The Chicago Tribune has published a full and well research summary of the importance of the Olympic Games.

It asks when was the last time that China was as confident, prosperous and engaged with the world as it is likely to be at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

And the answer comes from Wang Xiaofu, a history professor at Beijing University — ‘About 1,300 years ago.’

The article sees the potential. But also sees the potential risks.

The games are hotly anticipated among ordinary Chinese who, by and large, see it as a collective triumph — a rare cause for unity in a nation divided by class, ethnicity and opportunity.

But with 20,000 foreign journalists expected to be on hand, critics at home and abroad are also getting ready to use the occasion as a chance to amplify pressure on China and, at the same time express their dismay and, perhaps, jealousy at China’s success.

Organizers face a dilemma: Clamp down too hard on protesters, and images will be beamed around the world showing foreign guests crushed by a one-party state. But let rallies grow too far on sacred political ground such as Tiananmen Square, and authorities risk emboldening wider unrest.

In particular, the government will have to rely on street cops to differentiate between peaceful protesters and security threats.

Jia Qingguo, vice dean of the Beijing University School of International Studies said, ‘A lot of tough security measures are being developed to combat terrorism, and these people run the risk of being considered terrorists.’

Read the full and well researched article by clicking on source.
Source: Chicago Tribune

China will not tolerate unauthorized parades, demonstrations or other gatherings during next year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

This announcement from Public Security Ministry press officer Wu Heping notes a range of groups from religious rights activists to environmentalists. Their chances of holding meaningful demonstrations at the Olympic Games in China are somewhere between slim and none.

Wu Heping said, ‘Any group or individual who stages a gathering, parade or demonstration during the Beijing Olympic Games period must respect Chinese law.
As to legal activities, police will protect them according to the law. As for those activities that are illegal, we police will handle them according to the law.’

Chinese law technically permits protests and other similar actions, but they require applications that are almost never approved. And applications for protests during the Olympic Games probably have no chance whatsoever.

When Beijing was awarded the Games, the head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, said he hoped the event would help to improve the human rights situation inside China. But that was not a sanction for demonstrations. The same firm line against demonstrations at the Olympics was taken in Australia. None happened, except that with permission and to rapturous applause, Cathy Freeman ran her triumphal lap after winning the 400m gold medal draped in both the Australian and the Aboriginal flags.

Note that the IOC charter has forbidden any activism inside the venues during the Games since 1968, when sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos made a black power salute when receiving their medals. The British Olympic Association has taken a hard line, warning UK athletes that they may be thrown off the team if they engage in political activities.

The U.N. General Assembly has adopted the Olympic truce resolution for the 2008 Beijing Games. The resolution, a form of which has been passed before every Olympics since the early 1990s, calls upon the 182 U.N. member states to ‘observe and promote peace during and beyond’ next August’s Games.

In doing so it ignored the assorted protest groups. For example, the Free Tibet Campaign sent a letter to the British government highlighting ‘the glaring discrepancy between China’s appalling human rights record in China and Tibet and the Spirit of the Olympic Truce’.

Mark you, before the Australian Olympics, a similar letter was sent quite rightly bagging the Australian government for its treatment of the country’s aborigines.

Olympic chief Jacques Rogge, seen here, in a speech to the United Nations before the resolution was passed, reiterated his view that engaging with China by holding the sporting spectacle in Beijing would have long-term benefits for the whole world.

This seems to be the general view of the Olympic committee wherever the games are to be held. And it is worth noting that Australia seriously started to get its act together on ways of dealing with aborigines after the Olympic Games.

Jacques Rogge said, ‘In China, the Beijing 2008 Summer Games have already delivered important social, legislative and economic benefits. It is better to open a new door to China than to leave it closed at this point in its modern evolution.’

The Olympic truce concept goes back to Ancient Greece when warring parties were called on to lay down their arms while their athletes competed.

Top Beijing Games organizer Liu Qi, who is also head of the city’s Communist Party, brushed off any worries about protests or other disruptions in welcoming the U.N. resolution.

Liu Qi said, ‘Beijing 2008 is heartened by the overwhelming support and endorsement given to the Olympic truce by the international community at the United Nations.

‘Their solidarity reinforces the global desire for peace and a cessation of all acts of hostilities during the Olympic period.’
Source: Reuters

Now the nations are stepping into line and giving a reality check on attendance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Australian Sports Minister George Brandis said Australia would attend the Games.

He told parliament that in reference to the Falun Gong’s more outrageous claims about harvesting human remains: ‘The Australian government isn’t making a link between the two issues. There’s no issue about Australia’s participation in the Beijing Olympics being reconsidered.’

The minister said there were other ways for Australia to address human rights issues with China with out specifiying the methods.

Last month China last month overtook Japan as Australia’s number one trading partner, with two-way trade between the countries exceeding $40 billion dollars.

China outlawed Falun Gong in mid-1999. Since then the group, which claims to have more than 100 million followers worldwide, has campaigned from abroad against what they claim is brutal persecution of their followers in China. Anyone who tries to get a visa for China in any Australian city has to run the gauntless of Falun Gong activists. On the other hand, there is some evidence to suggest that the government of China has, perhaps, over-reacted to people who would normally be considered part of the Nutty Norah fringe who believe that qigong, a subset of tai chi, is the answer to all of the world’s ailments.
Source: AFP