The Olympic Flame Security Team

You can call them the boys in blue and white.

They are the protection team of beefy Chinese security guards that surround the Olympic torch on its travels around the world. You can see a couple of the guys in the photo in the posting below. They wear blue and white track suits with the Olympics logo.

From the Chinese perspective, these well-trained guys are essential to prevent disruption of the torch relay. The Chinese press this morning is full of references to how inefficient the London bobbies and the French gendarmes have been in fending off protesters trying to douse the flame.

Of course, many people overseas wonder what kind of diplomatic arrangement has allowed this so-called Sacred Flame Protection Unit to operate overseas -- and whether the members are armed. Word is that the boys in blue and white are People’s Armed Police cadets.

The British press is in a lather over their presence in London streets.

A London Daily Mail story began this way:

Lord Coe last night condemned the army of Chinese "thugs" who accompanied the Olympic torch relay through London.

The head of London's 2012 Games described as "horrible" the burly henchmen who barged their way through the capital, shoving the public and even police out of the way.

His trenchant remarks followed those of former Blue Peter presenter and torchbearer Konnie Huq, who revealed the Chinese minders barked orders at her and pushed her arm up to hold the flame higher.

Sunday's scenes, which were repeated in France yesterday, brought accusations that Britain had imported Chinese police state tactics to control the supposedly showcase relay.

Keep your eyes peeled to see if the boys and blue and white are given free rein on the streets of San Francisco, where the torch goes next.

Comments

[Christof]

I am missing the picture of the white/blue boys as stated in the first paragraph, the link in the end refererrs to this posting ;)

[Mike]

I thought this was an interesting story:

The Australian government is investigasting claims China wants to send troops to guard the Olympic torch relay as it passes through Canberra next month.

It's been reported Beijing made the request after the lighting of the torch was disrupted in Greece earlier this week.

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200803/s2199832.htm

[nzm]

Australia's Prime Minister Rudd has already stated that the boys in blue and white will not be accompanying the flame as it goes through Canberra.

[A B]

The Beijing Olympics organizing committee need to be far more careful granting visas to athletes, staff, and other persons affiliated with Olympics teams with VIP visas.

The word is that because security and visa controls for people like athletes and organizers are virtually non-existent, that is the best avenue for anti-China forces like Fanlun Gong and Tibetan protesters to publicly disrupt the events.

The other method is to sneak in as "spectators." Beijing need to really screen persons requesting visas who have no apparent means to pay for an expensive trip to Beijing (i.e. job as a waiter in England), or a previous history traveling internationally to attend sports events.

Telltale signs are these individuals will have no confirmed hotel reservations that is prepaid with non-refundable deposits (this need to be individually checked), no non-refundable return ticket on entry, and no tickets to the events they claim to be going to. Any application from such individuals that raises red flags need to be personally interviewed abroad and then carefully screened at the port of entry. At the port of entry, they need to be carefully screened for carrying things like banners, etc. to conduct demonstrations.

The regulation that prohibits journalists from working need to be carefully explained to every visa applicant from abroad and they need to be informed that blogging and posting videos is journalism.

Beijing then can do as the USA does and arrest on entry and deport all those who plan to be unauthorized journalists.

The other avenue for protesters to get in is to get visas to enter through some other part of China, and then rely on the lax internal controls to get to Beijing or Tibet via other means like by bus or rail.

This takes advantage of the fact that although an itinerary need to be given to get a visa, the visa do not specify where in China they are going to be in after they enter.

If it is not too late, MOFA need to stamp on all visa granted between now and the Olympics "not valid for travel to Beijing / Tibet, etc. during the month of August" so that anyone stopping a foreigner to check their papers and status will instantly know if they are trying to come to Beijing without authorization.

For the critical period during the events, security need to be posted at every potential place of entry like train stations, bus terminals, taxi stands, highway security check points, etc. outside of Beijing. Foreigners who do not have a valid visa to enter Beijing should not be permitted to enter during the critical weeks of the Olympics.

Beijing need to drastically tighten up security in anticipation of the kind of "hooliganism" found at football games in Europe.

[nzm]

Link

[Someguy]

@A B

Good luck. You wouldn't believe how difficult a time European governments have when trying to prevent "undesirables" from attending sporting events. Inevitably, there will be protestors, inevitably, they will spark demos and confrontations. The only way to prevent this from happening would be to cancel the Olympics altogether.

[A B]

Some,

I am very well aware at the difficulties Europeans had with undesirables attending sporting events.

A similar situation is with "animal rights" activists, who attack labs, research personnel in their homes, etc.

Or "environmental activists" who, for example, nailed metal spikes into trees so loggers are injured when they cut into them.

Britain ultimately passed a tough anti- terror law aimed at "animal rights" terrorists and then enforced the law.

It worked --- the problem now is in the US which do not have a similar law.

What I am saying is there is a general problem worldwide in the breakdown of public order by any number of groups who feel that their grievance justifies acts of terror.

