Cheers, protests as Olympic torch heads to Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO - In this city where protests are as much a part of the landscape as the Golden Gate Bridge, the impending arrival of the Olympic torch is drawing out thousands of activists critical of Beijing, even as many residents celebrate San Francisco's cultural ties to China.
The torch makes its only North American stop, in San Francisco, on Wednesday. Its path around the globe already has been marked by protests against China's policies toward Tibet and Sudan, and more demonstrations are expected worldwide before it reaches the Summer Games.
Chinese officials have dismissed the demonstrations as the actions of a few who are trying to hijack a historic event for their own purposes.
"The torch coming to this city is an honor and makes the Chinese population here very proud," said Defa Tong, spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. "The situation in China is at its best now. Those people who are protesting don't represent the majority."
San Francisco, which is one-third Asian, is bound to China by centuries of commerce and immigration. Many Chinese-American residents say they are looking forward to celebrating the cultural and economic connections between their city and the giant across the Pacific.
"We're very proud to welcome the Olympic torch," said Rose Pak, a Chinatown community organizer and consultant for the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. "The Chinese government has made enormous progress. All the Western countries protesting human rights, on what moral ground are they shaking their finger at China?"
Mayor Gavin Newsom, who in the past has met with Chinese officials and the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, said he had anticipated some opposition to the torch's stop in the city. But he has called the opportunity to host the relay an extraordinary honor and has insisted the flame is about sports, not politics.
Newsom said activists' calls to keep the torch away and a Board of Supervisors vote condemning China's human rights record do not help their cause. "They're denying for someone else the same speech they're asking for," the mayor said.
Police will not detail how they are preparing for the crowds. Protesters will be able to demonstrate anywhere in the city without permits as long as they do not block public access to the area.
Rallies, vigils, and news conferences related to the torch's arrival have taken place here almost daily for the past several weeks.
Outside the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, when officials passed the nonbinding resolution, protesters draped in the Tibetan snow lion flag waved placards calling for freedom. Some carried photos of compatriots believed killed in the violence that recently roiled the Tibetan capital.
Others held signs denouncing China's trade with repressive regimes such as Burma and its treatment of practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China.
The vote "demonstrates that people in SF, one of the most liberal cities in the world, are kind, caring, and supportive of Chinese, Tibetans, and Burmese people who are being suppressed by the communist regime," said Ying Rong, with the Coalition to Investigate Persecution of Falun Gong.
After that demonstration, activists immediately turned to planning protests that will follow the torch 6 miles along the waterfront, where for decades the Golden Gate Bridge welcomed the Chinese immigrants who now lend the city much of its character.
Already, billboards over freeway overpasses are urging San Franciscans to join in protest.
In the coming days, Tibetans from around the country and others concerned with China's treatment of dissidents, including actor Richard Gere and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, will gather for a vigil for Tibet.
Ice cream makers Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. also have dispatched a convoy to San Francisco to protest against China's trade with Sudan and the atrocities in Darfur.
But the attitudes of many residents are somewhere in the middle.
"There are some issues I'm concerned about with China - human rights, trade," said Ben Wong, who works with youth at Chinatown Beacon Center. "But as a Chinese-American, I'm actually quite excited. It's a recognition of the strength of the connection China and San Francisco have."
