It’s nice to see China adding civil unrest to their list of global exports
Monday, April 7th, 2008
What was supposed to be a majestic procession for the Olympic torch through the French capital turned into chaos Monday as thousands of people from around Europe, many with Tibetan flags, massed to protest the passage of the flame. The torch went out several times, and police officers had to put it onto a bus to try to protect it as demonstrators swarmed the security detail. In the end, organizers canceled the final leg of the procession.
“The Chinese have made sure that for a few hours, Paris will look like Tiananmen Square,” noted Robert Menard, head of the Reporters Without Frontiers group, before the Paris protests he helped organize. “I think it’s shameful.”
A Chinese spokesman, Qu Yingpu, said Chinese officials were grateful to the police “for their efforts to keep order.” He added: “This is not the right time, the right platform, for any people to voice their political views.”
I think the belief that a public space is an inappropriate platform for public expression is precisely the issue so many people are taking with China right now. I can’t think of a more appropriate time to protest than during China’s crackdown on Tibet, leading up to the first Olympics held in a non-democratic society.