
No Support to those Chinese Defectors Who Help ASIO and Harm the Peoples Republic’s Security!
DOWN WITH THE ANTI-COMMUNIST, CHINA-BASHING CAMPAIGN!
And then there’s this story:
…Grace Wang, a Chinese student at Duke University in the US, who was spotted by other overseas Chinese taking part in a Free Tibet protest, which led to what he describes as “torrents of horrid abuse and at least one lengthy human flesh search engine witch hunt” which began on the Chinese language online portal Tianya.
The EastSouthWestNorth blog talks about “human flesh search engines” as a phenomenon where an online community is mobilised to track down specific individuals or facts.
In this case a friend of the student concerned has written to Global Voices to say that the harassment was so serious that the student’s home in China was attacked with rocks.
An internet manhunt – complete with “Wanted” posters – for the man who allegedly wrestled the torch from Paralympic athlete Jin Jing has also been launched on the Chinese language anti-CNN site.
The world is full of stupid people, and China is no different. Millions of Australian voters think you can power a city train network with windmills and solar cells, a sizable whack of the Zimbabwean population still think Mugabe is good for their country, and half of China thinks their nation is a democracy despite having never lived through, let alone participated in an election.
A hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Without going all conspiracy theorist on you, the West’s, and especially Australia’s, large intake of students from China provides somewhat of a fifth column to disseminate propaganda. Few of the Chinese who will descend on Canberra will be from Cabramatta or Hurstville.
Yes. all of whom have family back in the PRC that can and will be ‘leant’ on if needed. It even happens in HK.
Addendum. Actually, unlike the BBC radio report, the above BBC page doesn’t explain that Ms Wang was not a participant in the Free Tibet protest, but was trying to facilitate a dialog between friends in both camps.
Grace Wang, a 20-year-old Chinese student at Duke University who tried to negotiate peace between pro-Tibet and pro-China demonstrators on her campus in North Carolina, has received death threats, and her family in Qingdao have moved into hiding.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they’re the first to get shot.
I’m still somewhat befuddled by anyone getting in a tiff about Cafferty calling the Chinese government “goons and thugs” because that is exactly what they are, and have been for almost 60 years. And yes, they’ve been fobbing off (occasionally dangerous and defective) junk on their customers (including their own citizens) for years as well.
And “spontaneous” protests in China is more than a little amusing since the delicate Chinese populace is spared by their government censors from having to view CNN at all.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 04 21 at 03:00 AM • permalink
‘Anti-western protests someplace other than the west. We live in strange times’
Tim, you’ve unaccountably forgotten that the largest nation on earth is still run by communists just as much as the USSR was in 1988. When was their CP dissolved, or Mao’s portrait lowered?
‘Anti-western protests’ are always to be expected.
The “Clinton News Network” has pi$$ed off the Chinese, eh?
Irony, thy name is the Olympics.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 04 22 at 03:01 PM • permalink
Protesters in Xian, Harbin and Jinan defied a huge police crackdown to chant slogans and hold banners that read “Oppose Tibet independence,” etcetera.
I dunno – this doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that would call for police-defying heroics in China. In fact I’d expect the police to be joining in, if not actually giving them a soapbox and a megaphone.
The Chinese are as bad as the Muslims when it comes to “saving face’’ and looking for excuses to be outraged about something. But they wanted the Olympics, didn’t they? And presumably they wanted foreign visitors to come and spend money, and before whom they could show off (in perfect synchronization) what a wonderful country they have.
But now there’s this Tibet business, and they can’t really put a lid on outside media even if they can bully their own. So I’m guessing that the saved face is more important than the financial black hole that the Games are going to engender, therefore they’re trying to discourage people from visiting.
Just my two cents. If anyone else has more of a clue than I do as to what’s going on, please report.