China honored its Olympic heroes on Monday to open week-long National Day events, as top leaders rode a wave of patriotism that has surged because of the successful Games and the country’s first spacewalk and despite a scandal over tainted milk.
In a stiffly formal ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), the top Communist Party leader who oversaw preparations for the Beijing Olympics, praised what they said was China’s realization of a 100-year dream to host the Games.
Despite worries over the effects of a global slowdown on China’s rip-roaring economy and the milk scandal, China’s communist leaders have been riding a wave of pride and patriotism since the Olympics ended on Aug. 24, with another boost from the country’s successful first spacewalk on Saturday.
Xi said having held the Games would keep China on its reform path as political, military and sports officials paraded by in the three-hour ceremony shown live on national television.
“The successful holding of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics has carried forward the Olympic spirit, improved the understanding and friendship between Chinese people and all people of the world,” Xi said. “It has ... shown the world the great achievements of reform and opening and the building of socialist modernization.”
Filmmaker Zhang Yimou (張藝謀), who directed the lavish and spectacular opening and closing ceremonies, broke ranks from the parade of dignitaries to shake hands with Hu.
This year marks 30 years since China started its economic reforms that turned the country into the world’s factory floor and transformed all of its major cities.
The ceremony, just ahead of China’s National Day tomorrow, was heavy on politics with every member of the communist party’s Standing Committee — China’s top ruling body — on hand. Hu spoke for about an hour on China’s drive to host the Games.
“We have stamped China’s red seal in the history of the modern Olympic movement,” he said.
The Olympics and the Paralympics were widely praised as well organized, although China was criticized by some for stifling any possible protests against the Games.
China’s state media has been playing up the Olympics since they ended. Newspapers and state television have also been awash the last several days with stories on China’s space program, which carried out the country’s first spacewalk on Saturday.
Less prominent in the official media over the last several weeks have been stories on the tainted milk scandal.
There have been questions raised on whether local officials had delayed revealing until after the Olympics were over that the industrial chemical melamine, used to make plastics and fertilizer, was found in milk powder and linked to kidney stones in children.
Four deaths have been blamed on the bad milk, and tens of thousands of children were sickened after drinking the contaminated baby formula.
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