‘Free Tibet’ Flags Made in China

Police believe some flags may have already been shipped

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4328 in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government in exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4282.

But then some of them saw TV images of http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4181 holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper.

The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3892.

Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.

Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping. Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there this week.

The authorities have now stepped up the inspection of cars heading to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and onwards to Hong Kong.

The Olympic torch is due to tour Hong Kong on Friday. It will then travel to a series of cities in mainland China before reaching Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games in August.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7370903.stm

2008-05-01