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China wins its first Olympics victory

— Photo: AFP

George Bush and Yasuo Fukuda … China’s steadfast line seems to have found many takers.

With a month still to go for the Olympics Games, host China has already won a significant victory: that of overcoming the threat of a games-boycott by the international community. The announcement over the weekend that United States President George Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda had confirmed their presence at the opening ceremony of the games came on the heels of French media reports last Friday that even President Nicolas Sarkozy has ultimately decided to attend the event.

The campaign for a boycott of the Olympics by an array of China’s critics, including human rights organisations, pro-Tibetan groups and those unhappy with Beijing’s proximity to countries like Sudan, is thus left with little support.

For China the months leading up to the games have been tense. The first Olympic-related embarrassment for Beijing came in February when Hollywood director Steven Spielberg pulled out as artistic director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, citing his dissatisfaction with China’s close economic relationship with the Sudanese government. More than 200,000 people have died in a conflict between rebels and militias backed by government forces in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

But Beijing began to feel the real international heat a month later following riots in Tibet in mid-March. At the time a number of international leaders, Mr. Sarkozy being the most prominent, publicly mulled over the possibility of boycotting the games in symbolic protest over what they saw as China’s heavy-handed response to the Tibetan situation.

However, in the intervening period much of the steam behind the boycott movement has evaporated; the result of some clever political manoeuvring by China combined with the international sympathy generated by the devastating earthquake that struck the country’s Sichuan province in May.

Beijing’s response to the Tibet situation was to insist that it not be linked to the games since this would be tantamount to “politicising” what is a sporting event. Critics countered that the games have always been political and an insistence on the separation of sports and politics when it comes to an international event like the Olympics is disingenuous.

Nonetheless, China’s steadfast line seems to have found many takers, chief amongst them George Bush. Speaking in Tokyo on Sunday, ahead of the G-8 meeting Mr. Bush thus argued in conformity with the Chinese position that the Olympics were an “athletic event” and hence were not the appropriate platform for expressing his concerns with China’s human rights record.

Skipping the games, Mr. Bush said, “would be an affront to the Chinese people.”

Prime Minister Fukuda, who announced his attendance of the Olympics as well, concurred. “You don’t have to link the Olympics to politics,” he said. The Prime Minister added that he “would not like the Chinese to become unhappy. We are neighbours, after all.”

China has also held two rounds of talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama since the March riots. The discussions have yielded neither breakthroughs nor any signs of a softening in Beijing’s stance on the issue. China has continued to squarely blame the Dalai Lama for instigating the riots, a charge the spiritual leader denies. However, the move has helped to soften international opinion regarding China’s response, allowing face-saving options for leaders like Mr Sarkozy to change tacks and quit talk of an Olympics boycott.

After the Tibetan protests erupted, the French President had said he might not attend the Beijing Olympics unless China agreed to hold talks with the Dalai Lama’s representatives. Later, he added that he wanted to see progress in those talks before deciding whether to attend the opening ceremony.

Last Friday, Le Monde quoted sources in the French presidency as saying that Mr. Sarkozy had decided to attend the Olympic opening ceremony after all and would be announcing as much during the G-8 summit in Japan this week.

If the French President confirms these reports in the coming days, the move would follow weeks of protests in China against what has widely been seen here as France’s anti-China stance.

Last week Chinese state media snubbed the French leader by suggesting that he would not be welcomed by the Chinese public even were he to decide to attend the games. This conclusion was based on an Internet survey conducted by Sina.com, a popular China-based website, that showed 88 per cent of 100,000 Chinese respondents thought Mr. Sarkozy was “extremely unfriendly” and would not welcome his attendance at the Olympics opening.

Anger over attacks on the Olympic torch during its journey through Paris earlier in the year have added to strong nationalistic reactions from Chinese, millions of whom have expressed anti-French sentiment on Internet forums and petitions.

Mr. Sarkozy’s possible about-turn on the Beijing Olympics would signal the leader’s acceptance of realpolitick as indeed the Bush and Fukuda decisions do. Given China’s already weighty economic clout and increasing geo-strategic stature, few countries are willing to risk Beijing’s wrath over human rights issues.

Despite some moralistic rhetoric, when push comes to shove the desire to maintain healthy ties with the emerging superpower that is China appears to trump other concerns. The result is an Olympic boycott movement that is now in tatters, with no major western leaders still on board — pending Mr. Sarkozy’s expected announcement.

With Olympic boycott-worries safely put to bed, Beijing is free to once again focus on the practical minutiae of hosting the games. The gleaming Olympic venues are all ready and the new physical infrastructure including subway lines and a giant airport terminal are in place. The capital’s public toilets have mostly been transformed from the fetid to the fragrant and Beijingers themselves are busy receiving last minute education campaigns on “good manners.”

However, despite much money and effort Beijing’s notorious pollution continues to pose a problem for the games organisers. A host of short-term measures to battle the city’s blanket of smog will kick off later this month including the closure of most heavy industry in and around the capital city. Half of the city’s cars will also be kept off the road with an even-odd number plate rule due to come in to effect soon.

China’s capital is also preparing to counter potential terrorism-related threats by ramping up security to unprecedented levels. The primary threat of terrorism according to the authorities comes from separatists in its far-western Xinjiang region.

Beijing is also still working out the manner in which it will deal with potential public protests by groups critical of its policies. From Darfur to Tibet, dissidents and critics are planning to make use of the Olympic platform to air their grievances. The authorities are keen to quash these protests given their ability to embarrass the government. As a result visa restrictions have already been tightened to limit the number of foreign visitors unrelated in a direct way to the Games.

But while plenty of Olympic-challenges still lie ahead for the Chinese government, the developments over the weekend indicate that round-one at least would appear to have gone to Beijing.

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