On 13 July 2001, the International Olympic Committee chose Beijing over four other candidate cities: Toronto, Paris, Istanbul, and Osaka as the venue for the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing had previously lost out to Sydney in the bid to stage the 2000 Olympic Games. Ever since the announcement of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, there has been a lot of debate as to whether China is the right venue at this point in time to host the prestigious sports event. Supporters of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games feel that the Olympics would help in bridging the gap between China and the rest of the world (Jarvie 366). Moreover, it is felt that the media coverage involved in this event would showcase China as a modern country. Youngsters in China as in any other country hope that hosting the Olympics would allow China to bring in new sports facilities and other public utilities through an investment of over $30 billion (Jarvie 366). However, China does have its drawbacks as a venue for Olympic Games. China should not have been given the opportunity to host the 2008 Beijing Olympics because of its history of human rights violations and other reasons.
Though Beijing was backed by the IOC President, it was not opposed by the U.S. Congress. But the European Parliament did vote against giving the games to Beijing. Transnational groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also questioned the rationality behind awarding the games to Beijing (Maguire 153). Their main arguments were that China did not have the financial resources needed for hosting the Olympics and it has a history of human rights violations. China does have a history of human rights violations compared to other contenders for hosting the Olympic Games. Examples of such violations include the massacre that took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989 (Pollack et al, 1997) and the aggressive attitude of the authorities to Falun Gong and Tibet religious institutions, and blocking of the BBC television coverage of events in China during the early part of the twenty-first century. According to the Human Rights Watch World Report 2007, there have been forced evictions in Beijing in order to clear entire neighborhoods to make room for Olympic sites and to beautify the city (HRW 267). Official sources say that about 300,000 people have been evicted to make place for Olympic beautification projects alone. China, with the view of expelling one million migrant laborers from Beijing, has shut down over 50 unregistered schools for children of migrant workers in mid-September. This has forced thousands of families to move away from Beijing (HRW 267). U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos has blasted China for “the imprisonment of thousands of political dissidents and the use of prison labor to manufacture products for export to this country” (Pollack et al 38).
There are also other miscellaneous reasons why there is opposition to Beijing being chosen as the Olympic venue 2008. There are widespread concerns about global trade and resource production issues such as sweatshop labor (Parks et al 177). Beijing’s air pollution level has been found to be unsafe and it is felt that environmental problems in China could affect the health of athletes and spectators (Parks et al 177). Olympic sponsors are worried about brand protection and intellectual property rights as they plan on doing business during the Olympics (Parks et al 177). There is also political tension over the status of Taiwan and its inclusion as a separate team recognized by the IOC (Parks et al 177).
China has known to be press averse and has been ranked as one of the world’s worst anti-free-speech regimes and a leading jailer of journalists (McLaughlin 68). It has a government-controlled domestic press and whenever it finds foreign reporters not adhering to its often ill-defined rules, it deals with them heavy-handedly (McLaughlin 68). Adding to the existing apprehensions regarding press freedom, in September, the Chinese government has issued new press regulations that require international media outlets to go through the state-run Xinhua news agency to distribute information to Chinese consumers. This measure has been opposed by press and human rights groups who find these regulations as a “tool to control the international press leading up to the 2008 games” (McLaughlin 68).
“It is outrageous that Xinhua, the Communist Party mouthpiece, should claim full powers over news agencies. Xinhua is establishing itself as a predator of both free enterprise and free information.” – San Frontieres (McLaughlin 68).
Bob Dietz, Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, says that by putting restrictions on the freedom of the press, China is headed in the “exact opposite direction of what they are promising for the Olympic Games in 2008” (McLaughlin 68).
Nicholas D. Kristof in his New York Times article titled “China’s Genocide Olympics” points out that China’s act of abetting genocide in Darfur and its act of undermining the U.N. military deployment there has to lead to an international campaign branding these as “The Genocide Olympics” (Kristof 1). Beijing, in exchange for Sudanese oil, has been financing and supporting the Darfur genocide. China is supplying arms on a large scale to Sudan, officially selling $83 million in weapons, aircraft, and spare parts to Sudan in 2005, according to Amnesty International USA (Kristof 1). Moreover, China is also preventing U.N. action against Sudan using its veto on the Security Council. With the support of the Chinese on Jan. 7, the Sudanese military ambushed a clearly marked U.N. convoy of peacekeepers in Darfur. Diplomats and UN officials feel that this was “a deliberate act by Sudan to put the U.N. in its place” (Kristof 1).
Justin Yu, a Chinese journalist working in New York says the Chinese are using the Olympics to bolster their nationalistic spirit. According to Yu, the Olympics are strict “a tool for Beijing to use” (Nordlinger 1). Further, Yu says that the Chinese Government is using this occasion to crack down on anyone who it considers might embarrass it. This explains the attack on the Dalai Lama in Tibet. Su Xiaokang, the Princeton, N.J.-based editor of Democratic China, an online magazine, says that the Olympics is a way of getting back lost national pride and true (Nordlinger 1). This is nothing but pure exploitation of a great sports event and it is another reason why Beijing should not have been given the 2008 Olympics.
