8Asians | An Asian American collaborative blog

There have been a lot of demonstrations in London, Paris, San Francisco and in other places in the world as the Olympic Torch relay makes its way to its eventual destination in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. As part of the protest against China, specifically for the events regarding Tibet in March, French Prime Minisiter Nicolas Sarkozy will not be attending the Olympic opening ceremonies. As a consequence, The New York Times reported recently that:

“On Friday and Saturday, protesters gathered in front of a half-dozen outlets of the French retailer Carrefour, including a demonstration in the central city of Wuhan that reportedly drew several thousand people, according to Agence France-Presse. On Saturday, about 50 demonstrators carrying banners held a brief rally at the French Embassy here before the police shooed them away… In the past, the government has encouraged nationalistic outbursts and then quashed them when passions grew too inflamed — or when the protests had achieved the political purpose officials envisioned.”

I was just thinking while reading the article, when the Chinese government becomes a bit concerned about nationalistic feelings going a bit overboard, that this reminded me of what happened with the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution. Of course, we are nowhere near that situation but thought I’d mentioned it to get your attention. In a country where where not all speech is welcomed, it’s refreshing to see Chinese protesting and expressing their opinions publicly. Though I am wondering why the protests took so long to take place, given that the torch relay in Paris was April 9th… Maybe there will be protests against British and American retailers soon as well?

Continue reading →

Yesterday in Los Angeles, over 1,000 Chinese/Chinese-Americans protested in front of CNN’s Los Angeles office (as reported in The Los Angeles Times). Why do you ask? Well, if you haven’t been following this brewing “controversy,” CNN’s Jack Cafferty commented on April 9th during the airing of “The Situation Room”:

“We continue to import their [China’s] junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export . . . jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart. So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”

CNN later said Cafferty’s comments were directed at the Chinese government, not the Chinese people. To be honest, being called “goons and thugs” I don’t think is all that constructive, but I don’t think it is as horrible as the protesters have made it seem (China and the Chinese have been called much worse…) But, I do understand the growing concern of the demonization of China. I’ve written before about how this reminds me of the criticisms raised during Japan’s “rise” in the mid-to-late 1980’s.

Certainly, there are many valid concerns regarding a variety of China-related issues, including most recently, Tibet. Obviously, with the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaching rapidly, bringing up any China-related issues makes sense to those groups trying to bring visibility to their cause.

If the United States were hosting the Olympics this summer, I am sure there would be plenty of protests of our continued involvement in Iraq, as well as a host of other issues by many different countries, including our many allies. I’m all for free speech and certainly was glad to see other countries and its citizens protesting America’s foreign policy and war mongering prior to Bush’s decision for a preemptive war into Iraq (I’ve *always* been against the war).