10B SPORTS
OLYMPICS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2008
Smooth torch trip through China hints at future of games
BY CARA ANNA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAIKOU, China — Paramilitary police donned Hawaiian shirts and pink buses shuttled in more cops in camouflage. Security was heavy but officers were markedly relaxed as jubilant crowds, apparently free of protesters, helped kick off the Olympic torch's tour of China.
"Of course I'm happy, but I can't talk to you," one officer said with a smile as the torch was carried through the tropical port city of Haikou on Tuesday. Up to a million people squeezed along the route. "Go China!" they screamed as the flame bobbed by.
Wednesday was apparently another trouble-free day before cheering crowds as the torch made
a 10-hour tour through the southern city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, in China's prosperous manufacturing center.
So far, the Olympic torch seems to be having a smooth relay in China, uninterrupted by the protests over Tibet and human rights that followed parts of its international tour.
Relieved corporate sponsors like Samsung and Coca-Cola, whose logos were seldom seen along the torch relay outside China, now are splashing their names everywhere.
How China handles the torch, and the crowds, is a hint of how it will manage the Beijing Olympics. While most of the more than 100 stops across China should go smoothly, legs through Tibet and the largely Muslim province of Xinjiang
areas with recent protests against Chinese rule or policies could test security and crowd control.
If a protest were to happen during the flame's three-month journey to Beijing in August, it might be impossible to tell. Foreign media are not allowed in the convoy that follows the torch, which is restricted to state media. When the torch went out at the start of its Sunday run in the seaside city of Sanya, the live national broadcast cut away as guards rekindled the flame.
Police and paramilitary forces by the dozens jogged on either side of the torch. Others were posted every few feet along the route. The rest waited in reserve, along with a bomb disposal truck and armored vans lined with tiny windows and gun portals.
A crowd hurries into position during the Olympic torch relay Tuesday in Hailou, China.
ASSOCIATED PRESS