digg

Join DiggAbout

Call for questions
Submit and vote up questions you'd like to see answered by Kevin & Jay at the next Digg Townhall on 11/18.

Olympic torch: Chinese guardians unmasked

timesonline.co.uk — China ’s blue-clad flame attendants, whose aggressive methods of safeguarding the Olympic torch have provoked international outcry, are paramilitary police from a force spun off from the country’s army.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • MississippiLife, on 04/09/2008, -6/+29This whole thing is looking worse and worse.
    Paramilitary police?
    WTF?
    • prophetpimp, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1I just wanna Add that India is not allowing these paramilitaries on the Torch run in India. I am Just wondering what happening to the west. Why the hell are the acting like pussies and grow a new pair.
  • Xanadude, on 04/09/2008, -12/+9I hope, for their sake, that those paramilitary goons don't try the same ***** in San Francisco tomorrow. That's a good way to get mobbed and beat down by 5,000 angry protesters.
    • IglooBurner, on 04/09/2008, -7/+4Not that I'm condoning China's action or anything...
      but we're (Americans) not exactly in the best position to complain about these things at the moment.
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -2/+6Sure we are. The american government is isn't doing ***** and we "Americans" have the responsibility. Is US (as in 'we', not U.S.) that must show the world we really aren't for water boarding and torture and invasion of other people's land. We're in the perfect position to complain about these things. The world will be watching.
        • CedEx, on 04/09/2008, -3/+1So the next obvious question is, why aren't people gathering like this to protest waterboarding, and various other unscrupulous government acts? Where's the outrage there? Where's the priority?
    • dOOBiEx213, on 04/09/2008, -5/+2I'm not so sure those "protesters" have a chance against ninjas.
      • piwy, on 04/09/2008, -1/+5Ninjas are japanese. Those cannot be ninjas.
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -0/+3 - "Ohhh, it looks like a couple of Tuskan raiders have camped out on to the track!"
    • dOOBiEx213, on 04/09/2008, -3/+5All they have to do is sing the Mulan song "I'll make a man out of you" to have every San Francisco male hiding out.
      • PaulOwen, on 04/09/2008, -1/+1In SF?

        They'll have ten big butch muscle-marys in bandannas offering to make men out of them!
    • vondur, on 04/09/2008, -3/+1Ha, in SF, I doubt it. Here in Los Angeles, that would probably get them shot in addition to an @ss kicking.
    • jimmyleeca, on 04/09/2008, -1/+0And then should the 5,000 angry protesters get mobbed and beat down by the 20,000 chinese supporter?
  • bosssmiley, on 04/09/2008, -5/+7No surprises there. Just looking at the way they moved, peered about and curb-stomped protesters when they were in London you could tell they were close protection/Secret Service types.
    ***** the OIC!
    • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -9/+8***** the chinese!
      • bosssmiley, on 04/09/2008, -2/+9Nah, the Chinese as people are ok. I've known nice ones, I've known not so nice ones.
        But ***** the CCP; oh hell yes! They're a mean and vicious little bunch of totalitarian gerentocrats determined to keep a great culture under their withered heel.
        (and watch as these comments get buried by a bunch of CCP sockpuppets)
        • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -6/+3No the Chinese keep their dictatorship in power. All the Chinese all around the world are at fault for their inaction. It is in their own self-interest as they take advantage of ethnic minorities to make even more money for themselves.
          • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -4/+3I see that digg has a lot chinese users! Bet it feels good to live in a country where there isn't a giant firewall blocking the freedom of the press, doesn't it? Ungrateful bastards.
        • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -2/+3Careful man. You might get a veritable army of 4' tall, pro communist, patriotic nerds who half understand what you're saying to hack your copy of the internets ;.p
      • breadfred, on 04/09/2008, -3/+3FUK - YU & FUK - ME
    • walugi, on 04/09/2008, -3/+1haha are you 14? Yeah, you're definitely a pro at spotting the "secret service types". Not only are you ignorant, but also an idiot. Well done
  • craighoxton, on 04/09/2008, -3/+4CCTU - Chinese Counter Terrorist Unit
  • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -10/+11So they're sending in their secret police? This just gets worse and worse. I've stopped talking to my Chinese neighbors who believe the Tibetans incited the riots and who refuse to speak out against their government.
    • Whackly, on 04/09/2008, -3/+5An excellent way to start a dialog.
      • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -5/+8If they refuse to speak out, then they are condoning the behaviour of the Chinese dictatorship. They are very lucky to live in a free and democratic society yet they refuse to help those that are oppressed in their own country.

        In Tibet, the ethnic Tibetans are slaves, forced into servitude by the brutal Chinese army, they are refused medical treatment and are not given the most basic human rights, most do not have running water or electricity and are taken advantage of by the Han Chinese.

        How can my neighbors sit back and just support this brutal regime? They have blood on their hands for not doing anything!
        • Whackly, on 04/09/2008, -2/+4Yes, accusatory and inflammatory statements such as "They have blood on their hands for not doing anything!" are sure to help you change their minds. Reaching out like an adult is for pussies. Indignant anger and the appearance of action through hypocritical hatred.. that's where it's at.
        • jyac, on 04/09/2008, -0/+3just wondering how do you know all those stuff? i wouldn't make those remarks if i never been to tibet and live there for some time.
        • soccerbud, on 04/09/2008, -0/+3macmanb ...
          i wonder who's the brain washed one here. Reading too much epoch times?
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -3/+5And THEY want JAPAN to apologize for rough treatment. HA HA HA!!! But what you're describing above is just like the Japanese police. If you're a foreigner and file a complaint - YOU'RE the suspect.
    • Jinekace, on 04/09/2008, -4/+7They are free to believe in whatever they want to believe, just like you. Plus, your neighbor earned a living by working hard, pay taxes probably just like you too. If you want to help Tibetan, why not sent money to Tibetan organization, or maybe go to Chinese Embassy and start a sit-in? On the internet, no one can hear or care what you are yelling in front of your own monitor.
      • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -3/+2I'm beginning to think they 'earned' their living by exploiting the poor back in China.
        • jbella, on 04/09/2008, -0/+9The whole world exploits the poor in china.
          How do you think we get $150 video cameras?
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -1/+2That's why he's typing it. If he did a sit-in...IN China. He might not be coming back home. One thing you have to understand is that it can get ugly out there. For example, if you marry a Japanese girl, have kids, and then one day she grabs the kids and flies out to Japan, if you so much as touch them, you're ass is in jail. You can try going through the courts, but the courts of Japan will ignore it. Another guy was found guilty of having drugs in his suitcase - which he never put there (but regardless) - they're not letting him speak to a lawyer. You'll be made to eat food off the floor. You think I'm kidding? Google it!
        • Jinekace, on 04/09/2008, -2/+0I hope that food is sushi and a lot of it...
          :)
    • walugi, on 04/09/2008, -2/+5How up yourself can you be you dumb *****? What gives you the right to say that what they believe in is lesser then what you believe in?

      I guess you must have a deep historical and political understanding of Tibet... or maybe you've just been watching western news since about a month ago?
      • Arancaytar, on 04/09/2008, -1/+2"What gives you the right to say that what they believe in is lesser then what you believe in?"

        That applies to religion. Outside religion we have an impartial judge called "reality". The question of who incited a particular riot or who is committing or not committing human rights abuses is not one of belief, but of fact.

