Two ways to repair China's image: end the torch relay and take a lead over Myanmar

alight (BURNING)

China and Myanmar

Keeping the flame alight

Apr 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Two ways to repair China's image: end the torch relay and take a lead over Myanmar

alight (BURNING) Show phonetics
adjective [after verb]
1 burning; on fire:
I had to use a bit of petrol to get the fire alight.
The rioters overturned several cars and set them alight.
He was smoking in bed and his blankets caught alight.
The sky was alight with (= brightly lit up by) hundreds of fireworks.

2 LITERARY showing excitement and happiness:
Her eyes were alight with mischief.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

最新一期英國權威媒體「經濟學人」指出，中共政府原本計畫利用舉辦北京奧運，向世人展現中共是和平興起的世界強國；但鎮壓西藏與聖火全球傳遞的強硬處理態度，讓世人見識到中共的黑暗面，成為中共公關形象的大災難，北京政府應停止聖火傳遞，才能修復負面形象。 這篇以「放下聖火」為題的評論文章指出，八月北京奧運舉行前，在世界各地進行聖火傳遞，原就有風險，所到處有眾多抗議者，而西藏的暴動與示威，使聖火傳遞從些許的外交難堪，一發不可收拾，成為全面性的公關災難，對中共形象造成長期傷害。 文章指出，聖火傳遞顯示中共政府焦慮、壓抑、易怒及固執的黑暗面，現在如果想終止聖火傳遞的鬧劇，避免有人受到更大傷害，解決之道就是停止聖火傳遞，但北京冥頑不靈，可能會排除這個可能性。 報導說，聖火從倫敦、巴黎到舊金山，所到之處都遭到強烈抗議，十七日聖火經過印度新德里，場面將更難看。如果再傳到西藏，對數十萬流亡海外的西藏人，此舉更具挑釁意味。 報導說，儘管外界抗議不斷，中共官員堅持將繼續海外聖火傳遞，並有信心完成任務；原本是一個標示中共興起成為全球友善強國的慶祝活動，現在已經荒腔走板，部分民眾甚至第一次對「中國勢力的崛起」感到恐懼。

China and Myanmar

Keeping the flame alight

Apr 10th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Two ways to repair China's image: end the torch relay and take a lead over Myanmar

Getty Images

WERE shooting oneself in the foot an Olympic event, China would surely be well placed for a gold. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, taking the flame around the world before the games begin in August, was always a risk. Of course the flame would draw protesters like moths. But the suppression of riots and protests in Tibet has ensured the torch's progress has graduated from minor diplomatic embarrassment to full-scale public-relations disaster (see article).

An exercise intended to flaunt the new, outward-looking and confident China has displayed its dark side: nervous, repressive, prickly and stubborn. That stubbornness may rule out the obvious remedy: calling the whole farce off before someone is badly hurt. At least the International Olympic Committee should have nothing more to do with it. Protests this week in London, Paris and San Francisco were ill-tempered enough. The passage through Delhi on April 17th could be uglier. India is home to some 100,000 Tibetans. The only stop on the torch's world tour sure to be trouble-free is Pyongyang. As for its proposed procession through Tibet in June, it is hard to imagine a more provocative or insensitive gesture.

To accuse China's critics of “politicising” a sporting event is nonsense. What has the relay to do with sport? It is not some timeworn practice integral to the games. Rather, the idea of a relay from Greece to the Olympic venue was revived by the Nazis for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which is hardly a precedent China wants to advertise. The first “global” relay only took place for the most recent Olympics, in Athens in 2004. But that was not such a circus. China's pride may preclude any concession, however face-saving, on Tibet, or on human-rights abuses in general. But it is also facing criticism for its foreign policy—its links with the governments of Sudan and Myanmar in particular. Here, in theory, it can do something to show that it is indeed a responsible international “stakeholder”, with diplomatic maturity as well as economic clout.

Take Myanmar. After the bloody quelling of the “saffron revolution” last September, the ruling junta threw a few sops to international opinion. It accepted visits from a United Nations envoy, opened talks with the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and gave a timetable for a political transition. China deserves some credit for forcing the junta's hand. Myanmar's generals are nobody's puppets. But China, with its big commercial interests in the country, and its support in the UN Security Council, is now the junta's best friend.

It is time to use that position again. Confident that the outside world's focus on their misdeeds has shifted elsewhere, the generals have stalled on dialogue both with their opponents at home and the UN's envoy. The plight of their country remains desperate (see article). The political “process” has degenerated into a drive to impose a constitution entrenching military rule. A referendum on this solution will be held on May 10th in a climate of vicious intimidation.

Members of the Security Council are mulling a new statement, calling for some of the minimum reforms needed for a credible vote—such as the release of opposition leaders, including Miss Suu Kyi. The first thing China can do is to allow the statement to be issued in the name of a united outside world. More than that, China could help resolve the sterile debate that has raged for two decades over “engagement” or “isolation”. Isolation has never worked, because China, India and South-East Asian countries see too much commercial and strategic benefit in links with the junta. But nor has “engagement”, since Western countries have imposed sanctions of varying severity, and the junta has little interest in engaging anyway.

Nobody wins gold for sitting on a fence

Despite this, there is a broad consensus about the need for reform in Myanmar. With anti-Chinese feeling mounting in Myanmar, it is not in China's interests to be perceived as the prop that always holds up a loathed regime. It could take the initiative in forming a contact group to engage the junta in talks on economic co-operation and political reform. Even if it excluded Europe and America, such a group, of China, India, some South-East Asian countries and Japan, could help show the generals that they cannot forever survive in the cracks of other countries' disagreements. And it could help show that China is not always, unequivocally, on the side of the thugs.