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Published on April 26, 2008

Whenever China's population of 1.3 billion is mobilised, it is capable of shaking the whole world. Thus the country's voice has been strong in its condemnation of protests against it holding the Olympic Games in August. The Chinese have also come out strongly against what they describe as biased Western media reports about the Tibet issue. Of course, in China it is impossible to hold a protest without the government's authorisation. When throngs of people protested against Japan over its interpretation of historical events a few years back, everyone knew that the government had a hand in the protests. However, the Chinese protests over the Olympic Games in recent weeks have been a different matter.

Ordinary Chinese people are very proud that their country is hosting the Olympics in August, and they want to ensure that everything goes smoothly. To them, this is a glorious moment for China to host the highly popular games.

So it is not surprising that they tend to see the world divided into two groups. The first are those who support the games and whom it considers friends. Likewise, they deem anybody who is pro-Tibet or critical of China to be a common enemy without any further scrutiny. The Chinese are very clear with this delineation and there is no middle ground.

Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, US President George W Bush adopted a similar approach - saying countries were either America's friends or its enemies. As the US has learned painfully over the past seven years, such views can be dangerous and end up resulting in more enemies than friends, especially in developing countries. Allowing for no middle ground is a recipe for making enemies.

In the future, China could face the same dilemma. The anti-Chinese protests in London and Paris have already inspired a strong sense of patriotism among the Chinese people. They have boycotted French products and their outlets for supporting the Tibetan cause, despite denials by those concerned. If this trend continues, the pro-China campaigns could backfire and cause further damage to their country's image and reputation - a development that they do not wish to see.

After the Olympic Games, China's profile in the world will have increased. There will be more public demands for greater freedom, more transparency and access to information. The Chinese people want their country to be a responsible stakeholder in the world. They want respect when they travel overseas. They have better lives, they travel, they see different worlds and they want a better China.

In the end, the Chinese authorities have to realise that it is always harder to manage public sentiment against its own government than against foreigners. Even though foreign press often fails to report on small public demonstrations throughout China every year, news continues to be spread by local media and word-of-mouth of local discontent and rallies, which could surpass 10,000 incidents.

Finally, there are growing number of Chinese people living around the world. Some of them are students who studied abroad at the beginning of the "Four Modernisation" agenda in 1978 and have not yet returned home. Others prefer the Western atmosphere and take up residency overseas, returning home from time to time. These people have showed up in past weeks to support the Olympic Games. These overseas Chinese are independent thinkers and they know what is going on inside their country. They also have dreams of their future China. They could protest again in the future but this time not in support of the games but rather they could aim for a more open and democratic China. If that happened, it would be a real test for China.

Moreover, Chinese "netizens" have been very active in organising and stimulating debates and calling for support against Western reports on the Olympics. They have so far lashed out at the Western press but they seldom examine the content of local vernacular press when they report on Tibet and other important issues. In the future, these netizens will probably focus more on domestic developments and act like "lighthouses" to spotlight pivotal issues affecting China's rise and its people's well-being.