One must wonder who exactly in China is posting these commenst, or has the access to the internet been dramatically relaxed to allow the reading of the Times online site by the masses?

frazer, Belfast,

The Indian authorities have nothing to worry about since it is very difficult to believe the Chinese claim of foiling an Olympic kidnap plot given their common trait of launching frequent diatribe against the native Uyghur population of the Uyghur Xinjiang Autonomous Region grappling with bitter inter-ethnic tension between the Uyghurs and the ethnic Han Chinese whom Beijing encourages to settle in the area in large number. It is but natural that an unyielding attitude and rising level of persecution displayed by the Chinese administration in the form of punishing individuals criticizing the Communist Party regime will only push the Uyghurs towards a more radical position leading to greater violence. Racist remarks like "they have no culture and they don't try to study and improve themselves" and “their religion Islam, it's no good. It fills their heads with nonsense" from the local Chinese are proof enough of the fast evolving sectarianism in the region which is being carefully calibrated by the Communist Party to instigate the native Muslim population with a design to malign the poor Uyghurs and label them as Islamic terrorists. One wonder, how can the OIC with its lofty goal of eliminating racial discrimination remain a mute witness to the sufferings of the fellow Muslim Uyghurs at the hand of the ruthless Chinese?

Seema Sengupta, Kolkata, India

B.W.

The reason why people don't believe what the Chinese Government says is because their claims are generally an insult to the intellegence of an educated person.

Neville, Melbourne, Victoria

You just don't get it do you B.W.

In the west newspapaers and tv are INDEPENDENT of government. We don't even have official newspapers for the "party" or any thing like that.

China forced a deal on Google, Yahoo etc. that is blatant censorship nothing less.

The fact you ahve to come to western newspapers and post comments that you could never post in China says it all.

I'll take CNN any day of the week over the repressive, censored state media in China.

Guy, London, UK

Britain locks up those in possession of 'terrorist' literature with great fanfare. Britain even invented new laws under which to do so. In Britain one can be prosecuted for writing poetry on the subject.

With the the daily onslaught of motherly and often contradictory advice from the west it is quite surprising that you expect that the Chinese should do anything differently.

Pu Li, Guangxi,

"Chinese authorities claim that 22 people died in the riots that broke out a month ago."

Chinese authorities claimed that 22 innocent citizens are killed by what you described as "peaceful demostrators", not just "in the riots". For any evidence, please refer to www.anti-cnn.com

You don't believe anything said by Chinese government but you trust an AFP journalist who claimed that he visited "several residents"?

......

B.W, Guangzhou, China

Another fantastical claim by Beijing with no concrete proof and designed to incite fear and hatred of ethnic groups internally. 9/11 gave them a great reason to inflict their own war on terror on the Uigyur people in Xinjiang. When will they ever wake up to the fact that denying people their rights to enjoy their way of life is not a sensible path to follow? Obviously the protests at the flame of shame relay are not effective as they are still planning to take the torch up to the top of Quomolonga. The threat of loss of face and serving the national interests outweighs the need to be rational and constructive.

Kat, Thailand,

The Olympics should be cancelled! The idea has become a farce. The fault should lie at the feet of the IOC which is a corrupt body which has no transparency in its dealings with bidders and should be disbanded!

JJ, Auckland, NZ