At 2:27am, Beijing time, on Sept. 24, 1993, before the chairman of the International Olympic Committee announced the host city for the 2000 Olympic Games, he first thanked all the cities interested in hosting the games. Beijing was the first city mentioned.
At the time, PRC officials and Beijing residents misunderstood and thought Beijing had been picked as the next host city. Even the water fountains on Tiananmen Square began running festively. A few minutes later, however, everyone realized that it was all a terrible misunderstanding. A sorrowful atmosphere immediately descended upon Beijing. Many even broke down in tears.
This sorrow, however, immediately turned into even more active efforts by the PRC government to host the Olympic Games. In May of this year, the International Olympic Committee will announce the host city for the 2008 Olympic Games. Will Beijing suffer another defeat? Had the question been raised last year, it might have been laughed off, because Beijing enjoyed strong advantages and demonstrated a must-win determination. Internally, efforts to plant trees in the city have continued under massive financing by the government, in order to improve Beijing's environment.
Efforts to become the host of the Olympic Games have themselves turned into a sporting event mobilizing the masses. In downtown Beijing, posters announcing "New Beijing, New Olympics" are plastered every where. The enthusiasm surrounding the Olympic bid is no less than that which went with last year's presidential elections in Taiwan. Beijing has hosted many international city exchanges. These events have often been concluded with expressions of support from foreign friends for Beijing to host the Olympic Games. Beijing is also in a better position than other cities interested in hosting the games, because the PRC performed exceptionally well in the Sydney Olympics. China is the only athletic superpower that has never held the Olympics.
China's efforts to become host city are fascinating. Beijing has demonstrated more enthusiasm than other interested cities such as Paris, Osaka and Istanbul. These advantages, however, have begun gradually to disappear as the announcement date for the host of the next Olympic Games approaches.
The international sports arena is comparable to a diplomatic battle ground. China is usually on friendly terms with the African countries, and China has even sought African support for the PRC's Olympic bid through loan extensions at last year's Sino-African Cooperative Forum. It is reported in the media, however, that France has managed to gain the support of five African countries, surpassing China in terms of the number of supporting votes. Ultimately, the human rights issues triggered by China's crackdown on Falun Gong remain China's biggest disadvantage. Lurking in the background is the problem of China's image on the international stage.
Actually, looking back at Beijing's efforts to become a host city, it isn't hard to detect traces of political wrestling in international relations. This is a contrast to the efforts put up by other cities. Although the international sports arena may be deemed a diplomatic battleground, no other country's efforts seem to be so political. Beijing reentered the international community after the Tiananmen Incident in 1989, for example, partly through its efforts to become an Olympic host city. For that reason, in 1993, the US House of Representatives approved a resolution opposing the PRC's hosting of the games. The executive branch of the US had also submitted to the International Olympics Committee human rights reports on countries interested in hosting the Olympics. Although Beijing finally lost out to Sydney by a small margin, and the influence of the US attitude remains unknown, it can be certain that China believes the US was the main reason for its defeat.
Why are Beijing's efforts to become a host city encountering more political considerations than those of other countries? Political considerations go both ways. After reform and liberalization, the PRC economy has begun to grow rapidly, leading developing countries in this regard. Facing the newly rising economic power of China, the political strategies of other countries naturally need to change.
In addition, China makes people restless for various reasons, including its attempts to flaunt its status as a superpower in the international arena. As China's sense of inferiority transforms itself into egotism, a nationalism that tends to exclude others is created. Such a nationalism needs to be supported by a large amount of military arms, as well as by a unique form of language and political maneuvering. The PRC government rationalizes support for nationalism as a question of being "obedient" or "disobedient" to the government. China's attitude toward human rights serves as the best example.
Besides placing dissidents in exile, the communist party must also criticize these dissidents before the people of China, and educate the public about government ideologies through the mobilization of the government machine. The government machine criticizes the Falun Gong's discourse as "unscientific" populism. As a further example, the fact that Nobel literature laureate Gao Xingjian (高行健) is a political dissident has caused Beijing to condemn the Nobel Prize as political in nature. In addition, western countries' hopes that China will improve its human rights record and level of liberalization and democratization have repeatedly been seen by China as examples of western imperialism, and responded to by China with talk of values embodying "Chinese characteristics."
The Beijing government has, for example, repeatedly emphasized in recent years that western human rights values are incompatible with Chinese values. The government only acknowledges the right to life as a human right. Although the government has stressed the importance of being connected with the rest of the world, and PRC officials have increasingly more opportunities to travel abroad, if the government continues to face the international arena with a narrow-minded mentality, it has no chance of communicating with other countries in a common language.
In order to win a chance to host the Olympic Games, China has indicated that it will sign the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ironically, however, it engaged in a comprehensive condemnation of Falun Gong at a time when the International Olympic Committee was making a final selection. This fact has made the selection of China uncertain. The biggest obstacle to China is not Paris, but China itself. If the PRC government opens up and gradually marches toward democracy, establishing a common international language in the process and friendly relationships with neighboring countries, Beijing's road toward becoming an Olympic host would not be so narrow and winding.
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer based in Beijing.
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