The Olympic torch relay was reduced to farce by seas of flag waving protesters and blue-track-suited ‘torch guards’ on the streets of London. But before this fiasco, the Chinese government had already hired a new public relations agency.

Chinese government officials had been meeting representatives of British and US firms to discuss media training, market research of Western perceptions of China and PR strategies to divert attention from the military crackdown of the recent protests in Tibet.

This is all a little late. China’s media heart attack has already happened, and no blustering attempt at resuscitation can reverse the process. The Olympic ideals have been reclaimed by human rights campaigners and the Save Darfur coalition. China’s Olympic slogans, ‘Journey of Harmony’ and ‘One World, One Dream’, have been culture jammed by Tibet activists. Asthmatic athletes are avoiding Beijing’s polluted air.

Significantly, the London relay protests represented a cross-section of society, not just members of the Tibet lobby, and clearly rattled the Chinese authorities. Fu Ying, China’s ambassador to London, took the unusual step of placing an op-ed in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, complaining of “the misreporting of China in recent weeks” and making claims that “photos from other countries [were used] to prove a crackdown”.

Even as the relay’s journey through London, Paris and San Fransisco was mired in protest, abuses continued. On 3 April eight Tibetans were reported shot dead in China after authorities fired into a crowd of protesters. Two days later a further ten were wounded in a different protest, again by police firing into a crowd of protesters.

But word is spreading despite internet and media censorship within China. News of the demonstrations, both inside Tibet and around the world, has been filtering out across the Himalayan plateau through illicit radio stations and mobile phone networks. China will survive this PR disaster, but it cannot continue to ignore the pressing need for change in Tibet.