On Aug 8, 6:57 pm, kewkahfattsingap...@
hotmail.com wrote:
> On Aug 9, 12:26 am, Micky Wong wrote:
>
>
>
>> Blog of the day: The Stupidity with Chinese "Wisdom" ? -- Bang! China
>> shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot
Bang! CIA shoots its own Olympic covert operation in the foot:
RSF's linkage with the NED is well known:
http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html
And everybody knows NED is overtly doing what the CIA does covertly:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reporters_without_Borders
"Robert Menard, the Secretary General of RSF, was forced to confess
that RSF's budget was primarily provided by "US organizations strictly
linked with US foreign policy" (Thibodeau, La Presse)."
Here's another one from CounterPunch on RSF's association with NED/
CIA:
http://www.counterpunch.com/barahona08012006.html
"[RSF] and its friends in Washington have gone to extraordinary
lengths to cover it up. In spite of 14 months of stonewalling by the
National Endowment for Democracy over a Freedom of Information Act
request and a flat denial from RSF executive director Lucie Morillon,
the NED has revealed that Reporters Without Borders received grants
over at least three years from the International Republican Institute"
>
>> Tuesday, August 07, 2007 6:01 AM by will
>
>> Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot
>
>> RSF ImageImagethief, who has bid for something on the order of RMB12,000
>> worth of Olympic tickets, is trying resolutely to remain optimistic
>> about the Games. Unfortunately, it's proving harder as time goes by.
>> Tomorrow marks the one-year-remaining milestone. This should be an
>> opportunity for Beijing to highlight progress, turn the excitement
>> crank, and demonstrate that has the patience and forbearance that will
>> be necessary for a successful Olympics. However yesterday brought an
>> important test of China's patience and forbearance, and China failed it.
>
>> The problem is that while tomorrow's milestone date is a legitimate time
>> for celebration and anticipation, it was inevitably also going to be a
>> perfect date for a dry-run by the many activist groups that want to
>> appropriate the Olympics for their own agendas or score points against
>> China. Sure enough, that is what has happened. Reporters Sans
>> Frontieres, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and
>> Amnesty International all chose this week to release announcements or
>> hold protests.
>
>> Of these, the RSF protest yesterday was most provocative.
> Activists
>> wearing T-shirts and carrying signs that portrayed the Olympic rings as
>> handcuffs staged a demonstration on a highway bridge near BOCOG's
>> headquarters. To add an extra measure of discomfort for Beijing, IOC
>> Chairman Jacques Rogge happens to be in China right now.
>
>> Unfortunately, reports say that foreign correspondents covering the
>> protest were detained by police for one or two hours afterward and
>> "roughed up". From the AP coverage:
>
>> [Uniformed] and plainclothes police physically restrained reporters
>> coming down from the pedestrian bridge, pushing and pulling them,
>> seizing IDs and refusing to allow them to leave the scene. Reporters
>> were detained in a parking lot directly opposite the Olympics office
>> tower, facing the Beijing 2008 logo and Olympic rings on the outside of
>> the building.
>
>> Journalists were allowed to leave after about two hours, with no
>> explanation from police about why they were detained.
>
>> A woman in the spokesman's office of the Foreign Ministry said she
>> did not know about the case and would look into it. Liu Wei from the
>> information office of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee said she
>> was not aware of the situation and had no comment.
>
>> If that isn't playing right into RSF's hands I honestly don't know what
>> is. I found the reports somewhat confusing and had to dig around to get
>> a clear idea if the journalists detained on site were protest
>> participants or locally credentialed reporters covering the event. But
>> it appears to be the latter. RSF's own release suggests much the same.
>
>> The best thing for Beijing to do under these circumstances would have
>> been to err on the side of tolerance and allow the protest to proceed
>> under supervision. Credit is earned slowly, painfully and in tiny
>> increments while setbacks come in great, heaving leaps, and activists
>> can win the PR battle by baiting the Chinese authorities into
>> overreacting. Detaining journalists on the scene, under any
>> circumstances, was asking for trouble.
>
>> The result is not only that the protest is probably getting more
>> coverage than it would have otherwise, but that the tone is distinctly
>> nastier from Beijing's point of view. Coming on the heels of last week's
>> widely covered FCCC survey and at the same time as all the other reports
>> listed above, it looks very bad and reinforces people's fears of what
>> might go wrong during the Games themselves.
>
>> The PR rule of thumb operating here is that response to an issue can
>> become the issue if it is handled badly. That is a rule that Beijing
>> needs to stay mindful of. Unfortunately, it seems likely that not all of
>> China's bureaucracies will be on the same page about this. It is
>> entirely possible that BOCOG and the Public Security Bureau will have
>> different opinions on how these kinds of situations should be handled.
