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demagogic_schizoid
6 Apr 2008, 10:57 PM
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3695050.ece

The reaction of the police - to arrest 35 protestors for "breaching the peace" - shows the extent to which China an the west are in bed together now, they even had Chinese security there to help them do their job.


The Government said that it would not consider scrapping the London torch relay in 2012. ?It would be quite wrong for London to be intimidated by the threat of protest,? Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, said. ?We cannot foresee what the circumstances will be in four years but I hope that what will prevail is a celebration of the ambitions of our athletes, the Olympic movement and a free democracy.?

Gordon Brown, ignoring calls to snub China for its crackdown on protests in Tibet, welcomed the Olympic flame behind Downing Street?s steel gates in front of a vetted crowd. Meanwhile, demonstrators and police clashed just yards away outside Parliament. The Prime Minister did not hold the torch, which was passed between the heptathlete Denise Lewis, and Ali Jawad, a paralympian, but posed for a picture with it after a posse of Beijing minders were eventually persuaded to stand aside.

Chaselation
6 Apr 2008, 11:12 PM
I wondered if the situation in Tibet would be sufficient to spark a boycott of China's games. I didn't think so. This seems to confirm that, at least for the western countries.

mgb
6 Apr 2008, 11:18 PM
I don't know. What did you expect would happen? China has 6000 years of human rights abuses, why would it stop for the Olympics?

The West needs China in order to keep things running smoothly. China knows it. I'd say it's less that the West is in bed with China and more that China has the West bent over the end of the bed. Really, we did it to ourselves.