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Not quite the Olympic torch

Not quite the Olympic torch

This ceremony in Greece sure looks like the start of an Olympic torch relay, by design. However, it's a protest by the banned-in-China meditation group Falun Gong and its friends designed to press Beijing authorities for human rights reforms ahead of the 2008 Olympics. The demand is not only raised by Falun Gong, but also by more mainstream human rights groups like Amnesty International.

And the real Olympic torch relay? There has been some controversy about that, too. On its way to Beijing the Chinese government wants the torch to pass through Taiwan as if the island of Formosa were one of the provinces of China, while the Taiwanese authorities want to schedule the relay in a way that emphasizes the 58-year-old political distinction between the island and mainland China. Taiwan competes in the Olympics under a somewhat nebulous identity distinct from China, comparable in many ways to the way that Puerto Rico competes as an entity separate from the United States.

Photos courtesy of Falun Gong