The Olympic Torch and Tibetan protestors

It seems as though every Olympic games has its troubles. The '96 games in Atlanta had traffic problems, allegations of bribery, and a terrorist incident that killed 11 people¹. The '00 games in Sydney seemed "mired in troubles" less than five months out². The '04 games barely finished their venues, and was a financial disaster for Athens³. So it should come as little surprise that Beijing is having troubles of its own in the months leading up to its opening ceremonies.

As you may well know, the Olympic torch relay has had considerable controversy surrounding it. The torch (pictured right), as I noted earlier, is going all over the world, and is currently going between some of the major European capitals, including London and Paris. Each of its stops has sparked protest from groups opposed to China's takeover of Tibet in 1959. In Paris, the torch was extinguished during the turmoil of protesters⁴.

The protests have not been limited to cities where the torch is. In San Francisco on April 7, climbers got onto the Golden Gate Bridge and put up signs with slogans along the lines of, "Free Tibet 08". Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced that she wanted President Bush to impose a "partial boycott" of the Olympics by not participating in the Opening Ceremony because of China's failure to deal with both Tibet and the Sudanese situation in Darfur⁵.

Chinese embassies from places like Budapest, Vilnius, Rome, and Reykjavik have been bombarded with protesters, symbolizing international pressure on China to do something regarding Tibet. In The Hague, protesters stormed the consulate, replacing the Chinese flag with a Tibetan flag (pictured below: this flag is illegal in China)⁶.

The problems the Chinese have had with their torch relay from Greece to the U.K. to France may cause significant changes in the route. For example, the section of the route scheduled to go to Tibet may be canceled or altered⁷.

For China, this is an international PR disaster. The torch relay was, in a sense, China's big "homecoming," with its magnificence. The Chinese have been planning everything down to a tee to make sure that everything ran flawlessly. 123 days before the opening ceremonies, the torch relay has been in every sense a nightmare. Mobs, protesters, Tibetan flags: the magnificence of China's torch relay is, in a poetic sense, going up in flames.

The only people in the world unaware of the disaster that is slowing unfolding toward Beijing are, unsurprisingly, the Chinese themselves. Extensive censorship of news coming into the country (and news coming out of Tibet) has limited the government's image in its own people⁸.

Nonetheless, China must be worried right now about what's going to happen. After all, if protesters are doing this to torchbearers in their own countries, what could happen in Beijing. With on the order of two million people headed to Beijing in August, how many of them could be protesters, and of those, who might become violent, resorting to terrorism? Big name events (especially where the Chinese may be favored and the opening and closing ceremonies) could be especially lucrative terrorist attacks. The question now is what China will plan on doing to protect its tourists (and thus, its image--the all important factor of the 2008 games)? It remains to be seen how China will work out its Olympic troubles.

References
1. Wikipedia: 1996 Summer Olympics
2. IOC plays down troubles as Sydney Olympics approach
3. Wikipedia: 2004 Summer Olympics
4. Olympic Torch Run in Paris Halted as Protests Spread
5. Clinton calls for partial boycott; torch protesters scale Golden Gate Bridge
6. Wikipedia: 2008 Tibetan Unrest
7. Olympic Officials May Reconsider Torch Relay
8. Chinese Media in Spin of Indignation

What is going on right now in Beijing?

The Beijing Olympics has proven to be a very polarizing event, with some of the most elaborate and extravagant preparations in Olympic history being completed on one hand, while protesters line streets against the Chinese government on the other hand. Aspects of both have made front page news for months now. Thus, I will devote this blog to the "positive" aspect of the Games first, and then the "negative" aspect.

Three days ago, on March 24, the longest torch relay in history began when the torch was ignited in Athens, Greece. On the 30th, it will leave Greece and head to Beijing, beginning its marathon journey of 85,100 miles on continents. One of the highlights of the trip will be an attempt to carry it to the top of Mount Everest, an event that the Chinese government will assuredly claim to be a success¹.

The Chinese will have poured close to $40 billion into making the 2008 Olympic Games a showcase for the world. The facilities are incredibly expensive, and at the same time, spectacular in their own right². The two facilities that people in the United States may be most acquainted with (and ones which I will be in) are the Beijing National Aquatic Center (i.e., the Water Cube or [H₂O]³) and the Beijing National Stadium (i.e., the Bird's Nest), both of which are pictured, with the Water Cube in the foreground.

In addition, Beijing is trying to update their outdated mass transit system before the games arrive. The subway system will be newly renovated and the cab drivers will (supposedly) all know some English^{3 4}. The Beijing airport, already the 9th largest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, is building another terminal, set to open this month. As a side note construction for a new "super-airport" is set to begin in 2010, replacing Beijing Capital International Airport. It will be capable of 70-100 million passengers per year. For comparison purposes, Atlanta, the world's busiest airport, has almost 90 million passengers per year⁵.

As I address the first of the negatives, I will start by saying that China is doing everything in their power to address this. Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world, as you can see by the picture of the smog in Tiananmen Square. China has been enforcing government regulations in order to reduce the output of pollution, and may institute similar practices during the actual games. The Chinese have even gone so far as to perform atmospheric tests by releasing chemicals to see if they can control the weather so it doesn't rain on their Olympic party⁶.

In going to China, one of our concerns is not so much the pollution for us (we're not going to be there that long), but the fact that some of the long-distance events such as triathlon may be postponed, which wouldn't work out for our rather tight schedule⁷.

Another negative is the current situation regarding Tibet (and Taiwan). I won't go into any details, simply because I don't know many of the details, but suffice it to say that China has some strained relationships with some of its neighbors. The region of Tibet is part of China, but the Chinese government has practiced a sort of cultural genocide against the Tibetan nation. As a result, there have been many protests, some of which happen during the torch relay. That is bad PR for the Chinese to the rest of the world, though Chinese censorship makes it so that the Chinese people never know about it. On the other hand, China believes that it owns the island of Taiwan, which has declared sovereignty, but it is only formally recognized by about 30 countries (not including the United States)⁸.

China has other issues, many dealing with human rights and the interminable question of how well prepared Beijing will be for the Olympics. The present day political clime asks the question of how well protected the Games will be from a terrorist attack. Analysts expect two million visitors from around the world to be present for China's exposition to the world⁹. How will that hold up?

References:
1. Wikipedia: 2008 Olympic Torch Relay
2. Olympic Games the Chinese Way
3. Wikipedia: 2008 Summer Olympics
4. 90,000 Beijing Taxi Drivers to Learn English
5. Wikipedia: Beijing Capital International Airport
6. Beijing to Shoot Down Olympic Rain
7. Endurance Athletes Worry About Pollution in Beijing
8. CIA World Factbook: Taiwan
9. China, Air Travel, and the 2008 Beijing Olympics