Olympic flame a burning issue for
China By Tony Allison
HUA HIN, Thailand - The flame relay for
the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008 will be the
longest ever, ascend the highest mountain in the
world, and plumb the depths of controversy.
The torch carrying the propane-lit flame -
a red-and-silver cloud-design tube shaped like a
Chinese scroll - is scheduled to be carried
through Tibet and Taiwan, opening up Beijing to
criticism for its political relationship with
these regions. It will also journey
to
the top of Mount Everest.
This week, China
said it had begun work on paving a road to Mount
Everest on the Tibet side to make it easier for
bearers of the torch, which is 72 centimeters
long. Xinhua news agency reported that the 150
million yuan (US$19.66 million) project will
involve paving an existing 108-kilometer stretch
of road to the foot of the mountain, and will take
four months to build. The road will end at the
base camp camp at 5,200 meters and include
guardrails on both sides. From there, the torch
will begin the hard slog to the 8,848-meter
summit.
"On completion, the highway will
become the major route for tourists and
mountaineers who are crowding on to Mount
Qomolangma [Everest] in ever-larger numbers," the
Xinhua report said. Everest spans the Nepal-Tibet
border and can be climbed from either side.
"Lifting the Olympic flame to the peak of
the world is one of our commitments in the
bidding, which shows our respect to the Olympics,"
said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG). He added, "To reach the
peak of the mountain, athletes and torchbearers
will make great efforts, which is in line with the
Olympic spirit of 'higher, stronger and faster'."
Environmentalists fear the development of
the road will damage the long-term ecology of the
area, not to mention the short-term effects of the
media circus once the torch starts its climb to
Everest's peak. The Associated Press cited Mark
Bain, the director of Cornell University's Center
for the Environment, as saying the environmental
impact of new roads in relatively pristine areas
is more severe than in places where similar
infrastructure exists. "The most significant
concerns in such projects," he said, "is that they
create the opportunity for further development."
An apparently sincere Jiang commented,
though, "Green Olympics is one of the three
concepts of the Beijing Games. We have issued a
special environmental protection manual for Mount
Qomolangma." The other concepts are "high-tech"
and "people's" Olympics.
The torch will be
carried across five continents, along the ancient
Silk Road and 135 cities, [1] covering 137,000km
over 130 days, the longest time the flame has ever
been carried.
The flame will be lit in
Olympia, Greece, next March 25. From March 25-30
the torch will travel across Greece, ending at the
Panathinaiko stadium, the site of the first modern
Olympic Games in 1896. After a handover ceremony
in the stadium, the flame will arrive in Beijing
on March 31.
Olympic partners Coca-Cola,
Samsung and Lenovo are the sponsors for the relay.
After the handover ceremony in the
stadium, the Olympic Flame will arrive in Beijing
on March 31, from where the torch relay will
commence. Scheduled stops include Tibet and
Taiwan, which is where the trouble begins.
Taiwan in a tizzy The torch is
due to travel from Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City to
Taipei and then continue on to Hong Kong, Macau
and several other Chinese cities before arriving
back in Beijing.
Taiwan immediately
rejected the route, saying it deliberately
downgraded Taiwan's sovereign status. Taiwan wants
the torch to come to Taipei via a third country
and travel on to another third country before
arriving in China. Many Taiwanese refuse to accept
mainland China's insistence that Taiwan is merely
a breakaway province, and argue they are an
independent, sovereign nation.
Taiwan's
Mainland Affairs Council said that China is using
the torch route as "a pretext for a brazen attempt
to downgrade Taiwan" to a Chinese territory.
Last week in Beijing, Yang Yi, a spokesman
of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council,
urged Taiwanese authorities to "honor their word"
and allow the torch to pass through Taipei.
Yang said he hoped Taiwan would respect
the torch-relay consensus reached by BOCOG and the
Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee (CTOC). He said
the Taipei route had been chosen after full
discussions between the BOCOG and the CTOC and
approved by the International Olympic Committee.
Chinese Olympic officials had hoped that
under the present route, Taiwan would be the last
stop on the international leg of the torch's
journey, and Beijing could see it as the first
stop in the domestic relay.
But
pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian was
having none of it. If he can't win the big
battles, such as over the one-China policy, which
most of the world including the US accepts, he can
score a few small points. He recently changed the
name of the island's postal service from "China
Post" to "Taiwan Post".
Taiwan still plans
to send athletes to the Games, where they will
compete under the name "Chinese Taipei" rather
than "Republic of China". But that's another
matter ...
Troubles over Tibet
Recently, five Americans, including one of
Tibetan descent, protested at the Everest base
camp against China's "occupation of Tibet" and the
fact that the Olympic flag would pass through the
Tibet autonomous region. They were arrested but
released after a few days and expelled from China.
Organizations such as the international
Students for a Free Tibet have jumped on to the
case, generating exactly the kind of news that
Beijing does not want.
China claims that
it has ruled Tibet - the highest region on Earth
and commonly referred to as the "Roof of the
World" - for centuries. Many Tibetans say their
homeland was an independent state for most of that
time.
In 1950, the People's Liberation
Army (PLA) invaded the Tibetan area of Chamdo,
crushing minimal resistance from the ill-equipped
Tibetan army. In 1951, Tibetan representatives,
under PLA military pressure, signed a 17-point
agreement with China's central government
affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet. The
agreement was ratified in Lhasa, the Tibetan
capital, a few months later.
Thousands of
people fled the country and a government-in-exile,
headed by the Dalai Lama, has existed since 1959.
Tibet has been an emotive issue ever since.
The Olympic torch's route and the lead-up
to the Games themselves next year will ensure that
the Taiwan and Tibet issues remain in the
headlines. But in the grand scheme of things, not
much is likely to change before or after the cry
goes out: "Let the Games begin."
Note 1. Major cities along
the route include: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Istanbul,
Turkey; St Petersburg, Russia; London, England;
Paris, France; San Francisco in the US; Buenos
Aires, Argentina; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Muscat
in Oman; Islamabad, Pakistan; Mumbai, India;
Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;
Jakarta, Indonesia; Canberra, Australia; Nagano,
Japan; Seoul, South Korea; Pyongyang, North Korea;
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Taipei, Hong Kong and
Macau.
Tony Allison is a
Thailand-based correspondent for Asia Times
Online.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
