The Sleeping Dragon has Awakened, and Appears to Be Stupid.The Chinese were planning on the Olympic Torch (now Flame of Shame) Relay being their coming out party on the World Stage, thought the entire world would fall to our knees in joy, accepting them and their Communist dictums with open arms. They failed to realize the world would hold them accountable for their Human Rights abuses, take them (government) to task for being a bunch of dishonest, thieving, brutish thugs trying to reign supreme in the world as the next new Super Power. Using slave labor, ruling with an iron fist hidden in a velvet glove, the China of today is the same China the world has not trusted for decades, perhaps centuries. This is part of why the Olympic Torch Relay has turned into a nightmare, a public relations fiasco of the worst kind as ever increasing numbers of police and military personnel are being called upon to stop the world from snuffing out a flame that should never have been lit, creating a Kodak moment that China and the IOC cannot run away from.
Even if these over whelming uses of brut force are successful in keeping the torch from being extinguished again, it is too late. Both China and the IOC have lost face in the eyes of the world, have been shamed on the world stage…it would be best, and perhaps safer if China were to simply CANCEL the Olympics, rather than risk a horrid event similar to the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. The flame is and should be under attack, and sadly when the Olympics are opened, there is a high likelihood they will also be under attack by millions of people who’s families have been harmed by this hard line Communist Nation…China’s moment in the sun their opportunity to even the score. With each stop along the route, both sides are growing more bitter, angrier and frustrated, and that is a recipe for trouble, creates opportunity for words and signs to become bullets and bombs. China is too proud to admit it, but the Torch Relay has shown the world they are NOT READY for primetime, do not have the class, nor the wisdom to hold an event of this magnitude in a way that does not offend the rest of the world.
Reading the Chinese Government Propaganda, the hate speech of China’s netizen’s it is obvious that China is frustrated at their own inability to control their affairs, unable to dictate to the world that we will be happy for them, cooperate and rejoice in their dream. It’s almost sad to watch Jiang Yu embarrass herself, her nation with her hall monitor scolding of the world, trying to chide us into proper behavior like errant children. She needs to get a clue…you do not scold westerners, we have not been raised in a nation where citizens are imprisoned for questioning the government and its authority, we believe in Freedom of Speech, and China does not really understand this as was witnessed by their over reaction to Jack Cafferty’s honest, albeit distasteful remarks…as they say, the truth hurts, and Jack spoke the truth. In China, the worst thing in the world is losing face, and the entire nation HAS LOST FACE, will continue to lose face if their nation keeps traveling the Olympic Road in the fashion they have chosen for themselves so far.
Hu Xingdou, a political analyst at the Beijing Institute of technology was quoted as saying, “All that has happened is a kind of humiliation”, and “The government never expected this.” What did he and the government expect? Were they really so foolish as to believe their civil rights abuses would simply be ignored? You do not evict people out of their homes, bulldoze down their houses just so you can host an Olympics, but China did! You do not destroy the Tibetan culture; refuse a people their freedom without the world revolting against your wrongs. You do not trot out Jiang Yu to deliver veiled threats to other nations if they DO NOT CONTROL THEIR PEOPLE, DO NOT PROTECT YOUR TORCH. You do not threaten CNN when one of their newscasters speaks his mind, you do not have your citizens threatening boycotts of French companies because their citizens protested your human rights abuses without paying a high price…of course the Flame of Shame is a humiliation to China as it very well should be. You have marched out onto the world stage with a national sense of entitlement you quite frankly HAVE NOT EARNED.
Perhaps China’s naiveté was best expressed in an article written by China’s diplomat to the UK, Fu Ying who stated, “On the complicated question of religion mixing with politics, separation is unacceptable. But people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China.” It is rather sad that an educated woman has been so brain washed by the indoctrination process that is China that she cannot see the stupidity of her own belief contained in her words. China’s gifts/bribes of food, clothing and shelter mean nothing if the Tibetan people cannot be free, mean nothing if in your quest to move on you are willing to destroy that very culture that makes Tibet and its people what and who they are. Without freedom, that rest is of no importance, as you are still slaves to a demeaning and demanding master.
Shen Dingli a supposed scholar at the Fudan University in Shanghai expresses an intellectual shallowness when he ponders, “Why can't those rich countries do a better job than India does?" Because our leaders realize you cannot beat a people into submission, cannot get us to obey laws through the use of overwhelming force, and most importantly, in using that overwhelming force against our citizens, we would become China, and that is unacceptable. What good is a showed if it is staged and fake, what good are applause if gotten at the business end of a gun, coerced with threats of torture and abuse? Furthermore, there is a certain wisdom in that old adage that if you love something you must let it go, set it free and if it comes back it is yours. A slightly different way of looking at things is to remember the story in the Bible about the prodigal son. China sees Tibet almost as the errant child but is unwilling to let it go…perhaps wisdom dictates that errant child must be allowed the freedom to go off on their own, make their own mistakes, and come back to the fold OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING, and it that return will be great celebration for China.
China’s goal, its hopes were that the Summer Game would showcase to the world what China had accomplished, how much they had changed. It was to be their chance to show off, witnessed by what is scheduled to be the most expensive Olympic Games in the history of the world, and instead everything is spinning out of control as Tibet supporters loudly take center stage. The world spotlight is not shining down on Beijing’s stunning skyline, their spectacular skyscrapers and the best Olympic facilities that money could buy. China is angry, China is shamed, but most importantly, China is hurt as hooligans interfere with China’s rise, stagger even halt their forward progress as one of the major players in world politics.
Out of stubbornness, out of pride the Torch Relay must and will go on as China INSISTS ON IT, growing more difficult with each and every step. Surely the BOCOG and the IOC are holding their collective breath as the torch gets closer to landing in Australia where Chinese Nationalism could come crashing into Tibetan Pride with real potential for riots in the offing. Already the chartered jetliner meant to be a symbol of pride is being landed in tucked away militarily controlled areas instead of there being lavish media coverage as the torch jets from on location to another the parade of nations a laughable sideshow, the freaks when the circus comes to town. It is not going to be any different in Canberra, and the government there knows it, would probably beg out of hosting the Torch if China would not take such great offense and umbrage at such an act of what they would see as disrespect.
The sad news and the good news all rolled into one, is that China’s fate is in its own hands. They could still have the great fan fare they want, could still WOW the world with the greatest Olympics the world has ever seen. Problem is, have they grown enough to cut lose the apron strings and let both Tibet and Taiwan go? Nothing could earn China more respect around the world than for them to give the people of these two lands their freedom, and in that single act China will gain what it seeks more than any other….acceptance for the great nation they have the ability to be.
