China said on Tuesday if any foreign officials boycotted the Beijing Olympic Games, they were boycotting a grand event that belonged to the world's people, and would only invite humiliation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu made the remarks at a regular press conference when responding to a journalist who asked her to comment on remarks by a U.S. senior official about a possible boycott of the Beijing Olympics.
"If any one wants to take the world people's grand event as a stage for political show, he or she has found a wrong place, and will only ask for an insult."
She said it was not flattering China for foreign officials to attend the Beijing Olympic Games; they actually came to attend the gathering of the big family of the Olympics and to cheer for their own sports teams. Jiang added those who leave the Olympics are leaving the Games' big family and they will only damage the image of themselves.
On whether China was concerned about the security of the Olympic torch relay, Jiang said the government had the confidence to make joint efforts with all foreign governments concerned to ensure the global relay of the Olympic flame that belonged to the world's people.
She said the Olympic torch relay was delivering the Olympic concept of peace, friendship and harmony and the Olympic spirit. Any disturbance or disruption of the torch relay was an open provocation of the Olympic charter and the Olympic spirit and a challenge to the world's people who love peace and the Olympic Games.
The Olympic flame arrived on Tuesday afternoon at Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, the first stop of the global torch relay.
Following in the footsteps of the Athens Games, the Beijing relay is the longest and most ambitious event.
(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2008)