21 June 2008
Olympic torch in Lhasa
(Times; FT) The Olympic torch was carried through the streets of Lhasa, cheered by crowds of Chinese residents and protected by police and paramilitary forces. The relay lasted for just over two hours, much shorter than had been planned before the unrest in Tibet in March, and there were no visible protests. Chinese officials said 156 torchbearers, half of them Tibetans, took turns to carry the flame. Most shops and businesses were shut and the ordinary Tibetan inhabitants in general were conspicuously absent along the route. Zhang Qingli, the head of the Communist party in Tibet, who spoke at a rally to greet the torch outside the Potala Palace, said: "We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique. (…) Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars [China's flag] will forever flutter high above it".