        Not talking to them is not the way to achieve a dialogue - but convincing yourself that what they believe is not simply inaccurate eliminates the point of said dialogue in the first place.
  • DigablePlanet, on 04/09/2008, -2/+18I wonder if Chinese citizens are being informed about the international outcry over their country? Who are we kidding! The state media is probably giving glowing reports and exclaiming the Chinese are being welcomed with open arms during the route.

    Can anyone verify what Chinese media is telling the masses?
    • hololoyell, on 04/09/2008, -3/+4Yes, they do tell something about the protest, if not all. most Chinese ,especially young Chinese, know what's going on outside their country. but this time they stand on government's side.
      • HenvY, on 04/09/2008, -1/+5That would be nice, except it's not true. The BBC was interviewing Chinese people a day after the troubles with the flame in London and nobody they asked had heard anything about it.
      • jacintoo, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0I'm a Chinese and I'm 24. We don't believe our media in our country. We use Internet. Most of the protests doesn't know about the truth about Tibet. Have they ever been to China recently? Or to Tibet recently? Tibet receives billions of money and high-educated students every year and yet never thanked, what about the other much more undeveloped provinces? And Tibetan never cares. It seems like media controls their citizens much better in European countries. They seem don't care either.
    • bosssmiley, on 04/09/2008, -1/+10BBC confirms exactly that. They had reporters out on the street in Beijing or Shanghai(?) the other night asking Chinese people if they'd seen any negative coverage of the torch procession. No-one admitted to seeing anything other than official broadcasts...
    • Aroundtheworls, on 04/09/2008, -0/+5Check out the Shanghai Daily newspaper website- it's the largest English language paper in China. There are a number of articles on the protest, like this one: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/20080 ...
      • bowdie, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2Here's a translated version of what went on in London http://english.sina.com/sports/p/1/2008/0406/15341 ...
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2Wow, not a damn thing about the protest. Suggests all smiles and waiving of hands. Sounds just like Japanese news - witch the 2004 Olympics SUCKED balls as all i got to see was marathon racing (the only thing they showed because its all they're decent at). I was really looking forward to seeing the Olympics from a different country's perspective. Man I stopped watching out of boredom.
      • rz8472, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1China Daily had an article that criticized France on "not doing enough" to protect the Olympic Flame.
    • mnewhook, on 04/09/2008, -1/+1Why not look for yourself. If you cannot read Chinese then http://www.chinaview.cn/ is the English version of Xinhua.

      And to bosssmiley, where is the link to the BBC story?
      • bosssmiley, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1It was their News 24 service. Sorry, no iplayer link
      • HenvY, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2I saw it too, if you need some more witness evidence.
    • lefuzzbox, on 04/09/2008, -2/+1The media did tell about the protests, besides most people who care about the situation don't watch news on TV anyways, there's information all over the internet(in Chinese), you may think Chinese citizens don't know anything and when finally they know it they would blame their government? I'm sorry but you are wrong, quite opposite actually, they know very well and they are very angry this time. So I guess I should thank all the rioters, protesters and some western media, you guys helped bring this nation together. This time you really screwed up.

      Some of you may not know what I'm talking about, time will tell.
    • soccerbud, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1yeah, the Chinese knows about the protests going. If you visit any chinese forums, the Torch protests are hot topics. Oh, and the Chinese netizens are pissed.
  • Aroundtheworls, on 04/09/2008, -5/+15Times Online is banned here in China. Anyone care to unmask this article for those of us with filtered Internet?
    • smacksaw, on 04/09/2008, -2/+5Sadly it's not the shocking expose you'd think from the headline. It just says that the protectors of the flame are the top students from the police academy and were chosen because of their excellence. They have to run 25-31km with the flame, be able to communicate, protect it, etc. And the Brits are fighting about them since the Conservatives want to know if they are acting as police agents under a visitor's visa.
      • Aroundtheworls, on 04/09/2008, -1/+10Thanks! Wonder if it's a tradition that the host country sends in security for the flame. Otherwise it seems a bit weird to be sending over a group of paramilitary just for that.

        PS- Interesting that I'm being dugg down. I guess since I am in China now I must be automatically evil.
        • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -0/+3Really? I just dugg you up. Once for wanting to know the story outside, and ...if I could... +50 for taking the minority stance. Cheers!

          It does say that they're kind of brutal. ...but at least they're not the freakin' children with tazors we have as police: "Serve and Protect" ...my ASS.

          Anyway, clippings from article are as follows:

          China’s blue-clad flame attendants, whose aggressive methods of safeguarding the Olympic torch have provoked international outcry, are paramilitary police from a force spun off from the country’s army.

          The squad of 30 young men from the police academy that turns out the cream of the paramilitary security force has the job at home of ensuring riot control, domestic stability and the protection of diplomats.

          The guards’ task for the torch relay is to ensure the flame is never extinguished – although it was put out three times in Paris – and now increasingly to prevent protesters demonstrating against Chinese rule in Tibet from interfering with it.

          But the aggression with which the guards have been pursuing their brief has provoked anger, not least in London where they were seen wrestling protesters to the ground and were described as “thugs” by Lord Coe.

          The Olympic medallist and organiser of the 2012 Games was overheard saying that the officials had pushed him around as the torch made its way through the capital on Sunday. He added that other countries on the route should “get rid of those guys”.

          “They tried to punch me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English . . . I think they were thugs.”

          His comments came after Konnie Huq, the former Blue Peter presenter, who was one of the torchbearers on Sunday, described how she had seen the officials in “skirmishes” with the police.

          ...keep in mind I'm only picking the worst of the article - so its all up-beat from there.
        • norcalscan, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1Any digg comment coming from a chinese IP address gets an automatic -5 diggs. You didn't know that? Silly! What are they telling you over there?
    • mnewhook, on 04/09/2008, -1/+1I'm in Shanghai and I can read that article just fine! What a liar!
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2Which article? Both? Are you bouncing your IP off of somewhere else?
    • HenvY, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2Digg isn't banned in China? Hmmm, you better hope the authorities don't get wind of it. :/
    • Thinkpol, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1Aroundtheworls is lying. I'm in China right now and I can load the article fine.
    • huangweiqiu, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1I also can load that article very fine,I am in GuangZhou city.Most of Amercian know little about true China except the biased news.I ever was wronged as China gov. agent and got pay for commenting on Digg by some diggesr,what their reason is that ordinary chinese people can't access Digg.How ridiculous !
      the other funny thing on digg is that the Amercian whose comments are reasonal for China ,most of them ever visit /live in China or see both side story.
      Most of Amercian people are very nice ,but they are also easily provoked by plitical-purpose news.
  • joe90210, on 04/09/2008, -5/+4those guys are awesome
  • smacksaw, on 04/09/2008, -3/+5You have to wonder if it ever dawns on these guys that perhaps they're not being told everything...
  • BuzzLightyear, on 04/09/2008, -2/+6They got unmasked?
    They're no ninjas.
  • amdforever, on 04/09/2008, -12/+16What's wrong with protecting the Olympics fire?

