A day after STRATFOR sources in China confirmed that Chinese students abroad are using the Internet to organize an April 19 demonstration outside the German parliament building in Berlin, additional details of a Pan-European protest to be launched simultaneously in Paris, London and Berlin have emerged, Chinese-language newspaper Global Times reported April 16. While these coordinated overseas events have demonstrated to Beijing a potential source of support, the protesters' French and German plans may do more harm than good to Beijing's cause. More than 10,000 overseas Chinese are expected to take part in the April 19 rally, with the events set to be launched midday in Paris. The objective of these staged Pan-European events is to demonstrate support for the Olympic Games, and reportedly to rectify the one-sided view offered by the French media of the recent unrest in Tibet and during the Olympic torch relay. In Paris, the French Overseas Chinese Association is planning for thousands of overseas Chinese to march April 19 from Place de la Republique to Place de la Bastille, in what will reportedly be the largest Chinese demonstration in France for more than 20 years. In London, thousands plan to gather in front of the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corp. In Berlin, more than 2,000 people plan to stage a (possibly sit-in) protest from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. against "erroneous reporting of the French media" outside the Reichstag building. So far, three dates have been announced in this series of pro-Olympic events coordinated between overseas Chinese and domestic Chinese nationalist Web activists. These comprise the May 1 mainland China boycott of French retailer Carrefour; the April 19 demonstrations in France, the United Kingdom and Germany; and a June 1 boycott of KFC and McDonald’s. In addition, countless e-mails are being circulated among the Chinese diaspora across the United States, Canada and Europe. The level of sophistication with which the April 19 Pan-European event is being managed is striking. Not only have its organizers had the know-how to negotiate with the Parisian police in advance to ensure that the protests are allowed to proceed, they even had the public relations savvy to release details of how they have received threatening letters from unidentified rival activist groups (implying pro-Tibetan movements as the culprits). The initiative shown by overseas Chinese to "come to the rescue of China" is starting to impact citizen activism in China, as the cultural and historical linkage between them and mainland Chinese activists strengthens. These coordinated overseas events are opening the eyes of mainland activists to a previously overlooked source of overseas support and resources outside Beijing’s sphere of influence. But while the organizers of the April 19 Pan-European events may know how to coordinate to attract international media attention (and that is indeed impressive), their grasp of the cultural context in these countries appears less solid. In the United Kingdom — long a melting pot of multiple ethnicities and cultures — the protesters should be fine. London is an old hand at hosting public demonstrations (ethnically-related or not). But in Germany and especially France, large groups of non-native ethnic protests more than likely will trigger a local backlash — much like the 2006 May Day immigration protests did in the United States. Those protests significantly set back immigration rights in the United States, and while not entirely analogous, this could signal a rise in tensions between the French and the Chinese living and studying in France. If the organization and coordination seen in the San Francisco pro-Chinese rallies is also applied in Europe, the Chinese will be able to make a statement with minimal local backlash. But even if there is a counter to the pro-Chinese demonstrations, Beijing will have accomplished much of what it set out to do: rally a global sense of Chinese pride and support among the Chinese diaspora — something the government will hope to capitalize on in the future.