CHINA:ORDINARY CHINESE people have taken to the streets to show their anger about growing anti-Olympic sentiment and to attack what they see as biased western coverage of the recent crackdown in Tibet.
Anti-Chinese protests on the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay and President Nicolas Sarkozy's threat to boycott the Olympic opening ceremony have led to demonstrations outside Carrefour supermarkets, which has 112 branches in China. In Paris, there were displays of support for the Olympics by overseas Chinese saying "Love Our China".
Webizens are organising online protests against CNN over commentator Jack Cafferty's description of the Beijing government as "goons and thugs", with demonstrations in Washington and in Los Angeles.
The focus on CNN is remarkable because most Chinese cannot watch the channel as it is available only in compounds where foreigners live and in a few hotels.
"We don't have the right to watch CNN but we have the right to reject it," said one angry webizen, while another commentator said Cafferty was "a pig full of faeces . . . a demented Frenchman". CNN was described as a "heinous mad dog". Chinese hackers are attacking the CNN website and the state-run All-China Journalists' Association has asked CNN and Cafferty to apologise.
In Manchester and London, Chinese expatriates and students staged silent demonstrations at what they see as distorted coverage by the BBC of the Tibetan riots.
"Today, we are here to oppose media distortion . . . We are here in a quest for objectivity, fairness and justice," an organiser said in a statement.
It's hard to say whether the demonstrations around the world are being organised by the government in Beijing, but it is well-known that the embassies maintain ties within overseas student communities. Canadian and Australian secret services have uncovered monitoring and organisation of local Chinese student groups by embassy personnel.
The recent attacks on the Olympic torch relay in London, Paris, San Francisco and New Delhi were a source of shame and sadness among ordinary Chinese.
The protesters in the United States carried banners saying: "CNN, Don't Fool Americans", "American media, you can muzzle our voices, but cannot smother the truth!" and "No Media Distortion" but the demonstrations have highlighted the huge information gulf between what news the Chinese people receive in the tightly controlled state media and what is shown in the West.
Reporting of the Tibetan protests in March focused on the attacks on Han Chinese settlers and their businesses in the Himalayan region by angry Tibetans. Beijing says 18 civilians and one police officer were killed in the riots, while overseas Tibetan groups say 150 died.
State media outlets said the vast majority of people welcomed the torch relay, except for a group of troublemakers organising "vile" protests masterminded by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. He denies orchestrating the protests.
There have also been growing protests within China itself. While the demonstrations are unlikely to have been organised by the government, there must be tacit approval for the protests, as all forms of public dissent in China are quickly quashed unless the sentiment expressed happens to suit the government's political aims, as happened during the anti-Japanese demonstrations three years ago.
In the eastern city of Qingdao, which will host the Olympic sailing events, protesters burnt French flags in front of French-owned supermarkets.
At a Carrefour branch in Beijing, people were shopping as normal but they were aware of the boycott. A middle-aged driver, surnamed Yang, said he supported the boycott.
"But we ordinary people have to lead a normal life . . . I have to buy things to live. Political matters should be solved by government not by civilians actually," said Yang, just before security guards intervened to stop the interview.
