Tension mounts in Nagano about hosting Olympic torch relay

Saturday 19th April, 05:16 AM JST

By Takaki Tominaga

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Latest 15 of 24 Total Comments Show All

Everton2 at 09:32 AM JST - 19th April

The Olympic games are in every sense a political expression. Countries compete to host the games because of the international coverage it brings to that country. It is used to showcase the host countries' coming of age in both the technical and organizational front. It tends to mark the host acceptance by the international community can not be remove from its socio political implications. Notions that the games should not be regarded as a political even is just plain ridiculous. It is a political event true and true.
Betzee at 09:48 AM JST - 19th April

I really hope people don't wind up killing the Olympics over this.

I think the threat is greater to individuals who don't toe the party line. Specifically, a Chinese college student in the US who attempted to created dialogue between a small pro-Tibetan group and the much larger group of Chinese student counterprotesters at Duke University, where she is a freshman, found herself identified as a target for violent retribution:

*The next day, a photo appeared on an Internet forum for Chinese students with a photo of Ms. Wang and the words “traitor to your country” emblazoned in Chinese across her forehead. Ms. Wang’s Chinese name, identification number and contact information were posted, along with directions to her parents’ apartment in Qingdao, a Chinese port city.

Salted with ugly rumors and manipulated photographs, the story of the young woman who was said to have taken sides with Tibet spread through China’s most popular Web sites, at each stop generating hundreds or thousands of raging, derogatory posts, some even suggesting that Ms. Wang — a slight, rosy 20-year-old — be burned in oil. Someone posted a photo of what was purported to be a bucket of feces emptied on the doorstep of her parents, who had gone into hiding.

“If you return to China, your dead corpse will be chopped into 10,000 pieces,” one person wrote in an e-mail message to Ms. Wang. “Call the human flesh search engines!” another threatened, using an Internet phrase that implies physical, as opposed to virtual, action.

In an interview Wednesday, Ms. Wang said she had been needlessly vilified.

“If traitors are people who want to harm China, then I’m not part of it,” she said. “Those people who attack me so severely were the ones who hurt China’s image even more.”

She added: “They don’t know what do they mean by ‘loving China.’ It’s not depriving others of their right to speak; it’s not asking me or other people to shut up.”

...Ms. Wang said she was not in favor of Tibetan independence, but she said problems could be reduced if the two sides understood each other better.

Since riots in Tibet broke out last month, campuses including Cornell, the University of Washington and the University of California, Irvine, have seen a wave of counterdemonstrations.

When Ms. Wang encountered the two demonstrations last week, the Chinese students seemed to expect her to join them, she said. But she hesitated.

“They were really shocked to see that I was deciding, because the Chinese side thought I shouldn’t even decide at all,” she said....*

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/us/17student.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Dubya at 10:19 AM JST - 19th April

"I really hope people don't wind up killing the Olympics over this."

I DO hope this kills the olympics. Sports are a pasttime; human rights should take precedence.
johnalex40 at 10:40 AM JST - 19th April

Oh, Man! Let them bring in the torch!! Put the differences aside and let the torch pass through, for God's sake. Enough of the bickering already. When do we grow up? When both of the bitterness, kill each other off? Let it go. It's water under the bridge. Let it go.
Anomaly_Jr at 10:50 AM JST - 19th April

Well, what with rampant drug abuse by the largest of Olympic teams over the years, it's not even a valid sporting event anymore. Might as well make it about politics. It could be worse. Imagine if it was about religion...
Farmboy at 11:13 AM JST - 19th April

I don't view violent protest, including mugging torch bearers, to be a useful or helpful form of disagreeing with China's policies in Tibet.

The violence will eventually escalate, either at this Olympics or at another one, until the host country becomes an armed camp, or the event is called off.

Or maybe only saintly countries would be able to host the Olympics...hmmmm ... I wonder which ones those are, and from whose point of view....

