Olympic torch flickers in Chinese hands

Tianamen Square buzzed with the sounds of cheering women and flower-toting children on March 30 as the Olympic flame was officially welcomed onto Chinese soil.

In a rare show of public emotion, a smiling President Hu Jintao then brandished the flame lit in Ancient Olympia almost a week earlier and, across a country that has become obsessed with all things Olympian, Chinese television viewers lapped up the scenes of joyous celebrations.

Nearby, however, was another reality of the games of the 29th Olympiad.

International television pictures showed the square - synonymous with the bloody protest there 19 years ago - swarming with police. Indeed, the security cordon that screened the invitation-only guest list was three tiers deep.

These, after all, are intended to be the games that showcase the all-singing, all-dancing China and the financial superpower it has become. And if there is one message that came from the Beijing torch-lighting ceremony, it is that the authorities there will stop at nothing to ensure that this image remains untainted.

The brief history of the 2008 Olympic flame, however, suggests a somewhat different performance to that choreographed by China's Olympic committee.

For all the pomp and pagan ceremony of the lighting of the torch in Ancient Olympia on March 24, it was the intervention there by protesters from the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, voicing opposition to China's human rights record and occupation of Tibet, that led many international news reports of the event.

And while the Chinese organising committee has arranged an unprecedented 130-day, 137,000km worldwide relay to parade the flame and whet the world's appetite for the summer games, activists have promised demonstrations along the way, notably in London, Paris and San Francisco.

Reporters Without Borders news editor Jeff Julliard described as "regrettable" the arrest of three of the organisation's representatives in Ancient Olympia but he said that the action had helped launch an international debate on the ethics of the Beijing Games.

"For instance, the possibility of boycotting the opening ceremony was discussed at the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Slovenia. For sure, it would not have been had we not done what we did in Olympia," said Julliard.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has since confirmed that she will not be attending the opening ceremony in August, but she stressed that at no time had she been intending to do so. French President Nicolas Sarkozy remained inconclusive when asked what his position would be.

However, EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana ruled out the possibility of a bloc-wide boycott of the ceremony.

No security, no image

The wave of protests prompted China's president to say that guaranteeing security is the top priority of the summer games.

According to the news agency Reuters, President Hu issued a mobilisation order to national paramilitary troops telling them to guarantee the games are trouble-free.

"Security must take priority," Hu told officials, according to the People's Armed Police news. "Without security guarantees there cannot be successful Olympic Games, and without security guarantees the national image will be lost."

Meanwhile, the country's Public Security Bureau spokesman, Wu Heping, told the Associated Press that Tibetan independence forces were planning to use suicide squads to trigger bloody attacks in China.

Chinese authorities have already accused the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of instigating the recent unrest in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, which left at least 22 people dead. Tibetan exiles put the number of dead at around 140.

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