The Olympic torch relay that snaked through 19 cities before its arrival on Chinese soil yesterday was meant to be a time of glory for a rising world power. Instead, it turned out to be a fiasco, with heavy security needed at almost every stop to shield the torch from protesters.
At some stops, the relay route had to be changed at the last minute. In San Francisco, police played hide-and-seek with protesters and supporters alike, and at other stops, the torch was hidden from public sight.
These scenarios seemed to make a mockery of remarks made by Games organising committee chief Liu Qi during the torch-lighting ceremony in the ancient stadium in Olympia, Greece. 'The Olympic flame will radiate light and happiness, peace and friendship, and hope and dreams to the people of China and the whole world,' Mr Liu declared to the assembled crowd.
But the Olympic torch, which is otherwise a symbol of world peace and unity, has become the target for pro-Tibet demonstrators and human rights activists who denounced Beijing's suppression of Tibet protests and other rights infringements.
Added to the already embarrassing situation were suggestions shortly after chaos in London and Paris that the relay might be cut short and future international torch relays scrapped. But the international relay continued, with its last stop on Tuesday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
'Chinese officials certainly had not thought there would be so many problems. We have to shoulder the responsibility: we just attached too much importance to it, and its scale was just too huge,' said Zhan Jiang , dean of the journalism department at China Youth University for Political Sciences.