>> This might be someplace where the IOC could provide a little visible
>> leadership, but they have stayed silent until now.
>
>> Fair or not, China will be judged differently than other countries that
>> host the Olympic Games. Now matter how glamorous the venues, how
>> exciting the games, or how successful China's athletes, the Games will
>> be judged in large part based upon how gracefully Beijing can manage the
>> inevitable protests. That is the price China pays for hosting the Games
>> in a political environment that disdains many of the freedoms that the
>> Games' primary audiences abroad take for granted. The Financial Times'
>> Beijing Bureau Chief, Richard McGregor puts it nicely:
>
>> Over more than a decade Beijing has gradually defused pressure over
>> its human rights record. Through remorseless diplomacy and skilful use
>> of its growing economic clout, it has sidelined western complaints about
>> human rights and marginalised the non-governmental lobbies that seek to
>> promote them.
>
>> The Olympics, however, are offering China's critics a moment in the
>> sun, and they have grabbed it eagerly.
>
>> McClatchy's Tim Johnson also captures the risk Beijing faces nicely:
>
>> Because of China's history of quashing revolt, any protest has the
>> potential to become an iconic image, like the moment when U.S. athletes
>> Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a "black power"
>> salute at the 1968 games in Mexico City.
>
>> That's an important thought to bear in mind. It will be interesting to
>> look back a year and a month from now and see what the iconic image of
>> the Games is. I sincerely hope it will be a moment of athletic triumph
>> or a moment of Olympic splendor in one of those magnificent venues.
>
>> After all, the Olympics are a magnificent opportunity for China. An
>> opportunity not only to showcase the country's development and rightful
>> place on the international stage, but also to explore a more
>> constructive way of engaging with the activists and NGOs that, for
>> better or for worse, will be interested in China for decades to come.
>
>> But the heavier a hand that Beijing takes in dealing with dissent and
>> protests before and during the games, the higher the chance that the
>> iconic image of Beijing 2008 will be something that dispels the goodwill
>> the Olympics could create and reduces those opportunities to dust.
>
>> Related:
>
>> Group: China detaining journalists (Reuters)
>> China under fire from all sides a year ahead of games (Reuters)
>> Amnesty in China Olympics warning (BBC)
>> China praises its progress toward Olympics (New York Times)
>> One year out from Olympics, a test of openness in Beijing (Washington Post)
>> Chinese dissidents appeal to government on human rights (Washington Post)
>
>> Previously on Imagethief:
>
>> Does BOCOG need to raise China's Olympic PR game?
>> Don't politicize the Olympics? It's much too late for that...
>> AP: China watching NGOs prior to Olympics
>> Democratic presidential candidates kick around the Olympic boycott football
>> Did the "Genocide Olympics" influence China?
>
>> Note:
>
>> Imagethief discussed related issues with Robert Ness of Danwei recently,
>> as part of a show Robert did on Olympic marketing. The podcast is now
>> available on Danwei FM.
>> Filed under: China, PR & Media (New), Olympics
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>> Comments
>> # re: Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot
>> Tuesday, August 07, 2007 11:46 AM by jaded
>
>> Don't worry. China will not disappoint. China has a history of
>> snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
>
>> China will provide "the iconic image of Beijing 2008 . . . that will
>> dispel the goodwill the Olympics . . ."
>> # re: Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot
>> Tuesday, August 07, 2007 12:04 PM by Rebecca M.
>
>> Seems like the Gong An Ju can always be counted on doing the only thing
>> they know how to do, no matter how bad they make their country look, and
>> no matter how pointless. When I worked for CNN in Beijing my crew and I
>> got detained while interviewing people on the street who had gathered to
>> watch Bill Clinton's motorcade pass along Chang An Jie. People we
>> interviewed were all saying how thrilled they were that U.S.-China
>> relations were at a high point. Nobody had anything negative to say and
>> it was all going to be a really positive story - if it hadn't been for
>> the footage of the cops showing up and one of them putting his hand over
>> the lens. People criticize the foreign press for negative China
>> reporting, but they have never seen how the police act around foreign
>> journalists - it is something business people rarely experience or see.
>> One of China's biggest P.R. problems stems from the fact that of all
>> foreigners living in China, journalists encounter the ugliest parts of
>> China's system far more than any other kind of foreigner - many of whom
>> never come into contact with the system's bad parts at all, or any
>> victims of those bad parts either.
>> # re: Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot
>> Tuesday, August 07, 2007 1:03 PM by Charles Liu
>
>> Please, this kind of behavior by foreigners will not be tolerated in
>> America either.
>
>> They got what they deserved. China has every right to defend themselves
>> from this kind of viciousness.
>
>> RSF's linkage with the NED is well know, but count on the self-appointed
>> western expat community to ignore it:
>
>
>> And everybody knows NED is overtly doing what
>
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