I just witnessed the Olympic Torch relay at Canberra. (I just made it, after having a quick Thursday meeting with my supervisor - Peter Strazdins).
All were anticipating a pro-Tibetan protest during the relay. But what happened was a wave of pro-china supporters. Virtually, Canberra was in Red. Every were red Chinese flags - waved by the "Chinese students". That's what they said - students! But it appeared that there was a very systematic effort behind it - most probably orchestrated by Chinese authorities. I am a student for 3+ years in Australia. All the time with the majority of Chinese students. I never witnessed such a kind of nationalistic feeling among the Chinese students. Most of them do not know about the international politics or even their internal affairs. If they have to come in large numbers like this (nearly 5 - 6 thousands), there should be some magic!
Australia was really intimidated by the "soft-power" of China. When I was with the crowd I could feel it very clearly. They was not in favor, but felt the pressure to defy it.
When Dalai Lama comes to Australia, they flock around him in thousands. But when it matters to their "dollars" (China is their largest trade-partner), they simply keep quite - unlike many other Western countries. Reasons are quite evident: they are really small and geographically very near to China. They are the first one to be tamed by the Chinese. That's been done.
Tail piece: Australia under Mandarin speaking Kevin Rudd is keeping a great distance from India - may be under the influence of China (or India's previous adherence to Howard ministry). He is not in the good book of US too. We could even expect a rift within the Asia-Pacefic solution between Aus, US and Japan. It may depend upon how India closes in to US.
