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Canberra: More than 10,000 Chinese Australians staged the biggest pro-Beijing rally of the protest-marred Olympic torch relay on Thursday, bringing a sea of red Chinese flags and drowning out Tibetan demonstrators.
Protests and tight security have followed the Olympic torch around the world over the past month, putting China's domestic and foreign polices under the spotlight ahead of the Games in August.
Beijing had hoped the torch's progress would be a symbol of unity in the run-up to the Beijing Games. But it has turned into a public relations nightmare, forcing host countries to protect the torch with security measures usually afforded a state leader.
Anti-Chinese protests during the previous relay legs have sparked a wave of patriotism among Chinese at home and abroad, and yesterday thousands of Chinese chanting "One China" packed the start and finish of the torch relay in the Australian capital.
Police made seven arrests, but for the most part the event was peaceful. "This is a magnificent day for us today to show that Australia can have a peaceful rally. Watching overseas protests, I felt shamed that they can behave like that," said Wellington Lee, from the Chinese Association of Victoria state.
Six-people deep
Chinese six-deep lined the 16km relay route, and hundreds of cars drove around Canberra carrying Chinese flags. "It was highly organised," free-Tibet supporter and Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said. "Australians will feel a little bit uncomfortable by the fact that communist China came to town and just showed it can buy anything."
China denied the charge. "I don't know how this question is relevant," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing. "If someone is interested in it, then has he asked those people who disrupt and sabotage the torch if there are any organisers and instigators behind them? I think that question is more newsworthy."
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