To me, there are very few issues / areas where such acts are justified.

But then, I am sure I am in the minority....

[Marvin L Foushee]

Tim, it looks like you are tying to get the Blue and White out of the way in order to line up a sniper's shot in San Francisco.

WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? BATBOY or the World Anthrax News Weekly?

☺

[Pffefer]

Tim,

You should ask the IOC who made this kind of arrangement for these guys to show up. Did the IOC foresee and expect a tumultuous torch rally? Maybe they did. If these guys were brought here because of those disgusting scumbags (I have no qualms with people protesting, but attacking the torch is a different thing), then they are doing what they are paid to do, so what's the problem?

Let me pamper the London torch with fire distinguisher in 2012 and see how Lord Coe will respond.

[Cao Meng De]

These are the images
going around Chinese forum now. Picture like this will shape Chinese public opinion for next decade.

I am sure by the time Olympics arrives, Chinese masses will care less about the games than a chance to bash the heads of these "activists".

[Y]

One of protestors in Pais said what he did is to help chinese people living in such a big prison.

Listen, my chinese fellows, we should appreciate their help, and make the French team feel that the prison is like their home field.

If they quit now, then it will be another story. (I really think they should consider quiting the game, rather than boycotting the opeening.)

[jimbob]

the olympics is frankly just awful. we only have ourselves to blame.

this is going to make the 1936 olympics look like a walk in the park.

personally i am amazed, i harbour an intense dislike for China as i had the misfortune to live there for 6 years and see first hand what type of place it is but i am pretty shocked at how many others share my views.

shame, i had such high hopes when i went, i thought people would be nice, respect others, have manners, welcome guests to their country. but what i met was money grabbing, jingoism, blind idiotic nationalistic pride, xenophobia and dishonesty at every tern.

personally i cant wait for WW3. i plan to move my family to a mountain in new zealand and watch the madness unfurl.

[Pffefer]

A B, jimbob is the typical expat that I was talking about. You get the idea.

[RY]

jimbob, as an expat myself, I am sure you came to China by choice, if you hated everything about China, then why did you waste 6 years of your life here. You are an idiot.

[jimbob]

money my friend. money!

to be more balanced i loved china when i arrived, really really loved it for a couple of years. loved the language, the culture and the food.

then i realised that 99% of chinese hate me, not because i am a bad person, but because i am white. my personality doesn't even come into it, apparently some of my ancestors kicked butt during a rebellion and that is enough to hate me.

do you know what it is like to have every conversation be about your foreignness despite having lived in a place for years. every taxiride being a conversation about how good your chinese is and how you are very clever. at the start it is fun, the fifth time that day is is irritating beyond belief. 'yes dancing monkey you can speak our language, how clever you must be but our friend dashan is better'

then there is daily life, an impossibly stupid banking system, the impossibility of dealing with a corrupt and stupid tax system. rule changing at the last minute, fines and bribes.

then i realised there is sod all to do, nothing of interest. no pass times, no sport nothing except for shopping and drinking and neither really appealed.

by then i was already financially entrenched, could leave with nothing or stay, try to wind up gracefully without leaving staff unemployed and myself penniless but nearly went mad in the process.

now i have left, mostly i dont think about the place but still try to reconcile my utter hatred of China with being a highly intelligent, educated, non racist and nice person. believe me it is difficult.

has anyone noticed how few expats manage to survive past 4 years and how the long term ones are usually a little mad, bad or strange.

Pffefer, be rude about me by all means, that is your right but dont side with a xenophobic idiot who thinks all foreigners have AIDS. you can tell a lot about a man by his friends and it doesn't reflect well on you.

[Y]

jimbob,

If you are really a "white" as you have claimed, and struggled in China for 6 years without a single success, then
you are not worthwhile for people in china to hate --- 99% people should feel pity on you.

There should be some well-paid job for you in New Zealand.

[Pffefer]

Jimbo, you are an idiot. They hated you because you are white? How many friggin' white people are there in China these days? A lot. If they hated you because you are a caucasian, hordes of whites would have left China. It is not about them, it is about you.

Yeah China sucks for many reasons, there are a lot to complain about. But so does every country. If you allow yourself to be this ignorant, nobody can help you. You deserve to be in a hole you dug for yourself somewhere in New Zealand.

[jimbob]

um Y, you dont understand, i made a mint out of china, i sold a successful company and left. i need no pity.

you and pffefer can pretend either way but there are many people who say the same as me. perhaps hated is the wrong word, not accepted would be a better way to put it. who wants to live in a place where you will never be a local, no matter what you do.

hordes of whites have left China, most expats last a maximum of 4 years before leaving. the average stay for an exec at the citroen plant is just 6 months before request for transfer.

you may love it, there really is much to love about china, but many or even most leave. can you really see yourself living in China in 40 years time with children and family around you totally at easy with your situation. somehow i doubt it.

actually i probably dont deserve the hole in new zealand, i don't deserve to own property in many of the places that i do, but i guess i have been lucky, which is nice.

