"We are still neglected or misunderstood," she said, "as either brainwashed or manipulated by the government." No matter what China does, these students say, it cannot win in the arena of world opinion.
I'm not sure who's been reading up on the counter-protesters, but here's an article that explains a bit about how Chinese students are handling criticism and the 'Free Tibet' protesters.
The torch went through HK today, and again protesters (not just the Free Tibet kind) were mobbed by Chinese nationalists. The article says activists "eventually ducked into a police vehicle for protection", but I'm not sure I buy that. Toward the end of the article--"police put Chan in a police van against her will"--is more telling. I saw the footage of this on the local news coverage of the event. I'm pretty sure no one voluntarily ducked into those vans. Chan was shouting and resisting the police as she got picked up.
Other countries have been limited in the number of blue-track-suit special police, but in HK they had four on either side at all times, making sure no one jumped out of the bushes. Even the dragon boat had THREE guys watching. They closed the bridge, so no one could actually see the torch go over it.
On our trip to Nanjing, we talked to a lot of different groups of students. Many of them were upset about the torch relays in other cities so far. One group was critical of American media, especially Cafferty's comments (he called the Chinese goons and thugs).
I found myself in this really odd position of having to somehow defend American media, which I myself am critical of, and at the same time not point fingers at the softened or ridiculously non-sequitur reports in the Chinese newspapers and media which I had been exposed to since I got on the plane.* I basically told students what I thought -- that no media gives a totally accurate representation of a situation, but as long as you have many different sources you can be fairly sure you've got the story. You can't get that in China, though.
*I will post an editorial from a Chinese newspaper soon, when I get a chance. It's a prime example of the logic Chinese people use regarding Tibet and the Dalai Lama.
