Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned Friday that attempts to disrupt the Beijing Olympics torch relay will have "consequences" beyond the games.
Noting how globalization and technology have enabled events like the protests to be beamed and magnified across a "global listening board," Lee said the vivid TV images of demonstrators "waving banners, scuffling with police, and making concerted assaults to snuff out the flame" have achieved "an asymmetrical prominence," and "so influencing public opinion against China and the Games."
This has led China and the Chinese people feel humiliated when they see the Olympics as "China's coming out party, to celebrate its progress and opening up to the world."
The prime minister added that the outrage felt by the Chinese will have far larger consequences.
"So whatever the intentions of the demonstrators, the people of China believe they want to inflict maximum humiliation on China and the Chinese people more than the Chinese government," Lee said.
"The outrage in China, especially among the young, can be read on the flooded Internet bulletin boards, all carrying virulent anti-foreign sentiments. Pity they are in unintelligible Chinese ideographs. Were they in the English language, young Americans and Europeans would realize that these displays of contempt for China and things Chinese will have consequences in their lifetime, well beyond the Olympic Games," he added.
Lee made the remarks at a one-day forum organized by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The forum, with the theme "The Politics of Knowledge," aimed to address the challenging issues facing Asia in developing knowledge-based economies.
Source: Xinhua
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