China protesters outnumbered

Chinese students quickly organize a counterprotest, call activists uninformed
Peggy Lim
Staff Writer, News & Observer
peggy.lim@newsobserver.com


DURHAM - While protesters were heckling the Olympic torch out of San Francisco, Duke University junior Adam Weiss was having a hard time bringing sympathy for Tibet's cause to the campus.

Hundreds of counterprotesters, far outnumbering members of Weiss' Duke Human Rights Coalition, showed up Wednesday night to his mock version of the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which Weiss calls the "Genocide Olympics."

Chinese students at Duke, N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill caught wind that Weiss was preparing to jog through campus carrying the Tibetan flag to protest China's rule in Tibet. The word rapidly spread online.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Chinese students piled into cars and headed to Duke. They held posters that read, "Do not mix politics with the Olympic Games."

Weiss, 21, a political science and Spanish major at Duke, disagrees.

"This is the best time, when the spotlight's on, to show what the Chinese government is about," he said.

"Some of my best friends are Chinese," he added. "It's just this one issue we disagree on. ... You can love Chinese culture, but you don't have to like the Chinese government's policy on Tibet."

The counterprotesters Wednesday waved red flags -- some brought from China, others purchased in bulk the day of from Grand Asia, a Chinese grocery store in Cary.

When a shirtless Weiss approached the Duke Chapel after a trek from Duke's East campus, Chinese students, who had just finished singing the Chinese national anthem, swarmed him.

Weiss and about 15 other students then took up a perch on the steps of the chapel, where they yelled, "Freedom and justice, here and abroad."

The Chinese students responded with their own chants, including, "Liar! Liar! Liar!"

"This is probably one of the most exciting demonstrations since I've been here," said onlooker Rebecca Wu, 19, a Duke sophomore. "For other events, attendance is really low."

The face-off was heavily policed and did not devolve into violence.

But the hundreds of Chinese students who showed up for the confrontation reflect the frustration many have felt about how their country has been criticized or portrayed in the media. In the past two months, Chinese students from Germany to Canada to North Carolina have inundated Internet bulletin board services, shared YouTube videos or contributed to Web sites such as anti-cnn.com, a collection of errors Western media outlets have made in coverage of Tibet.

The students say that human rights protesters have ignored that Tibetan mobs turned violent, looting stores, burning buildings and killing civilians in the riots that roiled Tibet's capital, Lhasa, on March 14.

Hainian Zeng, 25, a botany doctoral student at N.C. State University, said that's why he feels he must speak up.

" 'Free Tibet' -- to them it's just a slogan," Zeng said. "They have no idea about the past and current situation in Tibet."

Zeng was in one of about 45 students who caravaned to Duke from NCSU on Wednesday. He was also one of a handful of NCSU students who recently compiled fliers and distributed 200 copies across NCSU's campus. The fliers include excerpts from "Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth," a piece written by Michael Parenti, an American political scientist, historian and media critic. In coming days, Zeng hopes to distribute 500 more copies along with a CD he has created, called "Truth in Tibet."

Zeng, who came to Raleigh from Shanghai two years ago, said he doesn't want to escalate conflict between any ethnic groups. But he can't sit back and do nothing.

"We just want to try to give people a different point of view," he said.

peggy.lim@newsobserver.com or (919) 836-5799