    Actions of those so-called "pacifists" and "human rights activists" has grown to a ridiculous level. What good do they do by stopping the Olympics fire? They have achieved nothing but annoyance.
    • Angostura, on 04/09/2008, -5/+6Yes, but ahem - given that you strongly support China's annexing of Tibet, you wouldn't see protests as anything other than annoying, would you?
      • jimmyleeca, on 04/09/2008, -1/+0certainly, chinese should support annexing tibet, just as americans all support not moving back to europe and giving their land back to their original owners. nothing wrong with it.
    • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -4/+8People like amdforever is why there are places without basic human rights in this world.
    • breadfred, on 04/09/2008, -3/+8Nothing wrong with that. It is however despicable that the Chinese Government is using the Olympic Flame as a symbol of Peace while they are stamping on all the human rights available. Expelling people from their houses without recompense as their house occupies space needed for a new road for the Olympics? Imprisoning anyone with even a dissident thought or even putting them in labour camps? Infiltrating other communities, displaying violent behaviour in wolves clothes as to blame a peaceful folk for terrible behaviour? Now that is not acceptable.
      Because the Chinese Government is trying to associate itself with the Olympic Flame and what it stands for, it gets what it bargained for.They will not find it so easy to control a different population where they can not control the media!
      • PPCG4, on 04/09/2008, -1/+2I agree with what you're saying about China. They have always shat on human rights. But, those who were kicked out of their homes were very well-compensated and were able to re-locate. It's not like China can't afford it, and did you really think they just kicked families out onto the street?
        • alphavision, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0We do that here when we want to expand highways. It's not a new concept.
      • eShinn, on 04/09/2008, -2/+1Who said you could type that?!?
      • kuzotz, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1The US is no different than China. Look at New orleans today and you will see that many poeple are angry and are protesting because they are losing or have lost their homes due to corporations buying up the land. Then you have those still not allowed to go back into their areas and rebuild. They can't ***** rebuild. WTF?
        It's still martial law down there. The US has no ***** room to talk.

        Now US citizens can talk all you want.
    • GoneFishing, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2Thanks amdforever to see what so called "peaceful resolution" has come to.

      Merely because a few followers of an exiled Lama scream independence, we naively believe that the lives of all those living in Tibet will be better off separated from China.
  • aladrin, on 04/09/2008, -14/+6There's no excuse for the pussies that are trying to extinguish the torch. That's a ***** tactic that only a pussy would use to get his voice heard.

    I usually don't approve of violence, but beating down any pussies that try to extinguish the torch is absolutely fine in my book. Anyone else that tries to get in the way will receive the same treatment.

    I totally hate what China's government does on a daily basis. I think they are total pricks and China needs to overthrow their government. But I also know where to draw the line on protests and attempting to ruin the Olympics is definitely on the other side.
    • enclaved, on 04/09/2008, -1/+1Would that include the french?
    • MinorLemming, on 04/09/2008, -0/+6China made the flame relay a political exercise by chosing to have it received by political figures. What is your problem with a political protest at a political event?
      The olympic flame is not special or sacred. Why on earth is trying to put out a flame over the line with regards to pretest?
    • scoetrain, on 04/09/2008, -1/+3Do you have some kind of phallic obsession with the torch or something? Damn!
  • hololoyell, on 04/09/2008, -8/+9It's really funny that no one blames those who are using violence to grab the torch and extinguish the flame , but everyone is ***** on these several guys who's trying to protect it?
    • breadfred, on 04/09/2008, -3/+5Violence? Did they push anyone to the ground? Did they punch anyone in the face? If China had not insisted on sending this Olympic Flame on a world tour for pure self promotion, this would not have happened.
      • ConfuseDuck, on 04/09/2008, -0/+3Carrying the olympic flame around the world is tradition
        • breadfred, on 04/09/2008, -1/+1I stand corrected. I did not check my facts - I have just looked it up in Wikipedia. That does not take away from the fact that China keeps on talking about this world peace thing while suppressing it's own people.
      • secrity, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1No need to apologise, you were correct the first time. Civilized countries do not send thugs to "protect" a ***** torch.
      • yip144, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0check the link below:

        handicapped girl protects the torch from "PEACEFUL "protesters
        http://laiba.tianya.cn/laiba/images/333952/1207752 ...

        then stop saying we all got "masked" by our media and propaganda and *****.
        • alphavision, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0From a Chinese volunteer at the scene in translation:

          Very soon, the runner on the second leg arrived and it was the turn for Jin Jing. The two companion runners got off the car first. I assisted her to get out of the car. I opened up the wheelchair and I helped her get in. I said: "Be brave!" She smiled and then Wang Wei carted her away with her unlit torch. After just a few steps, a man waving a yellow flag broke through the police line and reached towards the hand in which Jin Jing was holding the torch. Everyone in the car screamed. I was afraid for her. Fortunately, the man was tackled before he got to Jin Jing. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief. The Olympics Committee woman in the car had been concerned that the protesters would target the handicapped athlete, and indeed they went after Jin JIng.

          At that time, the anti-China protesters saw a weak and handicapped girl holding the torch, and they charged madly. Some of them lunged at the torch in Jin Jing's hand. We said "Stop! Stop!" But Wang Wei and the other runner Xu Jing could not hear us and kept pushing Jin Jing forward. It was chaos at the scene. The situation was desperate because there were not enough police.

          The Olympic Committee woman said that someone had better tell them to stop and wait for the torch to arrive. She looked at me as she spoke. Since there was nobody else except her and her female translator, I am the Chinese male who had to go. I said, "I'll go and tell them to stop." She said, "That's great!" Then the car door opened and I jumped down and ran towards Jin Jing. I gave them the instruction to stop. But just as we stopped, more protesters came up to try to take away the torch. Wang Wei cried out in French: "Where are the police!?" We tried to stop again and wait for the second leg torch bearer, but three or four demonstrators rushed at us. One man grabbed the torch. Jin Jing screamed and held on to the torch for dear life. Wang Wei and Xu Jing moved up to help. At that moment, I could not care less and I punched that man in the face and the head. The first man retreated. Then another man came and threw himself on Jin Jing. He grabbed her hair with one hand and then tried to seize the torch with the other hand. Wang Wei tried to drag the wheelchair away even as Jin Jing clung on to the torch. I was going berserk and I kicked and punched the man to make him stop. A young woman behind him said in Chinese; "You must not hit people." I saw the yellow flag in her hand and I screamed: "You people are the ones who are hitting people."
  • buadach, on 04/09/2008, -10/+20As a Brit, I am appalled at the hypocrisy here: We have both directly, and indirectly via support of the US, tortured, maimed and murdered tens of thousands of Afghanistan and Iraqi civilians during the last few years. So how can we complain to China about human rights violations in Tibet when we are one of the world's worst abusers ourselves.
    • bosssmiley, on 04/09/2008, -10/+12We allow critics of our policies to say what they feel. We allow areas of the country that want autonomous self-rule (the Welsh, the Scots, etc.) to get on with it. We do not have state-sanctioned censorship. Take your ***** equivalences elsewhere please.
      • kamisamaji, on 04/09/2008, -4/+8"***** equivalences"? Hardly!
        We're currently occupying a foreign country on a flimsy premise of terrorism, which is *exactly* what the Chinese government is doing. Yes, we're allowed to express our opinions over here more freely, but that didn't stop our government(s) unlawfully invading another country under false pretenses.
        I know this is anecdotal evidence, but most Chinese students in the UK I know really believe that their Government is doing the right thing - protecting them - just as most Americans and British believed that our governments were protecting us at the start of the Iraq war.
    • phoenixshard, on 04/09/2008, -7/+4It was the Americans that controlled the militias that did all that killing. Sure there have been civilian casualties from attacks and civilians killed by troops that should be tried as criminal. But it wasn't Americans that killed all those Iraqis, it was Iraqis that did it, Iraqi militias.
      There have been things done by America that I'm not very comfortable with, water boarding and things like that. Its not the Americans that are doing it to the average Iraqi citizen though. That would be the insurgents and militias that do that.
      • akamurph, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2Of course you get dugg down for speaking the truth... Deaf people don't want to hear the truth if it conflicts with their view of putting everything into one bucket and saying it's the truth. i.e. Americans killing all the Iraqi civilians.
      • alphavision, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0I don't think claiming to just being the "puppeteer" vindicates anyone of any wrongdoing.
      • jn35, on 04/11/2008, -0/+0Only after American invasion did Iraqis kill themselves!
  • arjie, on 04/09/2008, -4/+6Well, they did ask my country to allow some crack commando team (the papers say Red Guard, but that doesn't make sense) to protect the torch. I'm hoping we won't allow, I have friends going up north for the protest.
  • Exhibitionist, on 04/09/2008, -9/+15People who support these retarded anti-China protests are fickle government tools. Beijing was awarded the games almost 10 years ago. Here's an idea - start protesting the US government's role in the deaths of over a million Iraqis since the war began. Tools.
    • bosssmiley, on 04/09/2008, -5/+7Source for million dead Iraqis please? No?
      • jn35, on 04/11/2008, -0/+0Source for Tibetans treated badly by Chinese government please? No?
    • phoenixshard, on 04/09/2008, -10/+2Oh yes, it was the Americans that controlled the militias that did all that killing. Sure there have been civilian casualties from attacks and civilians killed by troops that should be tried as criminal. But it wasn't Americans that killed all those Iraqis, it was Iraqis that did it, Iraqi militias.
    • Angostura, on 04/09/2008, -2/+5First time I've been called a fickle government tool. As a matter of interest, how am I fickle, and which government am I the tool of?
    • breadfred, on 04/09/2008, -3/+4Who is a tool? Like it or not, Thje Americans and the Brits are currently in Irak on the invitation of a democratically chosen government. I don't like it either. But they are not stopping the media portraying what is going on. At least we know what evil is being done. They are not blocking the entry to a whole country to stop protests being filmed. They are not trying to associate themselves with the Olympic Flame and what it stands for.
    • johnsmith118, on 04/09/2008, -0/+2"on the invitation of a democratically chosen government"

