The Harsh Spotlight
Slate has an interesting take on the torch relay from Anne Applebaum. I don’t agree with all of her conclusions, and I think parts of it show the bias of someone looking from afar (note: my use of “bias” is not the same as my Chinese brethren). Yet she nonetheless makes some good points. She writes:
In Paris, the torch’s omnipresent security guards—members of the Sacred Flame Protection Unit of the Chinese People’s Armed Police, the same paramilitaries who put down riots in Tibet—had to extinguish the flame themselves to prevent protesters from doing so first.
But I think where she gets me is the sarcasm, which has a special place in my heart.
What a disappointment this must all be for the China Daily, the English-language organ of the Chinese Communist Party, which last month bragged that the 2008 torch relay “will traverse the longest distance, cover the greatest area and include the largest number of people” since this ancient Greek custom was invented by the Nazis in 1936.
Hmmm…not the most flattering analogy. One thing I didn’t know was that until Athens in 2004, the Olympic torch rout was two stops: Athens…and the final destination. But the Chinese do things bigger. And more foolishly, at times.
Previously, it had traveled only between Athens and the Olympic city or within the Olympic country. But the Greeks are a small nation with only local enemies. China is a totalitarian empire with many enemies and should know better than to stage a deliberately provocative, easily disrupted event like this one.
But clearly the Chinese did not know better. Their confused, unprepared official reaction has wavered between outright dishonesty—”all Torch Relay cities have given strong support for the event”—and incoherent anger. Chinese bloggers apparently favor the latter. One posted a photograph of an anti-torch protester, along with the words, “Remember him … he’ll die a terrible death.”
Only a lazy person would go about citing blogs as if they were useful information (especially someone citing a newspaper using a Reuters report, in which someone translated something from a Chinese message board. So this is me citing Slate citing The Guardian citing Reuters quoting a translated blog. But I digress.)
Anyway, the real problem that I have is with the smug conclusion, which clearly falls into the trap of failing to differentiate the Chinese Government with the Chinese people. If I’m going to take Chinese to task for allowing this mistake to create nationalistic fervor, it’s only fair to point out that this journalist had some good points, and utterly flubbed her conclusion:
Of course, no one believes that “Free Tibet” signs on the Golden Gate Bridge will truly liberate Tibet, and the absence of the U.S. president from some horrifically overchoreographed ceremony in Beijing won’t bring democracy to the Middle Kingdom. But it will show some of the Chinese people what some of the world thinks of their repressive system—and quite right, too.
Hopefully someone will show Ms. Applebaum what the world thinks of the current American administration—and quite right too.
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Matthew Stinson responds:
Posted: April 16th, 2008 at 12:53 am →
Agree on the smug conclusion. Applebaum, though a fine writer, has seemingly been to one too many Washington cocktail parties and fallen into the trap of recycling nodding head comments as professional commentary.
Anyways, the torch run trivia and the Chinese discovery of “ancient traditions” reminds me of one Fanfou miniblogger who opined: “China has waited 5,000 years to host the Olympics.”
Janus responds:
Posted: April 17th, 2008 at 1:32 pm →
haha! nice