Beijing bid to play host to Olympics

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, JULY 3. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will decide on July 13 in Moscow whether or not China gets to host the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

For China, hosting the Olympics is not only about the ``prestige'' that goes along with holding the games, but Beijing 2008 will be sending out the word that the country has arrived on the world stage.

Beijing, which lost out in the race for the 2000 Olympics to Sydney, seems to have the edge over Paris and Toronto - the other two serious candidates in the fray.

China has repeatedly stressed that issues like its human rights record should not be allowed to dictate whether or not it would be granted the right to hold the games.

The United States, which has the power to influence the decision, has said it will remain ``neutral'' on the Beijing bid. ``We decided not to decide,'' Mr. Richard Boucher, U.S. State Department spokesman, was quoted as saying.

A report posted on the website of the People's Daily newspaper said: ``China, with the largest population in the world, has close relations with the Olympics. But in the first half of the 20th Century, Olympics developed slowly in China because of years of civil war and outside aggression, weak economic national power and sluggish economy.

``Beijing failed in its biding (sic) for the 2000 summer Olympics (by two votes, 45 to 43), but China's Olympic movement has now entered a new age. Beijing has been in an effort to gain the right to host the 2008 Olympics ever since 1999,'' the People's Daily added. Today, China's national economic power is far from weak. It is strong, very strong, and has attracted attention from the rest of the world.

In a speech delivered earlier this year at the Asia Society, the vice-premier of the State Council of China, Mr. Qian Qichen, said: ``China has come to a critical stage of development. Our economy has come out of the shadow of the Southeast Asian financial crisis. It has grown over seven per cent in recent years. Last year, our GDP exceeded one trillion dollars and our foreign exchange reserves over $160 billion.

``We are working hard to build China into a moderately developed country by the middle of the century....in the first decade of this century, our GDP is expected to double that of the year 2000 and reach two trillion dollars,'' the Chinese leader added.

Games like the Olympics have been linked to the status and prestige of nations. It appears to be no different for China which, as the largest developing nation in the world, has every right to host the 2008 games.

Given the fact that China is very much ``touchable'' for the major trading nations of the West, it would be a double standard for them to oppose the holding of the games in Beijing on the ground that the country has a ``poor'' human rights' record.

Beijing is taking its bid very seriously. Apart from the intention to improve infrastructure and provide a better environment, Beijing residents are learning English in a big way. According to the Beijing Mayor, Mr. Liu Qi, 600,000 residents of the capital are learning English. This drive, reported the China Daily yesterday, was part of Beijing's bid for the games. Police officers and taxi drivers are all learning English and, the paper reports, Beijing People's Radio Station has ``regained some of its audience'' by offering on-air English courses.

By all accounts, Beijing is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that its bid goes through.

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