Politics takes the lead as 100-day countdown begins

By Nick Macfie

BEIJING (Reuters) - This is the Olympic year that 1.3 billion "sons and daughters of China" have been ardently expecting, state media gushed in January. "It is the year when more of the world's gaze will be fixed on China."

The world's gaze is fixed on China 100 days before the Beijing Games, but not in the way it had imagined just weeks ago.

Protests against China's human rights record had been expected as activists grab on to the Olympics, just as they have in years past in other Olympic host cities, to highlight their complaints in front of a massive global audience.

But no one expected many in the West to use China's crackdown on violent Tibetan unrest as a stick to beat Beijing, prompting a massive loss of face and an outpouring of nationalistic fervour.

"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice," International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge told Saturday's Financial Times. "That is the big mistake of people in the West wanting to add their views.

"To keep face is of paramount importance. All the Chinese specialists will tell you that only one thing works -- respectful, quiet but firm discussion."

Disruption of the Olympic torch relay, especially in London, Paris and San Francisco, and criticism of its human rights policy in Tibet and elsewhere have angered many Chinese who have dug in their heels.

Many in the West, with little knowledge of Tibet or Chinese history, have decided China is plain wrong. Many in China, proud of efforts to bring prosperity to Tibet and end centuries of serfdom, have decided that Western media are biased and, in some cases, malicious.