 Does China deserve to host the 2008 Olympic Games?
By Ron Chepesiuk
Zhou “Joe” Yin, a systems analyst at Microsoft, hasn’t been home to Beijing in three years. When he calls home, though, one question dominates the conversation: Will Beijing host the 2008 Olympic Games?
“There is a lot of excitement in China right now because the people are anticipating that Beijing will be staging the games,” Yin says.
On May 15, the People’s Republic of China moved one step closer to reaching that goal when the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Evaluation Commission released a key report that identified Beijing, along with Paris and Toronto, as the front-runners in the race to host the 2008 Olympics. The Evaluation Commission, which visited the three cities between Feb. 21 and March 29, stated in a report that “it’s the Commission’s belief that a Beijing Games would leave a unique legacy in China, and the Commission is confident that Beijing could organize an excellent Games.” Furthermore, an IOC poll shows 96 percent public support for the Olympic Games in Beijing and other Chinese cities, the highest figure among candidate cities.
Announcement of host city selection is slated for July 13 during the International Olympic Committee’s 112th session.
Why China?
China is eager to make its mark on the Olympic Games, which, in turn, will give a big boost to the country.
“The Chinese people see the Olympics as an opportunity to show that they have a fantastic country with culture, tradition and the ability to organize and coordinate global events,” says Gregory P. Ray, CEO of the Shanghai-based company MIQ (Market IQ Limited). “At the same time, the Games would spur the Chinese government to clean up the environment, improve traffic and public transportation and increase the so-called ‘green areas’ around Beijing.”
Getting the Olympics would also help restore the pride China lost in its failed bid for the 2000 Olympics. “We lost by a few votes, and it was very disappointing to the Chinese people,” recalls Yin, who was a college student in China when he learned that Sydney, not Beijing, would host the 2000 games. “We thought our country was ready, and many Chinese believed that the United States was behind a scheme to deprive us of what we deserved.”
But China faces strong opposition this time as well, mainly from groups that point to the country’s human rights record.
“Is the regime’s habitual thuggishness compatible with the Olympic ideals of tolerance and friendly competition?” queried The Economist in an editorial last February.
China’s critics point out Tiananmen Square, the crack down on the Falun Gung religious group, and the country’s treatment of migrant workers as evidence of human rights violations.
Religious Groups
This past May, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an advisory body to the U.S. government and Congress on religious freedom, urged the Bush administration to block Beijing’s Olympic bid. In testimony before the House of Representatives’ International Relations Committee, Elliott Abrams, the Commission’s chairman, said China’s repression of religious freedom had “grown worse over the past year.” According to Abrams, not only has the ill treatment of the Falun Gong group continued, but China has also cracked down on Protestants, Catholic Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Uighur Muslims.
In China, however, some religious groups have shown strong support for the games. In November last year, for instance, more than 900 Catholics in Beijing held mass in Beijing to pray for the city to succeed in staging the Olympics.
The Bush Administration’s Stance
In the wake of the recent spy plane incident, House Democrat Tom Lantos and Republican Christopher Cox, both of California, introduced a bill that calls for Congress to oppose China’s bid. But last May, U.S. officials leaked information that President Bush would not seek to block China’s Olympic proposition — and would work hard to bolster relations with China.
“We just think that not getting involved is the right decision. It’s not something the U.S. government has gotten involved with historically,” a National Security Council official who wished to remain anonymous, told AFX News Limited.
This is expected to be the Bush administration’s continued course of action, now that the president is collaborating with China to put an end to the wrangle over the spy-plane incident on Hainan Island.
“I think the Bush administration sees the Olympic Games as an excellent opportunity to further open up China and to help improve the country’s human rights situation,” says Judith Lee, an expert in international relations and an attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.
Other China watchers say that U.S. opinion on China’s bid doesn’t really matter much anyway.
“The IOC looks to itself rather than to the United States for direction in choosing the host Olympic City,” says Kent Kedl, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Technomic Asia. “Besides, Uncle Sam was kicked off the UN’s Human Rights Commission, which goes to show that the country doesn’t have the influence it once did.”
People to People
Winning its bid may actually improve U.S.-China relations.
Most Chinese people believe the United States fears that China will become a superpower and that blocking its [Olympic] bid will help hold China’s economic development down,” Ray explains. “The way the United States is portrayed in the state-run media contributes a lot to that feeling.”
Pierre Wuu, of Click2Asia.com, says that in discussions with friends and relatives in China, he gets a sense of how strong the suspicions of U.S. interests are.
“The Chinese people feel that the United States is afraid of China and that it’s always in the background trying to manipulate events against China’s best interests,” Wuu says.
Cleaning Up
China may be the front-runner, but it’s taking nothing for granted. During the IOC Evaluation Commission’s visit to Beijing last February, city officials went so far as to spraypaint the grass to make the city look brighter. China has also undertaken significant initiatives and made some substantial improvements. For example, in conjunction with the IOC Evaluation Commission’s visit, Beijing announced an ambitious $12.2 billion plan to improve its waste management and air and water pollution controls. The city had actually begun the cleanup in 1998 and has spent about $5.6 billion. The other $6.6 billion will be spent on additional pollution control measures, such as implementation of a ban on open burning, as well as plans to use recycled paper for all Olympic-related printing, closing of pollution-producing facilities, and planting of trees on bare land.
“Staging the Olympics can be a powerful force for strengthening the country’s environmental standards and extending environmental protection to all Chinese citizens,” Ray says.
Influential international environmental protection organizations agree. Last May, Earth Voice, the Humane Society of the United States, the U.S.-China Environmental Fund and the U.S. National Association for Interpretation announced that they were backing China’s Olympic bid because the country has shown progress and commitment to the environment. The four non-governmental groups made their assessment after they made a tour of China to monitor its environmental progress.
High-Tech Promises
China has publicly stated that if awarded the games, it would stage the most technologically advanced Olympics ever. That’s no idle boast. China has already made major progress in the telecommunications sector. China Telecom magazine reported last March that China has moved to introduce a mobile communications network capable of handling 500,000 calls in the Olympic site area. It has also established a digital cable TV network capable of HDTV transmission from all Olympic venues, and the country has expanded its fiber-optic networks to cover all Olympic sites.
As Wang Hui, Beijing’s Olympic bid official, put it when he learned that his city was the front-runner: “ Nobody can ignore the wishes of one-fifth of the world’s population.”
Business reporter Ron Chepesiuk, is a Rock Hill SC-based journalist. He can be reached at 110423.2656@compuserve.com |
