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BEIJING (AP) - China is preparing to dazzle the world, the Beijing Olympic Games, a poster ungebetener Invited until early March to show a threat: freedom of expression.
A policy followed, it came to Europe, though some Olympic committees and officials trying to muzzle the athletes to speak of human rights and other sensitive issues in the games.
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg finally as artistic advisor in Beijing this week because he believed, China would not be enough pressure on Sudan to end the conflict in Darfur. Nobel Laureate and former Olympic gold medalist winners added their voice to the role of China in the humanitarian crisis, by issuing an open letter.
The developments show that the stony path for the Beijing Olympic Games is expected. With six months of the distance event, the world is a look at China's persistent difficult evil - while the communist government hopes, the Olympics are redefining the country as a global power welcome.
The embassy hopes, China to negotiate: "Look at us, we are a Giant Panda, not very scary dragon," said David Wolf, a Beijing-based media consultant.
The current discord has defied Beijing's meticulous plans for the Games. The government's tens of billions of dollars over the Chinese capital with the local architecture and infrastructure. The theme of the Olympic Games in Beijing - "One World, One Dream" - is a message of harmony.
But the combination of an authoritarian government with Olympic great ambitions on the one hand, and a lot of detractors, on the other hand, help seems likely that in the games this summer for most politicized for decades .
The policy was introduced ago: The United States has carried out a boycott of the Moscow Games to protest 1980, the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. That prompted the Soviet Union a boycott of the holding of the Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles.
"Whether or not, Beijing, politics, as an important element from the beginning of the Games," Xu Guoqi, a historian who was born in China, the Kalamazoo College in Michigan, said in an e-mail. "The problem is that Beijing hates encircled by the critics of China, the matches of the political or diplomatic client."
And critics of China are numerous.
In the United Kingdom, Prince Charles said, it will not disappear, to support the Dalai Lama, China, controlled by the exile of Tibet, where he once reigned. World-Class Athletes have the protection of the mouth of blocking Beijing's swallowed pollution. Human rights and media groups monitoring with dismay update on the practice of imprisoning dissidents and journalists questionable fees.
In the last days of Belgium and the United Kingdom fire Olympic Committees rights groups trying to ban athletes from the politically sensitive comments or gestures during the Olympics. The British Olympic Association has fired back and said she wanted only to respect the Olympic charter, the athletes, demonstrations and on the prohibition of "political, religious or racial propaganda" at the Olympic sites.
In Darfur, where the Sudanese government forces and rebel militias have clashed in a conflict that more than 200000 people have lost their lives, activists want to help China to its backlog of major oil purchasers to urge the Sudanese government to end the violence. Tuesday Spielberg said that his conscience would not allow him as artistic adviser for the opening and closing celebrations.
Always sensitive when it comes to foreigners, the motion of censure, according Beijing, injecting critics accuse sport with politics. In a typical comment, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs Liu Jian Chao said Thursday that some critics of the policy of China on Darfur, have ulterior motives, and that we can not accept it. "
The preparations have been smooth and we believe ceremonies are excellent in the world ", the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, BOCOG, said in a brief statement. He noted that the link between sport and politics is" inconsistent with the spirit of the Olympic Games. "
With half a million or more foreigners in Beijing this summer, organizers must be alert for the unexpected. Groups critical of Chinese rule in Tibet, religious restrictions and said they want the armed forces.
Beijing must be prepared to consider the option of saying "a Tibetan monk, even in the fire at the Beijing hotel," said David Zweig, a China expert from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
"They have to think very seriously. They are not very experienced street protests to manipulation by foreigners. They have never done," he said.
In a sign of his irritation, Beijing has decided to restrict access to the media Tiananmen Square - the heart of a pro-democracy movement, crushed by the army in the year 1989 - particularly for TV crews . International Olympic Committee officials say it is, because of the fear of demonstrations. BOCOG officials concerned that the relay of the Olympic torch is vulnerable, especially outside of China.
Given that the approach of the game, including small claims are likely to be increased in light of the instant attention that can strike over Beijing off-message.
"Can you guarantee that the sideshow does not move in the middle of the stage? It's always a challenge for the Olympics, and this is the challenge for China this year," said the wolf, the media advisers.
An advantage for Chinese leaders, their control over the media in China. The bad news permit from the normal China, which are widely supported by the Olympic Games.
News of the release of the game Mount figure was mostly for two days after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a response by the defense, China's actions in Darfur. Beijing residents who welcomed their city to foreigners, shoulders gesticulé with him.
"Spielberg's action only have very limited impact on the Games," said Zhang, 64 years old, residents of Beijing gave his surname only, as in China. "Maybe it is an important figure in the United States, but his words of little weight." |
