Days before the Olympic torch is due in China for the final leg of its controversial world tour, police there have raided a factory producing Tibetan independence flags, a report said.Police in the southern province of Guangdong, which borders Hong Kong and is China's manufacturing hub, said the factory had been making the distinctive flags to fulfil an overseas order, Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper said.In a raid on April 20, police discovered thousands of the flags packed and ready for shipment, with many more being made, the paper said in a report on Sunday.It said police believed the flags could have been destined for Hong Kong, ordered by pro-Tibetan groups planning to demonstrate when the Olympic torch is paraded through the territory on Friday.The factory owners were detained and told police they did not know the flags signified Tibetan independence, the report said, adding that factory employees had alerted police after seeing the flags on television and looking them up on the Internet.Vehicles travelling to Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, were being checked to ensure they were not transporting the flags into the former British colony, though police believed some could have already arrived.While the flag - which shows a bright yellow sun on a red and blue background flanked by two snow lions - is banned in China, it is not illegal in Hong Kong.The torch relay has become a focus for a wide range of complaints against China's communist government, including its human rights record.Demonstrators calling for independence for Tibet, which has been under Chinese rule since 1950, have dogged its progress, notably in London, Paris and San Francisco.