      hahaha.... you are so funny
  • pflan, on 04/09/2008, -3/+4The Olympics was supposed to be about the potential for human achievement: Faster, Stronger, Higher, etc.
    Today its about making money. Athletes taking steroids because the financial rewards are so huge, and the politicization becoming so blatant that the future world power is able to tarnish it with its military running alongside the flame...I wonder what the opening ceremony is going to be like, tanks, planes and everyone marching in step?
    Lets not be under any doubts, the IOC has long been a corrupt organization solely designed to make themselves, and more recently big business rich. Sport is one of the sedatives that people use to forget that they are alive, and the powers that be are only to happy to supply.
    • liuite, on 04/09/2008, -1/+4potential for physical achievement overshadowed by lack for respect for rights of individuals...China is like the Borg collective where individuality is suppressed
    • kuzotz, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1It's like you completely forgot the bombing that happened during the Olympics in Atlanta.
  • Uaedaien, on 04/09/2008, -1/+6When did they tackle people? I only saw the Met Police taking on the rioters on the BBC news coverage.
    • macmangb, on 04/09/2008, -2/+3These are peaceful protests, and there is no need for these thugs to be there. Is it any wonder that the only people that are injured are the protesters? It's because they know what 'peace' is and won't fight back.
    • johnsmith118, on 04/09/2008, -2/+2"peaceful protests" ?!

      Are you blind?
  • colin8651, on 04/09/2008, -9/+5China’s blue-clad flame attendants, whose aggressive methods of safeguarding the Olympic torch have provoked international outcry, are paramilitary police from a force spun off from the country’s army.
    The squad of 30 young men from the police academy that turns out the cream of the paramilitary security force has the job at home of ensuring riot control, domestic stability and the protection of diplomats.
    Questions are now being asked as to who authorised their presence as the torch was carried through London. The Conservatives demanded clarification from the Government last night.
    The guards’ task for the torch relay is to ensure the flame is never extinguished – although it was put out three times in Paris – and now increasingly to prevent protesters demonstrating against Chinese rule in Tibet from interfering with it.
    Related Links
    * IOC may scrap Beijing torch relay over protests
    * Rudd warns guards removed for Australia
    * Bills for building 2012 Games venues soar
    But the aggression with which the guards have been pursuing their brief has provoked anger, not least in London where they were seen wrestling protesters to the ground and were described as “thugs” by Lord Coe.
    The Olympic medallist and organiser of the 2012 Games was overheard saying that the officials had pushed him around as the torch made its way through the capital on Sunday. He added that other countries on the route should “get rid of those guys”.
    “They tried to punch me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English . . . I think they were thugs.”
    His comments came after Konnie Huq, the former Blue Peter presenter, who was one of the torchbearers on Sunday, described how she had seen the officials in “skirmishes” with the police.
    Ms Huq, who was carrying the torch when a pro-Tibet activist tried to snatch the flame, said of the guards: “They were very robotic, full-on . . . They were barking orders like ‘run’ and ‘stop’ and I was like, ‘Who are these people?’.”
    David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, wrote yesterday to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, seeking clarification of the role of the Chinese officials. Mr Davis asked: “Who in the British Government authorised their presence and what checks were made as to their background?”
    He added: “They appear to have some role in providing security and were seen manhandling protesters. They even accompanied the torch into Downing Street and were highly visible in the picture with the Prime Minister.”
    The security men entered Britain on visitors’ visas but the Home Office would not reveal whether they had disclosed on the application form for whom they worked.
    Less than a year ago these mysterious “men in blue” were elite students from China’s Armed Police Academy and were selected amid great fanfare to form the grandly titled Sacred Flame Protection Unit.
    In China, tens of thousands of their paramilitary colleagues have been deployed across Tibetan areas to restore order during riots, even opening fire when the antiChinese demonstrations have threatened to run out of control again.
    It is a long way from those heady days last August when the squad was founded. Zhao Si, their leader, said then: “These men, chosen from around the country, are each tall and large and are eminently talented and powerful.” Online reports said that the shortest of them was 6ft 3in.
    Mr Zhao said: “Their outstanding physical quality is not in the slightest inferior to that of specialised athletes.” Their training has involved running 40 to 50 kilometres (25 to 31 miles) a day to ensure the squad is fit enough to keep pace with a relay of torchbearers in cities around the world.
    They have also undergone training in local customs and languages of the countries in which they would be deployed. This has included learning some English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.
    A total of 30 men have been assigned to follow the torch overseas. Another 40 will be on duty to trail the Olympic flame around China until it reaches Beijing on August 6, just two days before the start of the Games.
    In reports published before the young men became the focus of international attention, Chinese media emphasised their ability to ensure that the flame would stay alight. “They received firstly technical training in how to light the first torch of each session of the relay and save the flame in the lantern at the end of each relay in a more efficient and safe way.”
    Yang Zhaoke, director of the Beijing organising committee torch centre, told The Times: “We chose young and vigorous men. They can’t be beansprouts because they have to show good endurance. We can’t change people once they are overseas. They have to be able to run from start to finish.”
    Some train in such martial arts as taekwondo or tijiquan in their spare time, he said, but added: “Their job is not to fight but to shelter and protect. They are not there to beat people and they have no right to enforce the law. Only the British police have that right in London, for example.”
    A source at Scotland Yard said: “They were here because they came as a part of the package. We made it quite clear that they had no executive powers in Britain.
    “They were here to maintain the flame. Their responsibility is to look after the flame and to make sure nothing happens to it. They are there to protect the flame.”
    • jamdogg, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1Here's a free tip: The comment section is for discussion about the article after you've read it via the digg link. All you've achieved by copy/ pasta the article is proving you are a douche.
      • ictoan, on 04/09/2008, -2/+2Here's my comment to your comment to his comment. It's copy and pasted but that's because I'm sick and tired of typing out the same thing over and over again. But in your eyes, I'll probably still be a douche.. oh well!