From the Olympics website:

The tradition of the “Truce” or “Ekecheiria” was established in ancient Greece in the 9th century BC by the signature of a treaty between three kings. During the Truce period, the athletes, artists and their families, as well as ordinary pilgrims, could travel in total safety to participate in or attend the Olympic Games and return afterwards to their respective countries. As the opening of the Games approached, the sacred truce was proclaimed and announced by citizens of Elis who travelled throughout Greece to pass on the message.
notimpressed at 11:13 AM JST - 19th April

Good post Betzee...these attitudes are the reasons that Chinese rhetoric is often disregarded, because it is offered with a violent sentiment undelying it. Chinese people need to look at themselves, and ask how far would they themselves go against world standards of behaviour, and how far they would allow thier own country to do the same. Death threats, harassment, and racism is pouring from Chinas people as thier first natural reaction against criticism? Is it any wonder that the world is showing its disapproval? If the protestors keep to protest without physical action, and not sink to the level of Chinese antagonists, then these protests will achieve much in increasing awareness of this situation which goes far further than Tibet. If the price of patriotism is the loss of common human decency, then call me an anarchist or whatever, loving your country does not make any of that disgusting behaviour being displayed by Chinese reactinaries alright.

johnalex40, its not water under the bridge when people are living it. Im so thankful I was not born in China. Anyone of us could have ended up as victims of human rights abuse, or perpetraitors of it. Same could be said of other countries too, of course, but not to the same extent as displayed by everything that is coming out of the woodwork. The worlds citizens are becoming both self aware and aware of the world, although sometimes underinformed, the basic principles that we are standing up for make it all worth while. Sports are luxuries afforded to us who live in privilidge in contrast to those who canot express themselves freely, or feed themselves or thier families. If the olympics brings us altogether, in this case its bringing us together against oppression.
greenteaonsens at 11:27 AM JST - 19th April

Earlier, Japan declined to accept security guards from China who had guarded other legs of the Olympic torch relay.

WOW, I never thought I'd say this, but for once the J-govt. has more cojones than the U.S. govt. UK govt, and French govt put together!!

WELL DONE JAPAN FOR NOT COMPROMISING YOUR SOVEREIGNTY AND ALLOWING THOSE CHINESE PARAMILITARY GOONS TO OPERATE ON YOUR NATIONAL SOIL

SHAME ON UK, US AND FRANCE FOR NOT DOING THIS!
nandakandamanda at 11:53 AM JST - 19th April

I love most of the Chinese people that I have met. I don't know any Tibetans, but I respect their culture and I have listened closely to what the Dalai Lama has to say and it generally makes sense to me.

If China wants Tibet to be autonomous, then it should be an autonomy that the Tibetans enjoy.

If Tibetans are not happy with the autonomy that China gives, then China needs to ask why, seriously, remembering that you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink.
Betzee at 12:10 PM JST - 19th April

Notimpressed, As someone observed with respect to protesters who have been educated within authoritarian systems, "When individuals stand up to power, they bring to the encounter the lessons that power has taught them, and the harm it has done them. Merely to stand up does not free us from these things."

This young Chinese woman who bravely went against the grain was reminded in no uncertain terms by her peers, "You're either with us or you're against us." The Chinese are not going to back down; the anti-Chinese torch relay protests are just going to make them rally around their flag more tightly.

It's put us in a bit of a conundrum. Rarely do heads of state attend the Olympics outside their own country. But the Chinese have been issuing invitations to their counterparts from Australia to Japan and many RSVPed too early.

As slate.com magazine observes: They wanted to use the Olympics to trumpet their success, but there is a price to be paid for those few weeks at the center of global attention. Of course, no one believes that "Free Tibet" signs on the Golden Gate Bridge will truly liberate Tibet, and the absence of the U.S. president from some horrifically overchoreographed ceremony in Beijing won't bring democracy to the Middle Kingdom. But it will show some of the Chinese people what some of the world thinks of their repressive system—and quite right, too....
apecNetworks at 12:32 PM JST - 19th April

I've looked into this issue from 1959, and I can't find any saints on either side.

I have read, surprisingly, overwhelming support for the Tibetan rioters, but have the supporters seen the PRC video clip of the riots? Head bashing strangers w/ rocks and pipes. I can't see too many countries condoning headbashing strangers to make a political statement IF it occurred in their own country. Question: have you seen the PRC video clips?
mike46 at 08:57 PM JST - 19th April

So what time will the support Tibet demonstration start from Nagano station ? This wasn't mentioned in the news article.
notimpressed at 04:54 PM JST - 20th April

post a link apec ;)
ulysses at 04:59 PM JST - 25th April

APEC, dont look at the symptoms, look at the cause.

China did invade Tibet in 1959, imposed atheism on a largely religous population,destroyed monasteries, killed monks. No two sides to this story.
thedeath at 05:14 PM JST - 25th April

pro-tibet said "We will protest peacefully and within the rules set by the police."

pro-communist said "It will be a peaceful welcoming event."

what about the guys in the black van? noone ask them what is their plan? i think those blue t-shirt communists are going to get a good match this time with the black van folk!