Few people would argue that China is controversial choice of host country for the 2008 Olympics – something the Chinese government are only too aware of. With high profile protests greeting the Olympic torch’s global relay and rioting in various western provinces by ethnic Tibetans there is a very real threat of unrest spoiling the [...]
Archive for the ‘olympic torch’ Category
Will Security Suffocate The Olympic Spirit? – Guest Post
Posted in Beijing, Guest Posts, Legacy, Media, Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing, beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, beijing security, chinese security, olympic protests, olympic security, Tibet, Tibetan protests on 21 July 2008 | 7 Comments »
Taiwan’s Olympic Name – Chinese Taipei or China’s Taipei?
Posted in Architecture, Culture, Protests, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged china, chinese olympics, chinese taipei, olympic games, olympic protests, olympic torch, olympics, taipei 101, taiwan, zhongghu taipei, zhongguo taibei, zhongguo taipei, zhonghua taibei on 13 July 2008 | 8 Comments »
Attending an Olympic Games hosted by China was always going to throw up some interesting challenges for the Taiwanese team, and the China’ Taiwan Affairs office have decided to spice things up. The controversy revolves around the name that Taiwan competes under at the Olympics…
The situation is this: in 1989 China and Taiwan agreed that [...]
Beijing Olympic Anti-Terrorism Exercises
Posted in Legacy, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged anti-terrorism, Beijing Olympics, beijing terrorism, chinese military, chinese police, olympic preparations, olympic terrorism, olympic torch on 10 July 2008 | 3 Comments »
This week the Boston Globe has a collection of photos from various anti-terrorism exercises and demonstrations (thanks to Rachel for pointing this out). A number of these come from “a week-long series of anti-terrorist drills called “Great Wall 5″, in preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games”, so the Globe claims.
Although this may just be [...]
Olympic Flame Ghosts Through Xinjiang
Posted in Culture, Media, Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing, Beijing Olympics, beijing olympics games, james reynolds, kashgar, olympic flame, olympic torch, torch relay, uighur, urumqi, xinjiang on 19 June 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Olympic torch is continuing it’s path to back to Beijing via every province in China, and the most recent legs have been passing through the country’s largest province, Xinjiang. However the atmosphere of the relay appears to have been unusually quiet, as many local people have been told to stay away. There has been [...]
Three Minute Silence & Three Day Torch Relay Break
Posted in Media, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged Beijing Olympics, hangzhou, olympic torch relay, sichuan, sichuan earthquake, three minute silence, wenchuan, wenchuan earthquake, west lake on 19 May 2008 | 4 Comments »
A three minute silence was observed today at 2.28pm Beijing Time (6.28 GMT), one week after the terrible earthquake in Sichuan. This was accompanied by three minutes of noise by drivers of cars, ship and trains blasted their horns for three minutes of noise.
Here you can see a CCTV report which includes coverage of the [...]
Olympic Torch Relay Scaled Back In Respect
Posted in Environment, Protests, olympic torch, tagged chinese earthquake, earhtquake, sichuan, wenchuan, wenchuan earthquake on 13 May 2008 | 1 Comment »
It seems rather futile blogging about other issues in light of the fact that thousands of people still left buried by the Earthquake in Sichuan. The death toll now exceeds 12,000 and is sure to increase. The Olympics seem relatively trivial.
The New York Times (via CDT) describes how many people in China have been incensed [...]
Real Life Fuwa
Posted in Culture, FuWa, Just for fun, Preparation, olympic torch, tagged FuWa, olympic mascots, olympics torch on 10 May 2008 | 1 Comment »
A fun Olympics feel-good story from Xinhua News today; Quintuplets bring Olympic mascots to life.
As the Olympic torch reaches their home city of Shantou, Guangdong, Lin Zhonghua and her fellow quintuplets will play Fuwa (Olympic mascots) during the day’s opening ceremony.
“It is very lucky for the city to have the quintuplets to play Fuwa,” says [...]
Second Olympic Torch is Ready to Climb Everest
Posted in Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing Olympics, Dalai, Dalai Lama, Everest, Mount Everest, olympic torch, Tibet on 28 April 2008 | 2 Comments »
The BBC’s Jonah Fisher is one of a number of journalists in a heavily monitored party making their way to Everest Base Camp to see the second Olympic Torch begin its assent of the world’s highest mountain.
“The second Olympic torch is now at Base Camp ready for the climb.
“For whatever reason there is apparently still [...]
China Will Speak to Dalai if Olympic Troubles End
Posted in Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing Olympics, Dalai Lama, Everest, Mount Everest, olympic protests, olympic torch, Tibet on 28 April 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Chinese authorities released a report which seems to have indicated that they will be willing to resume communications with the Dalai Lama. Bob has waited to couple of days for more concrete news on this story, but there has been little.
One point that is worth picking out of the Chinese report that broke this [...]
Olympic Torch Protests – Who Says What?
Posted in Athletes, London 2012, Media, Protests, olympic torch, tagged Beijing Olympics, Dalai Lama, ioc, olympic torch, palua radcliffe, Protests, sir steve redgrave, Tibet, torch protests on 11 April 2008 | 14 Comments »
There is no avoiding the Olympic Torch Protests – Bob is beginning to feel like this is the Beijing Olympics Protests Blog – so anyone wanting to read about something else check out the recent stories about Paula Radcliffe, Oscar Pistorius or the Great Firewall. If you are interested on the high-profile comments that have [...]