        1. The Tibet riot in March was not peaceful. It was VIOLENT and NOT fabricated by Chinese government. There are videos that shows Tibetans burning down stores and attacking innocent ethnic Han Chinese in mobs.

        2. Western media is being officious and bias toward the whole ordeal. Instead of trying to allay the situation they are adding oil to flame the whole thing in order to abase China. One example is the Epoch Times where they photoshoped a Tibetan man out of a picture and trying to frame China.
        Here's the fake story: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-29/67906.html
        here's the article to debunk it: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080330_1.htm

        3. Stop insulting people like myself who supports China Olympic brainwashed. Most of us probably read more things about China than the bangwagon jumpers who skims through CNN/ABCnews/Digg headlines for join the gratutious throng. It seems to me westerners are still brainwashed by Cold War propagandas and have to attach everything China related with the word Communism because the word still holds negative impression, therefore, must be used whenever possible to prove that China is bad and evil.

        4. Speaking of brainwashing, the western media is having so much freedom of speech that it can be bias and brainwash viewers and still claim validity. Most stories nowadays aim for the most sensational contents, not for the values. The U.S. government brainwashed its citizens to invade Iraq with its claims of weapons of massive destruction. Where are those weapons now?

        5. China is not ordering Tibet Genocide. If the government is doing so, then how come there are so many Tibetans alive and well running around burning down shops, tearing down public infrastructures, and attacking innocent ethnic Han Chinese on the street in broad daylight?

        6. In fact, minority Genicide is completely a ridiculous claim. There are 56 ethnic groups in China. The one child policy only pertains to ethnic Han Chinese. Other minorities are allowed to have more than one kid. In fact, the percentage of minorities in China has increased over the years, including Tibetans.

        7. To people who said Tibet should be granted autonomous rule, they were granted! When China first officially included Tibet in 1951, Dalai Lama and his government were given autonomous rule for 8 years until a 'spontaneous' fracas occured in 1959. After the failed uprising, power was taken away to prevent another 'spontaneous' riot to occur. If Tibetans want autonomous rule, then maybe they should show some respect instead of trying to sabotage the Olympics for China.

        8. The Olympic is a symbol of hope for China for better lives. Many of us are aware of the Cultural Revolution but that was then and this is now. The Chinese people do not want to be oppressed by the government as much as any other western countries. However, are we not allow to feel proud of our country for achieving so much in so little time? Do the Chinese people have to always be ashamed of themselves when, in fact, things have improved in China. Can't we not celebrate our achievements?! Those Anti-China activists claim that they see little or no changes are crass and have no proof. They pin China with 1% of bad Chinese history and culture and magnify it to 100%. What saddens me most is that People actually believe it!

        9. The whole thing about Chinese torch police is very rude. They do not speak english, so they are only able to communicate with a few simple commands. I can't believe Lord Coe called them 'thugs' because of that. The media is going on and on about these torch protectors robotic. Well, if they did show any other emotion, then the media would just call them barbarians instead. Should the torch protectors just smile and allow the protesters to take the torch with laudation? Should they laugh when activists are shouting obscene phrases about their country? How come the protesters are not comdemn for attacking the handicapped girl in wheelchair in London? Where is the media on that? Where's the media on all the pro-China supporters who were also at the event?

        10. Free Tibet is a western hype.
      • colin8651, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1I don't think you are a douche, I know you are saving the world, one bad post at a time.

        I do now realize my error. I was replying to a post from "Aroundtheworls".
        His comment= "Times Online is banned here in China. Anyone care to unmask this article for those of us with filtered Internet?"
        I thought a good copy and paste job would help the fellow out.
  • Metman, on 04/09/2008, -6/+14Don't want to be beaten down by Chinese para-military? Tired of being throttled on international television? Is your face bruised and battered for protesting against a pseudo-symbol?

    Next time, try leaving the Olympic torch alone...

    • Grym11, on 04/09/2008, -2/+6If you had bothered to read the article you would have seen that torch"security" was completely indiscriminate in their use of violence. Many of the people assaulted by these highly-trained commandos were just in the way or standing too closely. Even some of the torch runners were shocked by it and scared by their actions as these thugs even got in brawls with the local police at times. What's more is that these guys just had visitor's visas, which means that they were illegally acting as police/security in clear violation of their host countries' laws.

      So, to recap: China, in typical fashion, flouts the laws/agreements of other countries, disregards the rights and wellbeing of civilians, and you want to blame the protesters for it all...
      • walugi, on 04/09/2008, -3/+2If you'd actually seen footage you would know that the guards didnt do *****. If they had I imagine the Times would have had some picture up. They didn't because it never happened.
  • Exhibitionist, on 04/09/2008, -4/+10Many western governments must be loving this outpouring of Chinese hatred by their fickle populaces. It deflects attention away from their sorry asses.
    • Metman, on 04/09/2008, -2/+2And now for something completely unrelated...
    • kuzotz, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1He has a point. They don't have to worry about getting their asses kicked to the curve. I bet there is osme ***** law being passed right now, and no one knows about it because the media is purposely focusing on the protest.
      They didn't give full coverage of other protest that occurred in the US back in 2006,2007, and even this year.
  • MinorLemming, on 04/09/2008, -2/+11According to the article, they have no enforcement powers. So when are the arrest warrants going to be issued for assault?
    • SteelChicken, on 04/09/2008, -2/+3they wont. dont want to offend the chinese now do we?
    • Fokma, on 04/09/2008, -1/+2I'm pretty sure under IOC agreements the hosting country is allowed to provide protection for the torch bearers, especially if they're going to be in the centre of protesters that aren't afraid to reach in and take the torch.
      • MinorLemming, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1IOC agreements don't mean a thing under sovereign law. If these 'protection' agents have assualted people, and the police have stated that they have no enforcement rights, then believe me, the IOC agreements don't mean a thing.
  • Fokma, on 04/09/2008, -3/+13"They tried to punch me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English . . . I think they were thugs."

    While I highly disagree with what China is doing in Tibet. This secret service protection they're providing the torch bearers is necessary. Look at how much danger these protesters are putting the bearers in, it's one thing to passively protest, but to go in and grab the torch and swarm the runner. It's honestly pathetic, what do they expect to happen when you grab the torch? That's an international no no. I hope the protesters in San Fran have some more decency then those mobs of idiots in France.
    • xenoputtss, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1I glad there are other sane people here on digg. The sentence you quoted is exactly whats wrong. to rephrase "I tried 3 times to block/take the torch and the men in blue used physical force to stop me....and they don't speak english (because this second part makes my statement more appropriate)".

      If you dont want to get the ***** knocked out of you by the men in blue AND you want to protest, why not stand out of the way of the track and hold your signs and shouting. If you want to get in the way you better be able to fight the men in blue with your mother ***** hands (since by this article they are not using weapons of anysort other then their bodies).
    • kuzotz, on 04/10/2008, -0/+1Yea I saw a poor girl getting punched on. I was like wtf. Shoot these dumb ass mother *****.

      But the one in San Francisco wasn't bad.

