EON

Beijing (EON) – The torch relay for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing includes an ascent of Mount Everest, but China on Thursday controversially listed Taiwan in the route under conditions that the island nation said would be unacceptable.

Top Chinese and International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials revealed the route and a torch featuring ancient Chinese-style cloud designs at Beijing’s Millennium Monument.

The torch route covers five continents and some of Asia’s major cities, including Islamabad, Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Canberra, Nagano and Seoul.

The relay will visit the North Korean capital of Pyongyang after Seoul, followed by Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

From Vietnam, organisers plan to take the torch to Taiwan and then on to the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

That proposed route would appear to be unacceptable to Taiwan.

Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party raised objections to the torch travelling to or from Hong Kong or Macau immediately before or after Taiwan.

On Thursday, Chen Chin-tsai, chief secretary for the National Council for Fitness and Sports, repeated Taiwan’s stance.

“To prevent the belittling of Taiwan’s sovereignty, Taipei insists that the torch come to Taiwan from a third country and head for a third country from Taiwan,” Chen said.

Beijing apparently wanted to include Taiwan, which it deems a breakaway province, in the China section the relay.

The Beijing organising committee (BOCOG) said its torch relay route will be a “harmonious journey” under the them “Light the passion, share the dream”.

The relay will “spread the Olympic Spirit, display the concepts of the Beijing Olympics and how the Chinese people understand and seek after the Olympic Spirit,” it said.

During the section in China, a special high-altitude torch will carry the Olympic flame to the 8,844-metre summit of Mount Everest in China’s Tibet region.

Many overseas Tibetan groups and independence activists oppose the torch relay passing through the disputed region, arguing that China will use it for political purposes.

“The Chinese government hopes to use the 2008 Olympic Games to conceal the brutality of its occupation of Tibet and win the international community’s acceptance as a modern power on the world stage,” Lhadon Tethong of the Kathmandu-based Students for a Free Tibet said on Wednesday.

“The International Olympic Committee has no business promoting the Chinese government’s political agenda by allowing the torch to be run through Tibet,” Lhadon Tethong said.

She was speaking after Chinese authorities detained four US citizens, including a Tibetan-American, for staging a brief protest at Everest Base Camp in Tibet on Wednesday.

The protestors unfurled a banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008″ in English, and “Free Tibet” written in Tibetan and Chinese.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on Thursday said officials were investigating the incident but declined to say if the four US citizens would be expelled from China.

“Any foreign citizens who come to China should obey Chinese law,” Liu said.

“They should not get involved in activities which are aimed at splitting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China,” he said.