About 5,000 Chinese Canadians gathered in downtown Vancouver Saturday to voice their support for the Beijing Olympics and denounce some western media's biased coverage of the riots in Tibet.

(photo: Chinanews.cn)

With the theme of "Condemning The Separatist Violence, Denouncing The Media Bias, and Supporting The 2008 Olympics," the event started with a peaceful rally at the Sun Yat Sen Square in the Chinatown in Vancouver, Canada's gateway to the Pacific.

Waving the Chinese five-star national flags and Canada's maple leaf flags, the demonstrators voiced their anger at Tibetan separatists' violence in Lhasa in March and western media's distorted coverage.

Zheng Zongli, director of Vancouver Chinese Benevolent Association (VCBA), told the rally that the March 14 Lhasa riots once again exposed the Dalai Lama's hypocrisy in claiming peace and non-violence.

It is the international community's consensus that Tibet is an inalienable part of China, he said.

He drew attention to the biased coverage of the Lhasa riots of some western media, and strongly condemned the anti-Chinese remarks recently made by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty.

"Beijing Olympics is a long-cherished dream for all the people of Chinese origin, we are here today to express our resolute support for it, and our resolute objection to the Tibetan separatists," Zheng said.

(photo: Chinanews.cn)

The rally followed similar events that took place in Canadian major cities including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Edmonton, which are homes to larger Chinese communities.

On April 13, more than 10,000 Chinese Canadians rallied on Parliament Hill in Ottawa with a message for Canada and the world:

They oppose Tibetan separatists, support the Beijing Olympics and are dismayed by the Western media's distorted coverage of China.