Seeking to show openness yet desperate to avoid embarrassment at the Olympics, China allowed a first foreign orchestra performance in Tiananmen Square yesterday, but also issued warnings to would-be protesters.
While local Communist leaders want the Games, which begin on Friday, to showcase Chinese modernity and economic progress to the world, critics have used the build-up to put pressure on Beijing over its treatment of dissent, most notably in Tibet.
A youth orchestra of 2,008 international musicians became the first foreign group to play in Tiananmen Square, performing a medley of classical and modern pieces at the Beijing landmark best known to the world for student protests in 1989.
“This is a significant message from the Chinese to say that China is now open to the world,” said one of the participants Max Ronquillo, leader of the Guam Territorial Band. “We are making history today.”
With just five days to go before the opening ceremony, Beijing has designated three parks for officially sanctioned demonstrations. But locals or foreigners wanting to use them must apply five days in advance.
And “citizens must not harm national, social and collective interests,” Liu Shaowu, security chief of the Beijing Games Organizing Committee, said in a statement.
The Olympics has galvanized global critics of China on an array of issues, from treatment of internal dissidents and censorship of the Internet to policies over the Darfur conflict.
A 100,000-strong Chinese security force is on hand to deal with terrorism or anti-government protests during the largest international event Beijing has staged.
The Games have given the world’s most populous nation, whom many regard as an emerging superpower likely to rival the US, an unprecedented opportunity to vaunt its merits.
Second in the medal table at Athens in 2004, the Chinese hope their athletes will go one better this time and overtake the US team.
Visitors have been gawping at the main Olympic venue — a steel-latticed stadium nicknamed the “Bird’s Nest” — and various other magnificent new buildings in Beijing that are a physical expression of the new China authorities want to show.
Beijing residents, and a visiting army of journalists — who, at around 30,000, will outnumber athletes three-to-one — caught a tantalizing glimpse on Saturday night of what is sure to be the most expensive Olympics ceremony in history.
Fireworks cracked into the Beijing skyline as thousands of workers, and a handful of reporters sworn to secrecy, watched a dress rehearsal of the extravaganza.
“A splendid performance at the Olympics opening ceremony is of major importance,” said Li Changchun, the senior Communist Party leader in charge of culture and propaganda after watching the ceremony and exhorting performers to do their best.
With 2 million or so visitors flocking into China for the Games, a carnival atmosphere has started to take shape. Many donned shorts and T-shirts yesterday in a third day of sunshine and blue skies that have replaced weeks of smog.
But forecasters warned of storms ahead as Olympic head Jacques Rogge fended off the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) own dark clouds.
Worries that Beijing’s normal blanket of heavy smog would disrupt endurance events dissipated, as weather officials said drastic anti-pollution measures had helped clear the air.
But any relief from the haze was replaced by concerns that thunder and heavy rain would hit the city on the day of the opening ceremony, when world leaders will join the crowds at the National Stadium to welcome the athletes and light the Olympic flame.
Organizers have repeatedly said rain — and not smog — is their biggest worry ahead of the ceremony, which will feature more than 10,000 performers and a massive fireworks display.
Top officials from the Beijing Meteorological Bureau confirmed yesterday that bad weather was certain for Friday, although they held out hope that the skies may clear by the time the ceremony begins in the evening.
“Specifically on the eighth, the weather in Beijing will be cloudy and overcast and we will see some rain showers and thunder showers,” said Wang Jianjie, deputy director of the bureau.
Wang also warned that co-host cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Qingdao could be hit by typhoons heading in from the Pacific Ocean during the Games.
The clear skies above Beijing that have surprised many residents in recent days were a result of favorable weather conditions and drastic high-profile anti-pollution measures, Wang said.
“Good weather has a great deal to do with the natural conditions, but whether this can be maintained has a lot to do with our pollution control measures because they also have a lot to do with the improvement,” she told reporters.
One million of the city’s 3.3 million cars have been taken off the roads and more than 100 heavily polluting factories and building sites closed down in recent weeks as Beijing tries to prevent any cancellation of endurance events.
Meanwhile, Rogge, president of the IOC, tried to defuse the row over Internet censorship for foreign reporters and insisted he thought Beijing would host an outstanding Games.
Rogge said that no deal had been cut with Chinese authorities to allow censorship of sensitive sites, after journalists arrived this week to find they could not access a wide range of Web sites.
“The conditions you were working in on Tuesday were not good,” Rogge told reporters late on Saturday.
However, he stopped short of apologizing, saying that many of the sites had since been unblocked and a list of others were being examined with Beijing organizers.
“I am not going to make an apology for something that the IOC is not responsible for. We are not running the Internet in China,” said Rogge, who had previously promised unfettered Internet access for foreign reporters.
Rogge compared the organization of the Beijing event favorably with Athens, which was beset by worries over whether the venues would be completed in time.
“Today we have absolutely no concern for the organization,” he said. “I am sure that come the ninth of August, the day after the opening ceremony, the magic of the Games and the flawless organization will take over.”
Some rights groups have urged athletes to use the opening ceremony, or their competitions, for discreet protests, such as flashing a “T” for Tibet with their fingers.
How Chinese authorities would handle such gestures, in front of millions on TV, remains an intriguing question.
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