Ineffective crisis management could potentially harm China's hard-won reputation built over recent decades.
It is no rocket science that recent pro-Tibet campaigners are quickly disrupting the normal proceedings of the much anticipated Beijing Olympics. A vehicle which China is desperate to capitalise on to declare its political and economic superiority.
However, as more and more oppositions and global protests overshadow the Olympic games - creating embarrassing headlines as we've seen on the streets of London & Paris during the Olympic torch journey through these Capitals (36 people were arrested, two protesters were held for trying to put out the flame which one man tried to grab the torch out of a celebrity carrier's hands. The images splashed across newspapers were one of shock and chaos. I couldn't actually see the flame amidst the 2,000 police uniforms, China's blue track-suited "guardians of the flame" and hundreds of protest placards)
The question is couldn't the Chinese government have prepared something to combat these embarrassing images which has already casted a shadow over the sporting tradition? Surely, this crisis could have been identified before it happened hence a better response to the situation could have been applied.
Perhaps, I'm been naive and the Chinese government couldn't have predicted this outcome. I will not share my personal views on the current situation - I am neither a politician or a sporting athlete, what I will say is how China communicates with all stakeholders is vital.
China needs to communicate exactly what it is going to do, in a timely manner to all stakeholders - the Olympics board, sponsors, governments, Tibetans, the press, sporting associations, athletes and many others.
In the meantime, the mayhem is almost certain to continue in San Francisco later today. This will be the Olympic torch's only North-American stop in the 85,000 miles journey en route Beijing. San Francisco was chosen because of its large Chinese-American population.
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