Protests or not, Olympic torch officials plan to stay the course

Chinese Olympic organizers appear determined to plow on with their troubled international torch relay, hoping that cities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia will offer a warmer welcome.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge backed that stance Thursday, saying a shortening of the route – the most ambitious in Olympics history – to forestall more trouble "is definitely not on the agenda."

Further disruptive protests over Tibet and human rights are expected, however, before the torch reaches the safety of Chinese shores. Beijing has shown no sign of any political gestures to defuse the demonstrations; indeed it fanned tension by choosing its ambassador to Britain to carry the torch in London. The relay's intended message of harmony now appears beyond salvage.

The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) "cannot do anything" to defuse protests "because it's political," says Mao Shoulong, an analyst at Beijing's Renmin University. Worldwide calls on the Chinese government to make a political move, such as opening talks with the Dalai Lama, are going unheeded, he adds.

That leaves the relay's corporate sponsors furious but impotent. "Their worst nightmare is coming true in spades," says one PR professional familiar with the problems sponsors such as Coca Cola, Samsung, and Lenovo are facing. "They are wondering how things could have got so out of control in so many ways."

In San Francisco, the relay's latest stop, torch bearers avoided trouble Wednesday by running away from the crowds gathered to cheer or boo them, taking a shortened and unpublicized route along sometimes deserted streets.

Similar tactics will be adopted in other potential trouble spots such as New Delhi and Canberra, Australi, according to sources privy to the organizers' plans.

Losing the image battle

This is not what the Chinese authorities had in mind when they mapped out the longest international Olympic torch relay ever run, an ambitious 85,000-mile, 20-nation odyssey designed to build anticipation for the Games, which open on August 8.

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