China: No force can stop the Olympic torch relay
According to an Associated Press report, "No force can stop the torch relay of the Olympic Games," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee.
"We are confident the torch relay of the Beijing Olympic Games will succeed."
Someday, unless we wake up, the Chinese will be saying the same thing about their control of the world. Beth at Blue Star Chronicles relays to us that according to the Chinese, the Olympic torch relay is going fantastically (1). That's interesting, considering that relay stops in London and Paris descended into chaos (2) because of anti-China protests.
And today, the Olympic torch embarks on its only U.S. relay in San Francisco as the city braces for massive protests (3).
Reader Brian James took the following footage outside his apartment, in front of City Hall in San Francisco of a pro-Tibet rally (as usual, YouTube diminished the quality of the original video):
Slightly off-topic: When we trade with Japan, they use not one penny toward military buildups and spend the money on creating innovative technology, putting in place environmentally safe industries, establishing a peaceful and democratic society, and in general making the world a better place. When we trade with China, most of those pennies go to helping the Chinese buildup the military (4), steal technology (5), pollute the planet (6) and destabilize democracies (7).
It may be time to drop the hammer on China by stopping ALL trade until it becomes a democratic and responsible member of the world community. Or we could wait until China becomes more powerful than the US (8) and try to fix things when it's too late.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Blue Star Chronicles, China: Beijing Olympic Torch Relay is Great Success!
Just when I’ve been hearing how the United States feeds people what they are supposed to think from people who say they haven’t got the freedom to speak openly even while they are openly speaking …. I see a press release from China’s official Olympics website.
According the [sic] the Chinese, the Olympic torch relay is going fantastically! Its being warmly received and there is strong worldwide support of the relay and the Beijing Olympics.
...
Ain’t propaganda a wonderful thing. Unfortunately for the Chinese, it doesn’t work so well in the society we now live in. They have a bit of a hard time holding an event in front of the whole world while spreading their own form of propaganda. It has to be a bit confusing for them.
After discussing the enormously enthusiastic reception the Olympic Torch has received in city after city throughout the world, they do acknowledge that there have been a very few “pro-Tibet independence” activists who have made unsuccessful attempts to ruin it for everyone else.
(2):
International Herald Tribune, Olympic torch arrives in San Francisco
Three protesters climbed the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to hang Pro-Tibet banners that read: "One World, One Dream," and "Free Tibet 08."
Photo Credit: Kimberly White/Reuters
The Olympic torch arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday for the latest stage of its worldwide relay amid contradictory reports about whether the International Olympic Committee was considering cutting short the relay or amending its route after stops in London and Paris descended into chaos because of anti-China protests.
A spokeswoman for the IOC, Emmanuelle Moreau, said the executive board will meet Thursday and Friday in Beijing and will discuss the problems in London and Paris and the remaining route of the relay.
(3):
Reuters, San Francisco torch route switch angers spectators
The Olympic torch's only stop in North America turned into the mystery of the missing flame on Wednesday, as San Francisco abruptly changed the torch route, angering both China supporters and protesters who had waited hours to see it.
Thousands of people converged along the announced scenic waterfront route for the passage of the torch. But shortly after a brief opening ceremony, the first runner, flanked by tall, blue-clad Chinese security officials, disappeared into a large waterfront warehouse.
"I think we were cheated, because I think the meaning of the relay was to show the whole world that our country is hosting the Olympics," said Michael Huo, 30, a Chinese engineer working at a Silicon Valley start-up company.
The torch was a magnet for chaotic demonstrations in London and Paris in the last week over a range of China issues from China's crackdown on Tibet last month to human rights. Beijing, embarrassed as it prepares to host the Olympics, has strongly condemned the protests.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told Reuters that the route had to be radically changed at the last minute or the event canceled to ensure public safety.
(4):
TheHill.com, 27 Sep 2005, China's military buildup accelerates
China is beginning to reap the rewards of an intensive and costly military modernization program designed to turn its armed forces into a streamlined and integrated force.
Over the past decade, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been engaged in an ambitious and concerted effort to become a modern, war-fighting organization, one that can project its military power well beyond China’s borders.
(5):
History News Network, Why China Has to Steal Technology
In his 1968 essay directed to his country’s leadership, the premier Soviet nuclear scientist Andrei Sakharov warned “that a society that restricts intellectual freedom and prevents the free exchange of ideas would be unable to compete with societies that unleash the creative potential of their people.” He went on to compare the race between the US and the USSR to one between two cross country skiers traversing deep snow. If the dictatorships seem to be catching up fast, it is only because they follow in the tracks already smoothed out by democracies. Lack of freedom consigns “fear societies” to the role of followers, never leaders since “a fear society must parasitically feed off the resources of others to recharge its batteries.”
(6):
Reuters, 11 Jun 2007, Two thirds of Chinese cities' water, air polluted
Nearly two-thirds of Chinese cities suffered from air pollution last year and had no centralized sewage treatment facilities, state media reported on Tuesday.
Only 37.6 percent of 585 cities surveyed had air quality "indicating a clean and healthy environment," down 7.3 percentage points from 2005, the China Daily said, citing a report by the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).
Thirty-nine cities, many scattered across the northern coal-rich province of Shanxi and China's northeastern rustbelt province of Liaoning, suffered "severe" air pollution, the paper said.
"The report also found that the ratio of quality water in the major urban areas, either for drinking or industrial use, had dropped by 7.24 percent," the paper said.
Two hundred cities had no "centralized sewage management system" and 187 had no garbage disposal plants, it said.
(7):
The Washington Post, 30 Apr 2006, League of Dictators?
In small but revealing ways this is what Russia and China are doing, in places such as Sudan and Iran, where they are making common cause to block the liberal West's efforts to impose sanctions, and in Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe and Burma, where they have embraced various dictators in defiance of the global liberal consensus. All these actions can be explained away as simply serving narrow material interests. China needs Sudanese and Iranian oil; Russia wants the hundreds of millions of dollars that come from the sale of weapons and nuclear reactors. But there is more than narrow self-interest involved in their decisions. Defending these governments against the pressures of the liberal West reflects their fundamental interests as autocracies.
(8):
The Ohio State University, CHINA COULD ONE DAY PASS U.S. AS MAJOR ECONOMIC POWER, BOOK SAYS
Growing at a faster clip than any other major nation, China is on course to surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy within 20 years. China-based factories already make 70 percent of the world’s toys, 60 percent of its bicycles, half its shoes and one-third of its luggage.