      I think if there were students there. The students would've left well before it got violent. Like Tianamen Square. The Beijing students left well before the chinese military started shooting.
  • hydroplane, on 04/09/2008, -2/+3Lay them out, all of them.
  • ictoan, on 04/09/2008, -13/+111. The Tibet riot in March was not peaceful. It was VIOLENT and NOT fabricated by Chinese government. There are videos that shows Tibetans burning down stores and attacking innocent ethnic Han Chinese in mobs.

    2. Western media is being officious and bias toward the whole ordeal. Instead of trying to allay the situation they are adding oil to flame the whole thing in order to abase China. One example is the Epoch Times where they photoshoped a Tibetan man out of a picture and trying to frame China.
    Here's the fake story: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-29/67906.html
    here's the article to debunk it: http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20080330_1.htm

    3. Stop insulting people like myself who supports China Olympic brainwashed. Most of us probably read more things about China than the bangwagon jumpers who skims through CNN/ABCnews/Digg headlines for join the gratutious throng. It seems to me westerners are still brainwashed by Cold War propagandas and have to attach everything China related with the word Communism because the word still holds negative impression, therefore, must be used whenever possible to prove that China is bad and evil.

    4. Speaking of brainwashing, the western media is having so much freedom of speech that it can be bias and brainwash viewers and still claim validity. Most stories nowadays aim for the most sensational contents, not for the values. The U.S. government brainwashed its citizens to invade Iraq with its claims of weapons of massive destruction. Where are those weapons now?

    5. China is not ordering Tibet Genocide. If the government is doing so, then how come there are so many Tibetans alive and well running around burning down shops, tearing down public infrastructures, and attacking innocent ethnic Han Chinese on the street in broad daylight?

    6. In fact, minority Genicide is completely a ridiculous claim. There are 56 ethnic groups in China. The one child policy only pertains to ethnic Han Chinese. Other minorities are allowed to have more than one kid. In fact, the percentage of minorities in China has increased over the years, including Tibetans.

    7. To people who said Tibet should be granted autonomous rule, they were granted! When China first officially included Tibet in 1951, Dalai Lama and his government were given autonomous rule for 8 years until a 'spontaneous' fracas occured in 1959. After the failed uprising, power was taken away to prevent another 'spontaneous' riot to occur. If Tibetans want autonomous rule, then maybe they should show some respect instead of trying to sabotage the Olympics for China.

    8. The Olympic is a symbol of hope for China for better lives. Many of us are aware of the Cultural Revolution but that was then and this is now. The Chinese people do not want to be oppressed by the government as much as any other western countries. However, are we not allow to feel proud of our country for achieving so much in so little time? Do the Chinese people have to always be ashamed of themselves when, in fact, things have improved in China. Can't we not celebrate our achievements?! Those Anti-China activists claim that they see little or no changes are crass and have no proof. They pin China with 1% of bad Chinese history and culture and magnify it to 100%. What saddens me most is that People actually believe it!

    9. The whole thing about Chinese torch police is very rude. They do not speak english, so they are only able to communicate with a few simple commands. I can't believe Lord Coe called them 'thugs' because of that. The media is going on and on about these torch protectors robotic. Well, if they show any other emotion, then the media would just call them barbarians. Or should they just smile and allow the protesters to take the torch in laudation? Should they laugh when activists are shouting obscene phrases about their country? How come the protesters are not comdemn for attacking the handicapped girl in wheelchair in London? Where is the media on that? Where's the media on all the pro-China supporters who were also at the event?
    • kuzotz, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1Yea I heard that monks were going around chopping off Han chinese ears and *****. Just ***** random ass violence, and a lot of the western media doctored some of the photography, and didn't cover it well.
    • zadkiel86, on 04/10/2008, -1/+1While I agree with you on the fact that most people that are badmouthing China at the moment don't have any real idea about what is going on in China (or Tibet), I disagree with the fact that ANYONE should feel sorry or wrong for saying that the Chinese government is way out of line.

      I don't necessarily care about whether or not the recent protests in Tibet were violent or pacifist; frankly, it wouldn't make a difference either way. China has ***** on Tibet numerous times over the decades that it has spent occupying the nation against its wishes, excommunicating its leader, and stamping out its culture. As far as I'm concerned, every living Tibetan could arm themselves with an AK-47 and march into China firing off shots at all moving targets and I'd consider it fair play after China's contemptible treatment of Tibetans.

      All I can say is this: if the Chinese people are really that irritated about the way the media is portraying them, their government, their country, and the fact that they are hosting the Olympics, then do something about it by telling your government officials to GET THE ***** OUT OF TIBET.

      You want respect from the global community? You want all of us to sing songs and hold hands with you? Then stop acting like a bunch of ***** tools and do something about it. You're in the same boat as the United States now, welcome to the hate-fest!
  • dildobaggins, on 04/09/2008, -3/+13I don't like China but, if you're trying to put out the torch, you've got to expect that someone's going to kick your ass for it. If it wasn't "Chinese Thugs", it would be our own damn riot police.
    Some times you get what you ask for.
  • scoetrain, on 04/09/2008, -0/+12I'm tired of the comments treating the torch as some kind of sacred relic. It's just a big cigarette lighter advertising the olympics.
  • JoshuaLowe, on 04/09/2008, -2/+4Nothing says "International fellowship" like a good squad.
  • onClipEvent, on 04/09/2008, -4/+3Why is the news so shocking? If i knew how unpopular my country's government is to the rest of the world, i certainly wouldn't be using boy scouts as escort for something that's gonna be seen worldwide.
    • Arancaytar, on 04/09/2008, -0/+4I think you fail to understand the purpose of a ceremonial guard. They're not *meant* to be highly trained soldiers. If the torch goes out a few times, that's not an international incident, and if a protester commits a crime, that's for the police of the host nation to deal with.

      Sending paramilitary forces to an event symbolizing peace is about as faux-pas as it gets.
  • sndream, on 04/09/2008, -0/+5"They tried to punch me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English . . . I think they were thugs."
    I wiki it, the Armed police of China have 1.5 mil personnel, kind of hard to believe they couldn't find anyone that can speak English and able take out some protester within 3 punches. The Armed police duties also include fire fighting and road construction....... I really doubt they are "secret police". If there's secret police, i am pretty sure they are mixed in with the crowd and not dressing in bright blue uniform, because you know it's hard to be secretive when you are wearing neon blue.
    People, you know this internet thing you are on, go use it, you can check facts on it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Police
  • edchapel, on 04/09/2008, -2/+2What do you think the United State Secret Service is?
    • secrity, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1The US Secret Service has much more class than these goons do. They also dress better.
  • caponumen, on 04/09/2008, -5/+3Why are these ***** terrorists even allowed in the US?
    • jimmyleeca, on 04/09/2008, -1/+0you mean the guys who tried to grab the torch from the diabled girl in wheelchair? don't you guys call them 'freedom fighter'? While bin ladin equalize these guys, he is no qualified for this title, for this time, he is unfortunately against the us hypocrites!
  • unfairunbalance, on 04/09/2008, -2/+2Today communist police from Red China are in San Francisco. They are there to protect the Olympic Torch. How can this happen? It is un-Constitutional to place foreign police or troops on our soil. This what are Founding Fathers have fought for. Where is the outrage. People unite and throw the bums out of Washington now! They do not represent the people. They only represent their own special interest, corporate and foreign. This is not America any more.
  • ziyue, on 04/09/2008, -1/+2Let's see.. Protesters who tried to grab the torch got manhandled. What is wrong with that? Nothing. If somebody tried to grab a girl's bag, that person would get beat up, by her bf or other bystanders who tries to uphold the moral standard of a modern society.
    These guys did not run into a crowd of protesters and beat them down. They manhandled people whose actions would have gotten them manhandled any normal day.
    How come there is no public outcry over the aggressive actions of the demonstrators? Where it's no longer protesting or demonstration, it has became robbery or public disturbance. Protesting, as far as I know, does not involve charging at somebody, push them out the way, grab what's in their hands, and essentially tries to destroy it.
  • oceanographer, on 04/09/2008, -1/+2Is this really what the olympics are about? WTF.
  • WTFppl, on 04/09/2008, -1/+1This article is false and should be dugg! If any of you have watched the hours of video, the Blue Man Group did a great job at staying with the torch and deflecting anyone away from it. It's the ppl in yellow you should be looking at. In much of the video from England, you see men in yellow Quarterback sacking people who get near the torch. I saw a couple un-needed attacks from police on civies, but not unjust attacks, "don't get near the torch, you don't get hit". It's that simple!
  • jyac, on 04/09/2008, -0/+1ok, a little of the topic, but all these protesters are with the sing "free tibet", and the topic tibet is so hot these days. here is a video from youtube, this documentary was made by Swiss Public Television, not by the tibetans or the commies, so it's pretty trust worth i think.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sOm-uQH9Y&feature ...
  • shdwsclan, on 04/09/2008, -2/+1I do support the free tibet campaign, but they are normal guards.
    They are there to protect the torch and can only take defensive positions.
    Personally, I would grab the torch with the help of 50 friends, and crush it into a cube, permanently extinguishing it.
    They are walking into an a firestorm in SF, there are Koreans and Japanese that hate the Chinese with a passion, and there are also a ***** of hippies.......

