29 April 2008
'Free Tibet' flags made in China
(BBC) Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Tibetan flags. 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 meaning. But then some of them saw TV images of protesters 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 independent Tibet". Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping. Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in the forthcoming Olympic torch relay in Hong Kong. The authorities therefore stepped up the inspection of cars heading to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and onwards to Hong Kong.