[Tian]

jimbob, glad to hear you made a mint out of it. Many people did, taking advantage of the opportunities there.

Living in a foreign place is as much about the place as it is about you.

Given your arrogance indeed you have been lucky in life. I hope you will continue to be lucky, with friends aplenty.

[Y]

jimbob,

I wish you are sincere about what you said. Otherwise, I am an idiot to type this nonsense here.

You said "can you really see yourself living in China in 40 years time with children and family around you totally at easy with your situation":

Noboday here would deny the fact that there are many problems and troubles in china, just as there are in the rest of the world. It is also a fact that more than one billion peole are living there in china, and they have made significant progress. It's just the way how life goes. You want to ``free" them so that they can enjor your way of life in New Zealand? OK, persuad your government to take 100 million chinese immigrants. I will thank you on behalf of chinese people.

On the other hand, is there a place in the world where there is no ugly thing --- rude, greaady peole without manners? If your answer is ``New Zealand", then both you and me are idiots.

[Wilbur Varela]

the Olympics have been hijacked by a godless totalitarian dictatorship who could care less about other countries. They have turned these games into a bloated spectacle worthy of the nazis, to serve their massive insecure egos, while the poor choke on raw waste. No one should be surprised that a country that murders their own college students at Tianamen square, and forces Tibetans to attend "patriotic re-education" just for having a picture of the Dalai Lama, would also hire a bunch of Red army thugs to pretend they are sportsmen. The Communist party have murdered more chinese than all the western nations combined, and brainwashed the rest to blame everyone but themselves.

[Y]

Getting back to Tim's post on flame security team.

"... followed those of former Blue Peter presenter and torchbearer Konnie Huq..."

What? On April 6th, I heard the TV commentator said that after the incident, she was kind of shaky, and I saw a member of the "security team" was helping her holding the torch while she was running.

How come everything gets chnaged two days later? This is one of the thing I hate journalists --- they spin in the most ``graceful" way that makes an average reader barfing.

The last comment (I hope I will not visit this blog agian --- too time and nerve consuming ): You guys think the Tank Man in 1989 is an icon. He is in a certain context.
And the female athlet on wheelchiar attacked in Paris will become a new one. Trust me.

[jimbob]

at least the insults have stopped flying. i assure you i am not an ar*ehole, just having a lot of trouble about my china issues, i'd much rather have a balanced view and it troubles me that i dont.

nowhere is perfect. i have met many people who float around the globe looking for a perfect spot, they are never happy. my definition of a good spot is not China anymore. but that is just personal choice.

If china is so great though, how come half of my office here are chinese immigrants who applied under skilled migration programme? they too want a quiet, pleasant unpolluted and easy life.

i would also like it to be noted that i invested in China, took very little out and sold the business to a foreign company. i went with little and took nothing from China only took money from other foreigners for services provided in china and paid taxes despite not staying there to use hospitals, schools and roads. China made a lot of money from me and i made money from other foreigners so i did not 'take advantage.' it was a good deal for all sides.

[Chinese to the world]

lauphable to see the wstern reaction to this

who ae the thugs here? I say the so called Lord, who lacks basic sense of etiquette

the west needs t be careful that by encouraging such behavior and comments to humiliate Chinese, you're pushing China in the direciton of militarism, which the coll heads in China will one day cannpt stop. Just read all the comments on Chinese websites. there's a good article on International Herald Tribune on this. The worst case scenario will be the Olympics in August turned out to be a big huminiation what will happen next? you think the Chinese government and the Chinese will then humbly change their behavior and change as you please - no way, the only outcome is there will be a big backlash in China among the populace and the government at that time pprobably don't have a choice - coupled with all the economic issues in China - but to turn this nationaistic wrath into something against the west

be careful

[Chinese to the world]

jimbob is a typical reason for the hatred or at least the enmity towards China - quite sure something happened during his stay in China that wasn't nice - but the pettiness he has shown is quite typical

I lived in US for 6 years - if you think living expat in China is tough, trying living in US or Europe as a Chinese - not as an illegal immigrant, but a high-paid executive employed by on eof the most repected western companies - the racism, the condescending attitude, the prejudice. in the end I say enough is enough - a huge disillusion for me, as before I went there I thought the west was a place full of people who cared about people who cared about human rights in China and want to help

but you know what, although I'm disillusioned, I have no hatred whatsoever towards US or Europe. we're all humans. human beings are petty. we are all deep down selfish, self-centered, prejudiced. I for one many times look down upon people from the rural areas in China. same thing many of you guys in the west still feel Chinese don't deserve to be as rich and as powerful as you - you're chosen by God

let's just accept all these - in the end we're all gonna diw anyway. but let me repeat one thing I said - in China the majority ae not as cool-headed as yours sincerely, and I truly worry there is a danger of pushing China to the corner in the whole process - not a good scenario for anyone.