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An anti-Olympic protester stages a protest in front of Chinese students around the Olympic Park in Seoul on Sunday. /AP
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Koreans were initially surprised and awed when thousands of Chinese flags spread across central Seoul, wondering what in the world brought those young Chinese people out in force. At first it seemed a show of patriotic enthusiasm - but that impression soured when, the next morning, video clips of Chinese students beating up anti-Chinese protesters and Korean police officers surfaced online. The clips show some 100 Chinese crowding in on several Koreans protesting against China¡¯s repression in Tibet in the lobby of the Seoul Plaza Hotel in the heart of the capital, beating them with flagpoles and fists, and kicking them. Riot police were sandwiched in the middle, and some of them were also beaten.
The Chinese students kept shouting, ¡°Beat him to death!¡± and ¡°Apologize!¡± Those who were beaten up by the Chinese mob were later revealed to have been three members of civil rights groups who had protested against China¡¯s handling of the Tibet issue in front of the Deoksu Palace on Sunday afternoon. They escaped into the hotel after being chased by over 400 China supporters. One riot police officer had to have six stitches in the head after being beaten by the mob.
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A group of Chinese students beat activists who staged a protest calling for Tibetan independence in front of Deoksu Palace in Seoul on Monday.
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There was also footage of a reporter bleeding from the head after being hit by a piece of wood thrown by the Chinese, and a leading member of a civil rights group hurt by a metal cutter hurled by the Chinese demonstrator. One clip shows four American high school students wearing ¡°Free Tibet¡± T-shirts surrounded by 300 Chinese people. They were later rescued by the police.
Chinese students studying in Korea posted messages like ¡°Let¡¯s smash them with eggs¡± and arranging to meet at the Olympic Park on Sunday. The response has been a surge in anti-Chinese sentiment here, the anger of Korean posters directed at violence by Chinese people in the capital of their host country. ¡°If a Korean beat Chinese police officer, he would have been killed,¡± one irate Internet user wrote.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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