    Hopefully, something interesting happens....
  • PolishLogic, on 04/09/2008, -2/+2I don't blame them for making sure that the protesters don't hurt the relay runners. Considering the scenes shown of the protests and the people mobbing the runners to try to get at the torch, this seems completely justifiable to me.

    If I was a runner and not given any security to keep me at a distance from the mob, I'd tell the organizers of the relay to go ***** themselves and find somebody else to take the abuse. You want protest, fine. Wave your flags, shout and make your signs, but keep your ***** hands to yourselves.

    (of course, by not giving China a horrible bashing for this, I can only expect a burying)
  • jlhoben, on 04/09/2008, -2/+3Those protesters are heros. The fact that the MSM is desperately trying to smear activism is a sure sign it has power. Boycott the Olympics!!!!! Free Tibet!!!! Free the USA!!!!
  • amightywind, on 04/09/2008, -1/+3I speculated in some earlier posts that these torch guards were jackbooted thugs abusing Falon Gong in their day jobs. Any nation that welcomes this cancer should have its collective head examined. Amusing that China elites would put such stock in a ritual invented by Josef Goebbels.
  • 360news, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0I suspect many people you see at events these days, no matter what country you are in, are undercover security of some kind.
  • 3seconds, on 04/10/2008, -1/+0Dont be cheated by the main media with some dirty purpose against China.
  • alphavision, on 04/10/2008, -0/+0This happened in Paris when there were no flame attendants. Protesters targeted the handicapped torch bearer.
    http://english.china.com/zh_cn/news/society/110203 ...
  • dalaoshu, on 04/10/2008, -1/+0Wednesday 9 April 2008
    The invasion of the robotic thugs
    The attacks on the ‘horrible, ominous, retarded’ Chinese men guarding the Olympic flame are historical prejudice repeated as farce.
    Brendan O’Neill

    On Sunday, as the Olympic flame made its 31-mile journey from Wembley Stadium in north-west London to Greenwich in the east, more than 2,000 Metropolitan Police officers were on duty.

    The London authorities spent a whopping £1million on security. An estimated 13 miles of metal barricades were erected in order to pen in the public. Officers used Britain’s stringent new anti-terror laws – which effectively bring an end to the right to protest and severely restrict freedom of speech and association – to arrest protesters, force people to remove ‘offensive’ T-shirts (what, in that snowy weather?), and confiscate ‘problematic’ placards, pamphlets and books. In some parts of London, mini-states of emergency were imposed for the day: long rows of cops blocked access to entire streets and rifled through the bags of anyone who wanted to pass.

    Inside Downing Street, policemen wielded assault rifles; outside Downing Street, there were, in the words of one newspaper, ‘helicopter police, mounted police, motorcycle police, bicycling police, Ford Transit van police, standing police, wrestle-you-to-the-ground police in black Andy Pandy suits, and even jogging police’ (1). London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s office once infamously referred to New Year celebrations in London as a ‘public order problem’ – it seems someone in London decided the Olympic torch relay was akin to a public act of terrorism, and sent a standing army of newly-empowered super-cops to extinguish any signs of fun or enthusiasm.


    British police pin a protester to
    the floor, while the ‘Chinese
    thugs’ look on.

    And yet, what have British commentators and radical activists obsessively bleated about since the relay took place? The presence of 15 Chinese minders around the Olympic flame. These Chinese have been described as ‘vile’, ‘horrible’, ‘robotic’, ‘mysterious’, ‘retarded’ goons who tried to import their nation’s alien and tyrannical ways into England’s green and pleasant lands. Indeed, as the torch has moved from London to Paris to San Francisco, the age-old historical prejudice about a ‘Chinese invasion’ of the civilised West, bringing with it strange cultural habits and ‘sensual brutishness’, has been replayed as farce in the hysterical debate about the Chinese torch attendants (2).

    The Chinese ‘flame protectors’ are security-service employees of the Beijing Olympic Organising Committee; they were reportedly handpicked to guard the torch because of their fitness and strength. They wore matching blue-and-white shellsuits, with the Beijing 2008 logo imprinted on them, baseball caps and black bumbags, which contained nothing more ominous than Zippo lighters so that the minders could re-ignite the torch if anyone managed to put it out (as protesters did, four times, in Paris).

    Yet reading the press coverage, you could be forgiven for thinking that these Chinese boys-in-blue were not only accompanying the torch through the West but wickedly spreading Chinese values, too. They have been described as a ‘mysterious’ presence on Western shores. ‘Questions raised over mysterious men in blue’, said the UK Independent. ‘Who let in the Chinese?’, demanded The Times of London, perhaps to the tune of ‘Who let the dogs out?’, pointing out that these ‘mysterious men-in-blue… have provoked international outcry’. One columnist said the ‘most shocking aspect of the farcical progress of the Olympic torch through London and Paris was the presence and behaviour of the squad of Chinese goons’, these ‘mysterious’ tracksuited men (3). Did I mention that commentators considered the Chinese minders to be ‘mysterious’?

    In truth, there is nothing mysterious about the presence of foreign security officials in the UK. There are loads of them, guarding foreign embassies and protecting visiting foreign dignitaries. Indeed, last year the London leg of the Tour de France was accompanied by 80 French police officers, actually wearing paramilitary-style police uniforms and riding motorbikes; Greek security officials followed and monitored the movement of the Olympic flame in the run-up to Athens 2004 (4). Yet no one asked ‘Who let the frogs in?’ or ‘Who are those mysterious Greeks?’

