China doctors the news of Olympic torch relay
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/MNP91020MD.DTL
Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
(04-09) 04:00 PDT Beijing - --
The tumultuous reception to China's Olympic torch relay around the
world has touched a nationalistic nerve here, where heavily censored
re****ts about Tibet and other topics at hand have left many wondering
why China is under attack from foreign critics.
"It's just bad, bad, bad," retired army officer Wang Guanghai said of
pro-Tibetan demonstrations that marred the torch relay in London and
Paris. Wang, who chatted at a fruit stand in a downtown Beijing
neighborhood, said he was certain the United States would be more
welcoming when the torch arrived in San Francisco. Although protesters
had hung pro-Tibetan freedom banners from the Golden Gate Bridge hours
earlier, the news had not been published in China.
A middle-age woman surnamed Feng was less optimistic about the U.S.
reception and less willing to give her full name. Feng, who did not
want to give her first name, said the tension was noticeable among
guards in the embassy district where she walks her dog. She said she
expects China's international reception to continue to be rocky as the
torch moves around the world.
"The (Chinese) government is worried; we're all worried," Feng said.
"We've been preparing for these Olympics for eight years."
On the Internet, there is more indignation over disruptions of the
torch relay. But gauging public opinion in China on sensitive issues
like Tibet and human rights is close to impossible, and as elsewhere,
the loudest voices attract the most attention.
Instead, political discourse is funneled via Internet controls toward
nationalism, with popular news and chatter filled with patriotic
sentiment. During the Chinese crackdown on Tibet last month, Web users
re****ted that any comments critical of the government's handling of
the turmoil or sup****tive of Tibetan rights were deleted shortly after
being posted.
Regarding the torch run, page after page of comments on popular Web
sites railed against China's foreign critics in general and against
the international media in particular. CNN has become a favorite
target, after government-run newspapers highlighted blogs critical of
how the network cropped a photograph of demonstrations in Tibet. The
Web site www.anti-CNN.com says it has received 400,000 hits since it
opened a few weeks ago.
"In London, in Paris, many protesters are Westerners," said one
commenter on www.china.com. "They've never been to China but are still
against China because they don't want to see China develop."
Sebastian Veg, a researcher with Hong Kong's French Centre for
Contem****ary Research on China, noted that not all voices are alike.
More than two dozen high-profile intellectuals and lawyers criticized
the government's actions on Tibet in an open letter last month.
Domestic newspapers like Southern Weekend, noted for its investigative
re****ting, have not toed the government line.
"There is clearly a group of very vocal nationalists who resent
foreign criticism of China," Veg said. "These people both want to
express themselves and are allowed to express themselves."
He compared the nationalistic outcry in China to similar movements in
the United States and France in recent years.
"I would say China is probably not very different, and people can be
led to say silly things when they see their politicians doing the
same," Veg said.
The view of the torch run from within China has been censored heavily
and intended to discredit protesters as a small group of anti-China
malcontents. Initial protests by Re****ters Sans Frontiers at the torch
lighting ceremony in Athens went unre****ted by Chinese press for
several days, and the disruptions in London were downplayed
dramatically.
The English-language China Daily newspaper described London's upheaval
in the streets as "disruptions by a few Tibetan separatists and their
sup****ters." In the first re****ts from Paris by the state-run Xinhua
news agency, the journalist cited "technical difficulties" as the
reason the torch was extinguished and carried on a bus rather than by
someone on foot.
A day later, a spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee of the
Olympics told a hastily called news conference that though the relay
had been disrupted, China intended to complete the longest torch run
in the history of the Games.
Dissenting voices have been silenced even more than usual, so it's
even tougher than in normal times to gauge popular opinion. But
censor****p in China begins early and political debate is limited, so
to many the torch demonstrations seem like overblown personal attacks
against Chinese people, not just criticism of their government.
Sophie Richardson, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said the
dangers of China's heavy-handed censor****p are evident.
"The downside of suppressing free information and substituting
propaganda is quite clear, be it about toxic toys or repressed ethnic
minorities - the eventual eruption is far worse than it might have
been had it been dealt with openly," Richardson said.
"As long as China blocks the free flow of information, it is
unreliable as a trading partner, as a strategic partner or as a
'responsible power.' "
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