The Chinese capital, Beijing, is preparing to open the 2008 Olympic Games with a lavish ceremony. The event will involve about 10,000 performers, and will be watched on TV by an estimated four billion people. The lead-up to the Games has been overshadowed by issues such as China's human rights record, internet access, and air pollution in Beijing.
US President George W Bush expressed "deep concerns" over human rights before flying to Beijing. Mr Bush, who was in Thailand on the eve of the opening ceremony, voiced "firm opposition" to China's detention of dissidents - while stressing that he wanted the focus during the Games to be on sport. China rejected the US president's criticisms as "interference" in its internal affairs, and insisted it "put its people first". Meanwhile, 40 Olympian athletes wrote to President Hu Jintao expressing their concerns over Beijing's handling of anti-Chinese unrest in Tibet.
But after a succession of controversial issues in the build-up to the Games, the focus is now shifting to the opening ceremony. Having taken seven years of planning, and a record-breaking $40bn in costs, nothing has been left to chance in China's bid to show the world what it can do, our correspondent adds. An estimated global audience of four billion people will watch the opening ceremony. It will be staged at Beijing's national stadium - known as the Bird's Nest because of its steel latticed construction - and some 10,000 performers will take part.
Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, who has repeatedly defended the decision to let China host the Olympics, said he hoped the Games would help the world to understand China, and China to understand the world. Mr Rogge also praised China's "extraordinary" efforts to cut pollution ahead of the Games, saying there was no danger to athletes' health. A day before the Games, a BBC reading suggested Beijing's air quality was far below World Health Organization (WHO) standards.
It put levels of particulate matter (PM10) at 191 micrograms per cubic metre. This exceeds the WHO target for developing countries of 150 micrograms/cubic metre. Mr Rogge said if the pollution was bad, events which lasted more than an hour could be shifted or postponed.There were celebrations on Thursday as the Olympic torch made its final stops on a journey that has seen it pass through six continents in six months.
Patriotic crowds lining a mist-shrouded Great Wall cheered as the torch - which has been a magnet for protesters critical of China's rights record on its six-continent tour - passed by. Human-rights group have condemned curbs on journalists covering the Games. In a statement issued on Friday, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said: "As the 2008 Olympic Games open in Beijing, foreign journalists in China face a host of severe restrictions, ranging from harassment to a censored internet."
Showing posts with label tibet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tibet. Show all posts
Friday, 8 August 2008
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Taiwan, Tibet leaders not on Beijing's Olympics guest list
REUTERS - July 20th
The Dalai Lama may be the guest of honour of US President George W Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders, but you won't find Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on the Beijing Olympics guest list. Also missing from the list is Ma Ying-jeou, the Harvard-educated, democratically elected president of self-ruled Taiwan which Beijing has claimed as its own since their split in 1949 amid civil war, despite a recent thaw in relations.The Dalai Lama's appearance could have helped repair China's international image, which was dented by a government crackdown following rioting among Tibetans in March -- the worst in the Himalayan region since 1989. But China fears he would steal Chinese President Hu Jintao's thunder.
"It's supposed to be Hu Jintao's Olympics, but it'll become the Dalai Lama's Olympics if he attends," a source familiar with government policy said requesting anonymity. The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, had said during a visit to London in May that he hoped to attend the August 8-24 Games if talks between his envoys and China produced results. China has not rejected the Dalai Lama's overtures outright, but hopes were dampened when the closed-door talks ended with the government-in-exile accusing China of lacking sincerity. The Chinese government has blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for instigating the March unrest and attempting to sabotage the Olympics, charges he has repeatedly denied.
For China, the Games are supposed to showcase the prosperity and modernisation of what is now the world's fourth-biggest economy after three decades of economic reforms and rapid growth. Ma is a different story. China has mixed feelings for the Taiwan president, who is opposed to Taiwan formally declaring independence, a stance Beijing welcomes. But Ma has repeatedly urged China to politically reassess the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests -- anathema to the country's leaders. Beijing has sought to push Taiwan into diplomatic isolation and considers the island a province that must eventually return to the fold, by force if necessary.
"[Dignitaries] attending the Olympic opening are all heads of state, but China does not recognise Taiwan as a state," Taiwan political analyst Andrew Yang said by telephone. "How will [Hu Jintao] address Ma Ying-jeou? 'Taiwanese leader' won't be acceptable to the Taiwan people or Ma." Hawks in the Chinese government are opposed to the Dalai Lama's visit, worried that thousands of Tibetans would flock to Beijing by plane, train, bus or horseback to catch a glimpse of their revered god-king, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
There are more than 10 ministerial-level government and Communist Party bodies with a stake in blocking the Dalai Lama's return, including the local governments of Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Public Security, the People's Liberation Army and the paramilitary People's Armed Police.
For China, domestic stability during the Olympics is far more important than international applause. "Even if there are people who want to change things, they would have all sorts of worries," Wang Lixiong, a Chinese author and expert on Tibet, said in an interview. "In China, government officials do not hope for achievements but they hope to avoid committing mistakes," Wang said, referring to political risks for the leadership.
The Dalai Lama may be the guest of honour of US President George W Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders, but you won't find Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on the Beijing Olympics guest list. Also missing from the list is Ma Ying-jeou, the Harvard-educated, democratically elected president of self-ruled Taiwan which Beijing has claimed as its own since their split in 1949 amid civil war, despite a recent thaw in relations.The Dalai Lama's appearance could have helped repair China's international image, which was dented by a government crackdown following rioting among Tibetans in March -- the worst in the Himalayan region since 1989. But China fears he would steal Chinese President Hu Jintao's thunder.
"It's supposed to be Hu Jintao's Olympics, but it'll become the Dalai Lama's Olympics if he attends," a source familiar with government policy said requesting anonymity. The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, had said during a visit to London in May that he hoped to attend the August 8-24 Games if talks between his envoys and China produced results. China has not rejected the Dalai Lama's overtures outright, but hopes were dampened when the closed-door talks ended with the government-in-exile accusing China of lacking sincerity. The Chinese government has blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for instigating the March unrest and attempting to sabotage the Olympics, charges he has repeatedly denied.
For China, the Games are supposed to showcase the prosperity and modernisation of what is now the world's fourth-biggest economy after three decades of economic reforms and rapid growth. Ma is a different story. China has mixed feelings for the Taiwan president, who is opposed to Taiwan formally declaring independence, a stance Beijing welcomes. But Ma has repeatedly urged China to politically reassess the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests -- anathema to the country's leaders. Beijing has sought to push Taiwan into diplomatic isolation and considers the island a province that must eventually return to the fold, by force if necessary.
"[Dignitaries] attending the Olympic opening are all heads of state, but China does not recognise Taiwan as a state," Taiwan political analyst Andrew Yang said by telephone. "How will [Hu Jintao] address Ma Ying-jeou? 'Taiwanese leader' won't be acceptable to the Taiwan people or Ma." Hawks in the Chinese government are opposed to the Dalai Lama's visit, worried that thousands of Tibetans would flock to Beijing by plane, train, bus or horseback to catch a glimpse of their revered god-king, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
There are more than 10 ministerial-level government and Communist Party bodies with a stake in blocking the Dalai Lama's return, including the local governments of Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Public Security, the People's Liberation Army and the paramilitary People's Armed Police.
For China, domestic stability during the Olympics is far more important than international applause. "Even if there are people who want to change things, they would have all sorts of worries," Wang Lixiong, a Chinese author and expert on Tibet, said in an interview. "In China, government officials do not hope for achievements but they hope to avoid committing mistakes," Wang said, referring to political risks for the leadership.
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