    Perhaps it was not the fact that the Chinese flame-protectors were security-service men that rattled commentators and activists, but rather their allegedly strange, inscrutable, aloof and, well, typically Chinese behaviour. British Olympics official Lord Sebastian Coe was overheard describing them as ‘horrible’. ‘They did not speak English. They were thugs’, he spat. Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq described them as ‘very robotic’. She was echoed by the head of the French Olympics Committee when the torch arrived in Paris; he, too, described the Chinese minders as ‘robots’ (5). This view of Easterners as unthinking automatons carrying out orders was widespread. The minders were ‘unsmiling’, said the UK Daily Telegraph; as the UK Guardian pointed out, some have referred to them as ‘flame retardants’, as in retards: that is, people of subnormal intelligence (6). Their steely-eyed, robotic, oh-so-Eastern attitudes were seen as a foreign imposition on British territory. ‘Some saw their black leather gloves, earpieces and single-minded determination to keep the flame burning as a visible demonstration of Chinese police state-type muscle in London’, said one newspaper (7).

    These loaded denouncements of the mysterious Chinese provided newspapers that like to bait foreigners with a field day. ‘…HORRIBLE CHINESE THUGS…’ screamed the UK Daily Mail, reporting that the Chinese were ‘burly henchmen’ who ‘barged their way through the capital’ (8). One Daily Mail writer said ‘the goons [definition: a coarse or oafish person acting on behalf of others] were just following orders, having no doubt been told their organs will be harvested if they let protesters run off with the torch’ (9). What? Didn’t you know that the evil Chinese state steals people’s hearts, lungs and livers and sells them on the black market for a quick buck, and what’s more that it uses threats of such ‘organ harvesting’ as a way of keeping its people and it employees in line? God, you’re so behind the times… If you failed to read between the lines of the Mail’s coverage, the message was spelled out more clearly by one of the commenters in their moderated discussion threads; he said Britain had ‘capitulated’ to ‘the pro-Burmese, anti-Tibetan Marxist vermin of China’ (my italics).

    This time, however, no liberals criticised the Mail for its exaggerated and excessive attacks on horrible, organ-stealing foreigners. That is because liberal thinkers, too, were busy obsessing over the 15 Chinese minders. Watching the Metropolitan Police’s widespread use of new anti-terror laws to police the public and quell protests during the torch relay in London on Sunday, Shami Chakrabarti of the British civil rights campaign group Liberty could only say: ‘Everyone appreciates the difficult duty of our police to hold the line between the Olympic ceremony and critics and supporters of the Chinese regime. But who were the ominous figures running in formation in light blue uniforms?’ (10) In short? ‘Our’ boys-in-blue did a good, upstanding job – ‘their’ boys-in-blue were ‘ominous’.

    Similarly, Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet UK said ‘it beggars belief that personnel from the People’s Liberation Army were allowed on the streets of London at all, let alone that they were allowed to push Metropolitan Police around’ (11). This is a completely surreal situation: Whitticase is the head of an organisation whose members were put into headlocks, thrown to the ground, stripped of their T-shirts and placards and chucked into police vans (there were 37 arrests) exclusively by British police empowered by new and truly ominous British legislation - yet he only seems interested in fretting over the presence of a handful of Chinese men in tracksuits nearby.

    Indeed, in the topsy-turvy world of an imagined Chinese invasion of London, newspaper editors seem to have lost their marbles: some have published photographs that clearly show snarling white-skinned British cops strangling protesters to the ground under headlines such as ‘Who ARE these Chinese thugs?’ (12) What Chinese thugs? The notion that Chinese officials protecting the flame were part of a bigger sly invasion of muscular Communism reached its nadir when Tony Arbour, a Conservative member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said ‘the Chinese security men seemed to be managing events [in London]’ (which was patently not true) and then insisted: ‘Trafalgar Square is not Tiananmen Square.’ (13) This hysterical statement captured the dual fear and loathing behind the attacks on China’s robotic thugs: fear that a weak and ‘supine’ UK (as Free Tibet described Gordon Brown’s Britain) is being overrun by Chinese, and loathing of those unsmiling, retarded foreigners who have of course never done anything of note except massacre people in Tiananmen Square.

    The reason the Chinese flame guards can be described as horrible, ominous, subnormal robots who were looking to carry out ‘a Tiananmen Square’ in central London – in spite of all the evidence that actually they were your average unarmed foreign security officials working in tandem with the British authorities – is because this discussion has been underpinned by new China-bashing prejudices rather than by factual evidence or political analysis. And the prejudice has spread, like a virus, from London to Paris to San Francisco to Australia.

    An online columnist in America, running with the Daily Mail writer’s remark about Chinese organ-theft, lambasted the Bush administration for allowing these Chinese ‘monsters’ to come to San Francisco to guard the torch. ‘Why does San Francisco – and America – need the monsters who enforce China’s gruesome organ trade on its streets?’ he asked. He argued that the torch relay captured Chinese arrogance and stupidity: ‘Whether it was their deep and lethal hatred for democracy and the public assembly democracy requires, their incurable incomprehension of free people’s values, or their usual stupid and deadly combination of the two, [Chinese leaders] ensured that this morning San Francisco woke up to see the Olympic torch wedged between a Chinese functionary and the symbol of China’s real rulers: a secret policeman.’ (14)

    In the blogosphere, the idea that the flame attendants are the vanguard of a Chinese invasion has been stated even more explicitly. ‘Chinese thugs take over England’, said one British blogger, asking why ‘Chinese agents’ were allowed to operate ‘above the law’ (they weren’t) (15). An American blogger, inspired by British media reports of a Chinese-thug takeover of the UK, said: ‘Maybe these thugs are used to beating Tibetans into submission… but their brutish antics should not be tolerated in a CIVILISED society.’ He advised protesters in San Francisco to bring mace, because it’s ‘amazing what a nice shot of mace will do to control a BRUTISH THUG’ (16). Another writer took the Chinese invasion idea to its logical conclusion, arguing that in London the boys-in-blue-tracksuits ‘did what the uniformed servants of every proud imperialist nation does – they started knocking about the locals, who hadn’t even bothered to learn the occupier’s language’ (17). That’s right: Britain has been colonised by strange, unknowable, violent Chinese.

    Almost unbelievably, the issue of the Chinese torch-bearers has become a major international issue. In Britain opposition politicians such as David Davis and Nick Clegg have demanded to know ‘why the Chinese were let in’ to Britain; in Paris, actual police and city officials slated the flame attendants’ ‘constant prevarication and procrastination’ (18). And now, Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has said the Chinese security officials will not be allowed to accompany the torch in Australia. Instead, this will be an ‘only Australians’ affair, Rudd declared (19). Well, the Australian authorities have always been very good at keeping out the Chinese – why should they stop now?

    Rudd clearly relishes his role as the white police chief of the mostly ‘yellow’ Pacific. Last year he threatened to send the Australian Navy to chase away ‘evil’ Japanese whalers; now he has won international accolades for standing up to ‘evil’, er, Chinese blokes in tracksuits. ‘Rudd showed Gordon Brown how to treat the Chinese government’, declared a writer for the UK Daily Telegraph - that is, with contempt (20). Under the headline ‘Rudd won’t let Chinese invade’ (my italics), an Australian columnist congratulated the new PM for ‘banning the boys in blue’ from the streets of Oz, though he also wondered if Australians had been told the whole truth about the Australian government’s dealings with the Chinese (21). Of course we haven’t been told the whole story, said one commenter on his article – after all, not telling the truth is part of the ‘China Syndrome’ (22). That is, the Chinese lie. They steal organs, they have no feelings, they never smile, they are robots, they are retards, and they lie.


    A 1907 cartoon showing the
    spectre of the Chinese brute
    bearing down on Australia.
    How did concern about a tiny number of unarmed Chinese officials jogging through W
  • christenn, on 04/12/2008, -0/+0come on . be my friend
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.