Chinese security guards

This is intriguing:

Throughout the day there have been incidents and flashpoints, the most serious occuring in Ladbroke Grove when a Free Tibet protestor slipped through a 50-strong pack of British police and Chinese security guards before attempting to wrestle the Olympic flame from Blue Peter TV presenter Konnie Huq. The episode was brought to an end when the protestor was bundled to the ground.

Chinese security guards in London? Not just London either. They seem to be cropping up all over the place. Ah, it’s a counter-mobilisation:

Chinese students in the UK are being mobilised to form an unofficial guard for the Olympic torch when it passes through the UK next weekend, raising the fear of clashes with protesting Tibetan activists calling for independence.

The Overseas Chinese Students for the Olympic Association has told supporters it is vital they draw attention away from any anti-Chinese propaganda.

Fair enough: they’ve got as much right to mobilize as the pro-Tibetan crowd. But they seem to be doing a bit more than that. How did they get to be part of the policing? Can you just roll up, claim to be security guards and stand there with the cops? They also appear to be supplying interpreters.

I remember the days when mainland Chinese students came to Britain - as elsewhere - as stage one on the launchpad: they were never going back, if they could manage it. Students were very much to the fore in the post Tiananmen demonstrations as well. Now we’ve got people joining a kind of Beijing Auxiliary to defend the government.

Comments

[a very public sociologist]

From what I can gather Chinese students are here at the behest of the CCP. They have to check in with a commissar-like figure once a semester to review their academic progress and secure continuation status for government funding, etc. I wouldn't be too surprised if some supplemented their studies with a bit of "activism" of this sort just to impress the party bosses and help their future career prospects back home.

[jamie]

I think quite a lot of it will be careerism, though that would only really help those looking for a career within the Party apparat or wider state bureaucracy. I think as well that there's quite a genuine upsurge of feeling on this independent of government policy. But I think the really telling thing is the way the British government didn't treat the demonstrators as equal, but allowed the Chinese counter-protest quasi official status. They're "flame guardians" now by the way.

And a fun day out was had by all...