If there was any doubt about the hopes China has for using the Olympic torch as a tool to validate their control over Tibet, one need look no farther than the route the Olympic flame is now taking. Jim Yardley of the NY Times reports:
President Hu Jintao of China waved the Olympic torch at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Monday, smiling broadly as balloons, streamers and confetti rose into a mostly blue sky.
Then came the uncertain part. Mr. Hu sent the torch on a 130-day journey around the globe where protests and controversy likely await. First stop on what Beijing is calling a “Journey of Harmony” will be Lhasa, the Tibetan capital still simmering from violent anti-government protests…
Earlier on Monday morning, the Olympic flame arrived in Beijing from Athens on board a specially outfitted Air China jetliner decorated with golden flames. This week, the Olympic flame is actually being split into two torches. One will be flown on Tuesday to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to begin an international relay that will cover five continents, including one stop in the United States in San Francisco.
The other torch is being flown to Lhasa and then taken to a base camp below Mount Everest. There, the flame is expected to be stored in a special lantern until May, when a team of climbers — escorted by two specially trained cameramen for Chinese state television — will attempt to carry the burning torch to the summit of the world’s highest mountain and then back down. By then, the international relay should be completed and the two torches will be reunited into one in Lhasa to begin a tour through the Chinese mainland that concludes in Beijing at the opening of the Games on Aug. 8. [Emphasis added]
As far as I can tell from the relay route, other than Beijing, the Olympic torch will spend more time in Lhasa than any other city in the rest of the world. The torch will be inside Tibet, either in Lhasa or at Mount Everest, for the duration of the international tour of the second flame. The only explanation for bringing the torch to Tibet and bringing it to Lhasa is that China wants to world to see it as the definition of their control over Tibet. The fact that there is an uprising going on in Tibet does not matter – China will use the torch as a stamp of approval and them make sure the whole world knows that they control Tibet.
Hold Fast 