China's Olympic Headache

Drip, drip, drip. Everyday seems to bring some more bad publicity for China concerning the Olympics.

The latest drips today:

• Chinese Special Armed Police Guard Olympic Torch Relay.
• About 1500 people marching in San Francisco to protest Chinese brutality in Tibet
• Breach of Golden Gate Bridge security rattles S.F. officials
• Hillary Clinton Calls for Bush to Boycott Olympic Opening Games

So who is protesting against China?

• Tibet associated
  
• Falun Gong
• Burma
• Darfur
• Reporters without borders

An article I read (that of course I can't find) mentioned they were even arranging their colors, so there was no confusion on which group should be which color.

What I am not sure about, is what effect will this have upon China? The dream of some people was having China host the Olympics would have a positive effect on how China acted. My worry is how the Chinese people (who blog a lot) will react, and what longer term ramifications this will have. China's government is trying everything to be positive, but with the amount of protests (which only requires a small group), they may feel their effort is not being appreciated. There is a HUGE amount of national pride (nationalism) in China that has been fanned by the ruling communist party for their own purposes (staying in power). An article that touches on this from the WSJ. Torch Protests Ignite Chinese Indignation