Hundreds of protesters rallied on Capitol Square Saturday afternoon both in support of and in opposition to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games being held in Beijing, China.

The Human Rights Torch Relay, an international effort to speak out against the Chinese government’s actions toward the Tibetan people and other persecuted groups, stopped in Madison on a tour of 43 U.S. cities. Olympic gold medal winner and Wisconsin native Casey FitzRandolph carried the torch from the Capitol steps down State Street to Library Mall.

Tenzin Tsetan of the UW-Madison chapter of Students for a Free Tibet said the event aimed to show disapproval for the Olympics being held in China and expose the Chinese government’s wrongdoings against the Tibetan people.

“We believe the Chinese people deserve [the Olympics], but the Chinese government, that’s the one that doesn’t deserve the Olympics,” Tsetan said.

Another group of protesters emerged on the Capitol Square to protest the HRTR and show support for the Chinese government. International UW-Madison students Sunny Lin and Jing Li, both from China, marched in the protest and said they object to turning the Olympics into a political issue. Instead, Lin and Li want to focus on projecting a true image of the Chinese government.

“In China, all the students, all the families and all the people live very peacefully and colorfully, we are very satisfied with my government,” Lin said.

Following the same path as the HRTR down State Street to Library Mall, supporters of the Chinese government carried Chinese and Olympic flags in favor of holding the Games in Beijing. Li said the news media portrays the country in a negative way and urged Americans to become more educated of the situations in China and Tibet.

“It’s hard for us to show how Tibetan people are really treated here,” Li said. “Our purpose is just to encourage you to go, to see what it’s like there instead of taking the news blindly.”