Amsterdam preparing for its own pro-China demonstration

by Darcie via FlickrAmsterdam will see on 10 May its first pro-Chinese protest ever, as far as I can remember. The preparation at debated here at the Geledraak, the leading Dutch site on all things concerning China. About 3,000 participants are being expected.
No matter how you think about the reasons for demonstrating, the meeting is most certainly going to be a watershed in how the Chinese community in the Netherlands (and probably in some other countries too) is operating.
Up to not so long ago the Chinese community in the Netherlands was hardly noticed. While other ethnic minorities were part of the extensive consulting process in the Netherlands and were eligible for governmental funding, Chinese preferred to keep a low profile. Only a few years ago, the Chinese community was formally accepted in different representative organs for minorities.
The political roots of the Chinese community were very diverse, perhaps one of the reasons for a lot of people to shut up. Some had fled their motherland for economic or political reasons, or a combination of both. Being Chinese was more part of a cultural identity, where political connotations were ignored as far as possible.
That is now changing very fast as the immigrants from mainland China in this community have been growing fast, and with them also extensive pro-China feelings, that have now become the most vocal voice in the debate. In that way the demonstration on May 10 is going to be a telling event for the Chinese community in the Netherlands.

Update: And here is the official invite if you are interested.