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I’m sure most of you haven’t been able to escape the amount of news coverage that has been given to all the problems surrounding the Olympic torch relay this last week. London, Paris, and now San Fransisco have become the global stage for regrettable “us-against-them” rallies that has the noble purpose of sending a clear-cut message. The message received, however, will most likely differ from the one intended and in the end will probably do more harm than good.

Truly it has become China against the “west”. Rest assured it has made the news here in China, but with a completely different dynamic. Every story the western media publishes is countered by a similar and opposing article from Xin Hua, the state-run media in China. For those Chinese who do read and understand the English news, the conflicting reports are more than a little confusing. When I asked an English-speaking Chinese friend what they thought of the conflicting news they replied that it was “a bit scary, but I still believe the Chinese news”. For those who don’t or can’t read the English news – and that is the majority of the population – these protests are being written up as “Anti-China” or “Attempts to Sabotage” the Olympics – in other words it is a direct attack on China’s pride.

So what’s wrong with this? We all know the reasons for these protests and each have our own conclusions. Unfortunately all of this media attention, all of these protests, all of the politicians racing to condemn China in order to reach the White House is going to backfire. Maybe not today, maybe not even before the Olympics. It might even take years for the backfire to become noticeable, but we believe it will come.

First from the Chinese: it’s not as if the west is perceived positively here in Asia, although mostly it’s just our governments that can’t get along. By smearing the very event that has become the pride of every Chinese person we are just finally giving the general public a good reason not to like us. These protests may be bringing international attention to problems China has (as do all countries), but in the process it is unifying China against people who are seen as trying to humiliate and control them.

Then from the west: What is the younger generation learning from all of this? History shows us that people have trouble distinguishing between a government and its people, even if the government isn’t elected by and therefore representing its people. Most of the population here in China don’t quite understand what these protests are about, anyway. Tiff asked a college-educated teacher at our school about whether Tibet should be part of China and why. She replied “Yes, I think so, because Tibet is very beautiful”. What? It doesn’t even make sense. Despite this, our younger generation may fall victim to an anti-Chinese mentality similar to the one we already have for any person of Arab descent. What good comes from that?

Just something for you to think about as you interpret all these events leading up to the Olympics this year…