“…’China is a safe place. Please be assured,’ Jiang said. ‘China is a nation with great hospitality and courtesy … We will strive to present an outstanding Games that will help boost friendship and understanding between peoples…”

By Guo Shipeng, Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson
Source: Reuters

China on Thursday reassured foreigners they were welcome at the Beijing Olympics in August and guaranteed their safety after a wave of anti-Western protests in the country.

Anti-Chinese protests, largely over Beijing’s handling of deadly riots in Tibet in March, marred the Olympic torch’s relay in London, Paris and San Francisco this month, with many exiled Tibetans trying to snatch or extinguish the torch.

The chaotic scenes and perceived biased Western media coverage of the Tibet riots and the torch disruptions have sparked an outpouring of patriotic fervor among Chinese at home and abroad.

Internet users have been calling for a boycott of French goods, among other things, and protests at branches of the French retail giant Carrefour have broken out in a dozen Chinese cities in the past week.

Some Western journalists have received threatening messages and an American volunteer, according to one expatriate’s blog, was attacked by a crowd of anti-French protesters in the central province of Hunan this week.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the government disapproved of the “extremely isolated cases of radical remarks and actions”.

“Competent departments will deal with them according to the law,” Jiang told a news conference. “We have always protected the personal safety and lawful interests of all foreign nationals in China.

“China is a safe place. Please be assured,” Jiang said. “China is a nation with great hospitality and courtesy … We will strive to present an outstanding Games that will help boost friendship and understanding between peoples.”

She defended the outburst of patriotic sentiment among Chinese, most of whom feel overwhelmingly proud of Beijing’s hosting the Olympics and see the torch saga as a deliberate humiliation, as a legitimate response.

“We should be clear about one fact: it’s not Chinese are doing something (for no reason). Rather, some people have been provoking the Chinese people,” Jiang said.

“The Chinese people are expressing a voice of justice to oppose unfair, distorting acts that smear China. I hope the international community can seriously listen to the voice of the Chinese people.”