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Games helped ‘open up’ China: Rogge

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said the Beijing Olympics succeeded in opening up China but stressed it was never the sports body’s role to force social and political change on the Communist giant.

“It has been a long journey since our decision in July 2001 to bring the Olympic Games to China, but there can now be no doubt that we made the right choice,” Rogge said yesterday on the final day of the Games.

The Olympics, he said, had brought unprecedented global scrutiny to the emerging superpower with one-fifth of the world’s population.

“The world has learned about China, and China has learned about the world and I believe this is something that will have positive effects for the long term,” Rogge said.

Despite the grand success of the Beijing Games in terms of organization, sports venues and athletic performances, the IOC has been accused of failing to get China to live up to promises of improvements in human rights and press freedoms.

“We are first and foremost an organization devoted to sport, but it is sport with a purpose,” Rogge said in a speech to the IOC General Assembly.

“The IOC and the Olympic Games cannot force changes on sovereign nations or solve all the ills of the world. But we can, and we do, contribute to positive change through sport,” he said.

Rogge said the Olympics were leaving China with a long-term legacy of sporting facilities, improved urban infrastructure and greater environmental awareness.

“Some of the changes in China are obvious today,” he said.

“Others will become apparent with time. The legacy of these Games for China is ultimately up to the Chinese people,” he said.

Rogge acknowledged that not everything was “perfect” for media access to the Internet during the Beijing Games, and expressed surprise that no citizen protest permits had been granted.

While Olympics organizers promised to set aside three protest zones in the city during the competition, authorities said all of the 77 applications for permits to protest were either withdrawn or rejected.
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