Chinese Olympic Torch Rally--from sociological perpective....

I was very busy already....four papers for exams, lot of works to be done, and hubby was overseas, and four active children driving me crazy... yet I found myself be unexpected grasped by the eventful Beijing Olympic torch rally.

First, the protestors for Tibet independence interpreted the Torch rally in London. In Paris, the same protestors attacked the torch bearer, a girl in wheel chair and pushed by a blind athlete. Three times the torch fire was put off. That greatly provoked thousands Chinese and hurt their nationalism feeling.

Then there were large scale protests in USA and Europe against biased reports from western media, notably CNN and BBC. At the same time, calls for boycott French goods, especially the supermarket chain Carrefour was widely responded and supported.

The remark from Jack Cafferty calling Chinese people as “a bunch of goon” had further enraged Chinese people. Now the legal action against CNN for causing emotional humiliation and stress to many Chinese was filed in New York yesterday….

To understand any social event, a sociologist will try to explain and understand at least in three levels: what happened, what people say, and what sociologists’ explanation.

What happened on March 14, 2008? “Rioters destroyed 908 shops, seven schools, 120 residential homes, five hospitals and 10 banking network points. At least 20 building were burned down and 84 vehicles were smashed. Eighteen innocent were burned or stabbed to death and 380 civilians were injured”, which responsible government would not react to such damaging acts?

Weber’s definition of State becomes useful to understand this issue. State: “is a human community that successfully claims and monopoly of the legitimate use the physical force within a given territory, the sole source of the right to use violence.”

Every country will not hesitate to use violence, which is sole source of the right, to defend its sovereignty and oneness of its territory.

What did Dalai clique say? They claimed 130 death of protestors for more “autonomy”. Subsequently, there were a few disruptions and attacks during Olympic Torch Rally. Those “Tibetans extremists” were seeking the international support by interrupting Olympic Torch rally. Weber said the means does not always justify ends. For whatever reason, these “means” as double edged sword turned out hurting Tibetans extremists themselves. Those have provoked thousands overseas Chinese patriotic feeling, for the first time since a long time, Chinese feels united to defend for their country.

The unintended consequence of these “anti China protests” did not gain much sympathy for Tibetans extremists but rather to unite Chinese, both within and outside China. It is also for the first time since 1949, China has shown its real power to the world that Chinese will not only be successful in Olympic but also towards the advancement in modernization. “Chinese are not easily bullied”



April 25 2008 Reuters

"More than 10,000 Chinese Australians staged the biggest pro-Beijing rally the the protest-marred Olympic torch relay yesterday.

Waving a sea of red Chinese flags and chanting "One China", they packed the start and finish of the relay in the Australian capital, drowning out pro-Tibet demonstrators.

Chinese six-deep lined the 16km relay rout, and hundreds of cars drove around Canberra carrying Chinese flags.
....

"It was highly organised," free-Tibet supporter and Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown told Reuters of the Chinese presence at the Australian rally.

"Australians will feel a little bit uncomfortable by the fact that Communist China came to town and just showed it can buy anything."

China denied the charge.

"Has he asked those people who disrupt and sabotage the torch if there are any organisers and instigatiors behind them?..."Chinese Foreign Minister spokesman Jiang Yu said in Beijing...."