Torch jailers not welcome: sometimes you have to just stand back and laugh at the cadre.

The cadre really does not understand the century. Too late. School's out.


China defends torch security ‘volunteers’
By Jo Johnson in New Delhi, David Pilling in Tokyo, Peter Smith in Sydney and Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: April 15 2008 17:22 | Last updated: April 15 2008 17:22
China on Tuesday defended the use of security guards on the Olympic torch relay, described as “thugs” by Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, after Australia and Japan said they would not be welcome when the flame passed through their countries this month.

“The [torch] escorts are volunteers, they are not law-enforcement personnel. Their duty is to maintain the safety, purity and dignity of the Olympic Games,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters. “We hope the relevant countries can fully understand this point and co-operate with us.”
Governments across Asia are scrambling to avert ­further public relations disasters for China, with the Olympic torch due on Wednesday to begin the final leg of a relay that has seen it run the gauntlet of pro-Tibetan and human rights groups in Europe and the US.

It was still unclear on Tuesday whether China’s “security runners” would be issued visas to enter Japan. One government official said Japan was surprised Chinese security forces were allowed to enter other countries that had hosted the relay.

The crisis deepened on Tuesday when an event planned to mark the torch’s visit to Nagano, Japan, was cancelled, even though officials said there would be no changes to the route of the torch relay itself. “We want to concentrate on the original Olympic torch relay,” said the relay committee.

Japan’s security minister on Friday said he was opposed to letting China send its security guards to protect the Olympic torch, which arrives in the city of Nagano on April 26. Shinya Izumi, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, said Japanese police were perfectly capable of protecting the torch.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s prime minister, on Tuesday insisted the Chinese would not provide any help with security, hours after Kevan Gosper, International Olympic Committee deputy president and Australia’s senior Olympic official, said Chinese security could support Australian police if there was “really serious trouble” in Canberra on April 24.

“The Chinese torch attendants have a practical responsibility in relation to servicing the flame, but have no responsibility in terms of security,” Mr Rudd said. “This has been made clear to the Chinese authorities. Under no circumstances, no matter what occurs, will they be called upon to perform a security function.”

John Coates, head of the Australian Olympic Committee, said the Chinese security members would follow the relay in a bus, although two of its people would travel on the ground with the torch: “The two of them will be involved in the transfers from one relay runner to another but they are not involved in the security.”

Pakistan, a loyal ally of China that is due to receive the torch on Wednesday, has also made a last-minute change to the route, confining all ceremonies to a tightly guarded stadium in the capital and cancelling a procession along Constitution Avenue, Islamabad’s main boulevard.

An interior ministry official in Islamabad said the government was concerned about the possibility of suicide attacks. Groups thought to be linked to Muslim Uighur militants opposed to China’s rule in Xinjiang, a Chinese “autonomous” region with a Muslim majority, have in the past targeted Chinese nationals in Pakistan.

“We are not prepared to take any chances,” the official said. Pro-Tibet protests have never taken place in Pakistan and Pervez Musharraf, the country’s president, during a recent visit to China strongly condemned disruptions of the relay, saying politics should be kept out of sport.

From Islamabad, the torch will travel to New Delhi, where a nervous government has trimmed the route from fear that Tibetan protesters might try to disrupt the procession. The route is still to be announced but the Indian media has reported that the torch will travel less than a third of the original 9km route.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008