SAN FRANCISCO — Security was tightened on the Golden Gate Bridge and elsewhere around the city Tuesday as officials prepared for massive protests of China’s crackdown in Tibet during the Olympic torch’s only North American stop on its journey to Beijing.
The Olympic flame was whisked to a secret location shortly after its predawn arrival following widespread and chaotic demonstrations during the torch relay in London and Paris.
Activists are protesting China’s human-rights record, its grip on Tibet and its support for Sudan despite years of bloodshed in Darfur.
The flame is scheduled to be paraded through the city today on a 6-mile route that hugs San Francisco Bay. Already, one runner who planned to carry the flame dropped out because of safety concerns, officials said.
It began its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing on March 24, and was the focus of protests from the very start.
Hours after it arrived in San Francisco, protesters marched to the Chinese Consulate, calling on China to cease its heavy-handed rule of Tibet.
Meanwhile, a few miles away in Chinatown, leaders of China’s expatriate community held a news conference calling for a peaceful relay, and said they were proud China was selected to host the summer games.
In Beijing, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the body’s executive board would discuss Friday whether to end the international leg of the torch relay because of the demonstrations. He said he was “deeply saddened” by the previous protests and was concerned about the relay in San Francisco.
“We recognize the right for people to protest and express their views, but it should be nonviolent. We are very sad for all the athletes and the people who expected so much from the run and have been spoiled of their joy,” Rogge said.
Hundreds of activists carrying Tibetan flags and wearing traditional clothes gathered in United Nations Plaza, a pedestrian area near San Francisco’s City Hall, to denounce China’s policy toward Tibet and the recent crackdown on protesters there. They then marched to the Chinese Consulate as part of a day-long Tibetan Torch Relay.
“This is not about us battling the torchbearers,” Lhadom Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, told the crowd outside the consulate. “This is about the Chinese government using the torch for political purposes. And we’re going to use it right back.”
San Francisco was chosen to host the relay in part because of its large Asian population.
David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee and a professor of political science at San Francisco State University, said that while many Chinese agree with critics of China, on the whole, Chinese-Americans feel a tremendous sense of pride that the Beijing Olympics chose San Francisco as the only relay site in North America.
Pro-Tibet activists and other human rights groups said they’d encouraged their supporters to protest peacefully and not disrupt the relay or the torch runners.
Still, law enforcement agencies prepared for the worst. Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city reserved the right to adjust the flame’s route if necessary.
Security was tightened on the Golden Gate Bridge on Tuesday. On Monday, three protesters scaled the famed span and tied the Tibetan flag and two banners to its cables.
The Olympics begin Aug. 8.
