The Chinese seem to have expended a lot of effort to make sure foreign protesters don't disrupt the pageantry by bringing up sensitive subjects like Tibet or Falun Gong or pollution or even freedom more broadly.
But are foreign protesters the problem?
Although the Chinese have absorbed outsiders and their influences over the centuries, nationalism, and occasionally xenophobia, still bubble up.
In recent years, Beijing and other cities have seen anti-Japanese protests over World War II-era grievances and anti-French demonstrations over remarks made about Tibet and the Olympics, a source of huge national pride.
So with protesters kept out of sight and reporters kept away from them, the reporters from the West will have the time and opportunity to film more events like this among the proud Chinese filled with the Olympics spirit strutting their arrival on the world stage as a great power:
Wishing to get a high shot of the massive crowds of Chinese waiting to buy tickets, Kevin, with his video camera, climbed on top of a table that was supposed to be used to sell tickets.
Immediately, outraged bystanders began shouting at him (in Chinese): "Get off that table now! You are disrespecting the Olympics spirit! You are besmirching China!"
Ed quietly suggested to Kevin that he step down from the table.
Given the uncomfortable conditions – waiting in line overnight in a sticky relentless heat – some of the ticket buyers’ irritation was understandable. But it seemed surprising that they would vent their anger at a foreign news crew and choose to do so in such a manner, resorting to expressions of national pride.
I suspected just such a problem for China:
Given that China has stoked xenophobic nationalism as a tool to replace communist ideology as the justification for one-party rule, I have to wonder how wise it is (from China's perspective) to have all those foreigners coming from countries that have rolled out the unwelcome wagon for the Long Olympic Torch March. Resentment over the protests is already boiling over in China.
It will get worse during the Olympics, and 18,000 journalists will be there reporting and another half million foreigners with digital cameras will be on hand, too. Even if the Chinese manage to stifle any new protests by Westerners inside China against any number of causes that are inspiring protests, there are bound to be many Chinese already hopped up on xenophobia and resentment to start a good mob to rampage against the foreign devils.
Flipping the bird to the world isn't exactly what the Chinese communists had in mind, I dare say, when they decided to show China to the world. But that Olympics spirit may be the image that goes out to the world.
Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes.
UPDATE: Long hidden from the world, the Chinese people will have ample opportunities for the more excitable elements to show their stuff:
China's hopes that the Olympics starting Friday will be a pivotal moment in national glory and global acceptance have been battered by unforeseen events. The disappointment has left some in China hurt and feeling unjustly treated.
The Chinese "tried hard to impress the world and to prove the country deserves respect and appreciation," said Xu Guoqi, a China-born historian at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. "But the West used the Olympic torch relay and the coming games to shame the country and frequently remind the Chinese they were not good enough."
So China is good enough? Is that what he is saying? Fascinating.
And some Chinese are upset that we've noticed they are not a free country? That's our problem? Again, fascinating.
Sure, China is better than it was under the hard core communists of the past, but the new and improved communists are still autocrats who rule their people with a mailed fist backing up the kinder and gentler appearance. We in the West are under no obligation to go along with this scripted pageant.
This could be more fascinating than endless blood tests for banned subtances.
