French protesters rock my world. They actually extinguished the Olympic torch. And they did it multiple times. I think the quotes from Chinese officials are really telling:

“The torch represents the Olympic spirit, and people welcome the torch,” said Wang Hui, the spokeswoman.

“The general public is very angry at this sabotage by a few separatists,” she said. “Some people, they want to disrupt the torch relay. And this will not do any good.”

I wonder if she realizes that, unlike China, we have some semblance of freedom of the press and access to many, many media outlets. We have pictures of the protests and we can see there are more than a few of those “separatists.” A heck of a lot of us agree with those “separatists,” too.

We don’t believe rumors that practitioners of Falon Gong eat babies (unlike some of my students in China). We know their government isn’t nice to their ethnic minorities and is actively destroying both the Uyghur and Tibetan cultures. We know the Chinese government censors right and left. I wonder how much they’ll embarrass themselves before the Olympics are over?

I hope these protests have an effect on how China handles dissent.  I wish protest had more of an effect on America’s foreign policy.  Yes, China has an appalling human rights record, but we don’t have much to brag about anymore.