Olympic Games 2008

Protests continue as flame arrives in Beijing

Article published on the 2008-08-06 Latest update 2008-08-06 12:18 TU

Torchbearer Yang Liwei (L), China's first astronaut, carries the Olympic flame outside the Forbidden city.
(Photo: Reuters)

The symbol of the Olympic Games has arrived in Beijing. Following an stormy world tour, the torch completes it 140,000-kilometre tour over the next three days as it tours the capital. Cheering crowds bearing flags greeted the torch as it was carried through the city, having left its Beijing starting point at the Forbidden City.

The torch left Greece on 24 March, and has since toured six continents, its journey often marked by protests against China's human rights record and its policies in Tibet.

Basketball star Yao Ming, who is one of China's best-known athletes, carried the flame through Tiananmen Square to cheering from the crowd.

The relay across the city will take three days and the torch will be passed between more than 800 torch-bearers on the final leg of its journey through the capital.

Protests continue despite a heavy security presence in the city. A group of pro-Tibet activists was arrested in Beijing today, after they managed to raise Tibetan flags and a giant Free Tibet banner close to the Olympic Stadium.

The two Britons and two Americans were arrested by police after they scaled a pole and raised the 42-metre banner near the "Bird's Nest" stadium.

The banners bore the slogan "One World, One Dream: Free Tibet" and "Tibet Will Be Free".

The banners were up for more than an hour before Chinese police managed to rip them down.

"We did this action today to highlight the Chinese government's use of the Beijing Olympics as a propaganda tool," said Ian Thom, one of the British protestors. "They're whitewashing their human rights record on Tibet."

Students for a Free Tibet say that they will continue their protests throughout the Games. The group unfurled a protest banner along the Great Wall of China exactly a year before the opening ceremony, and had also staged a protest at Mount Everest's base camp, in opposition to plans to bring the Olympic flame to the mountain.

Chinese authorities condemned the action, saying that they would oppose any attempt to "politicise" the Games.

Meanwhile, Joey Cheek, a US Winter Olympics gold medallist and campaigner for an end to violence in Darfur, had his visa to enter China revoked, a spokesman for activist group Dream for Darfur said on Wednesday.