Researcher Jennifer Lind (2006) predicts that as an outcome of the 2008 Olympics being held in Beijing, there might be a war between Taiwan and China (Lind 38). Lind says as Taiwan nationalists including President Chen Shui-bian and former President Lee Teng-hui recognize that the Chinese have a lot at stake in the games and might see the Beijing games as an opportunity. Lind says that the Olympics might be the best time for Taiwan to declare its independence and there might be war between China and Taiwan. This is a political reason why Beijing should not be hosting the Olympics in 2008. Again, Tibet, like Taiwan has become part of an Olympics-related and politically charged issue. Beijing organizers included Tibet as a domestic leg of the torch relay and as the source of one of the Games’ mascots. This has lead to the display of Tibetan opposition to China’s rule, quashing of protests by the Chinese, and restriction of foreign media access to the region (Monroe 41). By including Tibet on the torch route and a Tibetan animal among the Games’ mascots, the Chinese have used their Olympic connection “to advance their own Tibet agenda” (Price and Dayan 41). Both Tibet and Taiwan are thus political issues that are likely to blow up in the event of the Olympics 2008 being conducted in Beijing.
US media while questioning the selection of Beijing as the Olympic venue by the IOC, point to the following cons of the selection: there would be “no benefit in terms of human relations”, “the communist party would be internally validated”, “China would be legitimized as a global player on the geopolitical stage”, “corporate capitalism had further co-opted Olympic values” and that “the whole purpose of the Olympic movement was thus called into question” (Maguire 156). Moreover, American diplomats have observed that China should not be given the opportunity to host the Olympics in 2008. Tom Lantos observed: “If Beijing receives the Olympics this Friday, they will put on a dazzling show designed to fool other countries into believing China is a model world citizen, just as the Nazis did in 1936.” (Houston Chronicle, 2001). Reiterating the same sentiment, Bob Maginnis, Family Research Council’s VP of policy said that:
“the spirit of the Olympic games is that of freedom, goodwill, co-operation and high ideals among the nations of the world…Allowing Beijing to host the games sends the message that there is no price for a very serious record of human rights issues.” (PR Newswire, 2001).
The Olympics is supposed to be a global event with no particular culture impressed upon them. However, Chinese nationalism or culturalism pervades the official symbols and slogans of the 2008 Games, breaking the true Olympian spirit of universality. The logo for Beijing 2008 is a human figure evoking an Olympic athlete and incorporating a stylized version of the character jing as in Beijing. Olympic medals will feature the logo and incorporate rings of jade in descending levels of quality on the medallions. The fuwa – the cuddly mascots of the Games are an oppressive mĂ©lange of Chinese symbols representing the carp, panda, Olympic flame, Tibetan antelope, and swallow and each is color coded to one of five basic elements in Chinese cosmology and a traditional Chinese blessing (Price and Dayan 35). The Olympic Green follows the principles of Chinese Fengshui. The moment is chosen for the Games’ opening – 8.08 pm on August 8, 2008, is a string of Chinese superstition’s lucky numbers (Price and Dayan 35). This kind of culturalism is not desirable in the Olympic Games.
Falun Gong is a banned sect that poses separatists threats and one that can be expected to seize the Olympic spotlight to advance their causes. The Falun Gong followers challenge the regime through desperate measures including self-immolation. This time around, their tactics have included a “Global Human Rights Torch Relay” alternative to the official Olympic torch relay. These disruptive elements just do not make it worth handing over the Olympic Games to Beijing (Price and Dayan 41).
The Olympics is a global sports event and any developed country seeks to host the event because of its prestigious nature. Hosting the Olympics is a costly affair and involves a great deal of money. The country gains by getting good infrastructure, publicity, global trade opportunities, good public image, etc. Beijing, the venue for the 2008 Olympic Games is a controversial selection. There are many reasons why Beijing should not have been given the opportunity to host the Olympics in 2008: its history of human rights violations, human labor issues, pollution levels, brand protection, and IPR issues, press freedom issue, political reasons, exploitation of the event for nationalism, etc One may safely conclude that the cons far outweigh the pros of conducting the 2008 Olympic Games at Beijing and it is not proper for China to have been the privilege of hosting this event in 2008.
Works Cited
HRW (Human Rights watch) (2007). Human Rights Watch World Report 2007. Seven Stories Press.
Jarvie, Grant (2006). Sport Culture and Society. Routledge Publishers.
Kristof, D. Nicholas (2008). China’s Genocide Olympics. New York Times. Web.
Lind, Jennifer (2006). Dangerous Games: The Most Heated Competition in the 2008 Olympics Could Take Place Not in a Stadium but in the Taiwan Strait. The Atlantic Monthly. Vol. 297. Issue 2.
McLaughlin, E. Kathleen (2006). Olympic Trial: How Will China, Hardly a Bastion of Press Freedom, Cope with an Invasion of 20,000 Foreign Journalists for the 2008 Olympics? American Journalism Review. Volume: 28. Issue: 6. Page Number: 68+.
Nordlinger, Jay (2000). Beijing 2008: The Olympics in the Belly of the Beast. National Review. Volume: 52. Issue: 19.
Parks, B. Janet; Quarterman, Jerome; Thibault, Lucie (2007). Contemporary Sport Management. Human Kinetics Publication.
Pollack, C. John; Kreuer, Beverly; and Ouano, Eric (1997). City Characteristics and Coverage of China’s Bid to Host the Olympics. Newspaper Research Journal. Volume: 18. Issue: 3-4. Page Number: 31+.
Price, Monroe and Dayan, Daniel (2008). Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China. University of Michigan Press.