The ****trait of a Treacherous "Olympic Host" -- China Falls Short on
Vows for Olympics 'Long Way to Go' On Rights, Pollution And Press Freedom
wa****ngtonpost.com
China Falls Short on Vows for Olympics
'Long Way to Go' On Rights, Pollution And Press Freedom
By Jill Drew and Maureen Fan
Wa****ngton Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 21, 2008; A01
BEIJING, April 20 -- China has spent billions of dollars to fulfill its
commitment to stage a grand Olympics. Athletes will compete in
world-class stadiums. New highways and train lines crisscross Beijing.
China built the world's largest air****t terminal to welcome an expected
500,000 foreign visitors. Thousands of newly planted trees and dozens of
colorful "One World, One Dream" billboards line the main roads of a
spruced-up capital. The security system has impressed the FBI and
Interpol.
But beneath the ****mmer and behind the slogan, China is under criticism
for suppressing Tibetan protests, sealing off large ****tions of the
country to foreign re****ters, harassing and jailing dissidents and not
doing enough to curb air pollution. It has not lived up to a pledge in
its Olympic action plan, released in 2002, to "be open in every aspect,"
and a constitutional amendment adopted in 2004 to recognize and protect
human rights has not ****elded government critics from arrest.
The two realities show that when China had to build something new to
fulfill expectations, it has largely delivered. But in areas that touch
China's core interests, Olympic pledges come second.
"To ensure a successful Olympic Games, the government did make some
technical and strategic efforts to improve the environment, human rights
and press freedom. They did make some progress. But in these three
areas, there's a long, long way to go," said Cheng Yizhong, an editor
who tracks China's Olympic preparations.
With the Games less than four months away, the International Olympic
Committee is scrambling to nail down specifics of how China will treat
criticism of its actions during the event. Pressed this month, IOC
President Jacques Rogge clarified that athletes would be allowed to
speak freely in Beijing's Olympic venues, calling it an "absolute" human
right.
"I can't help but feel cynical about all this," said David Wallechinsky,
an Olympic historian, who said the IOC should have been more forceful
with China earlier. "What are they going to do, take away the Games?"
Human Rights
China's commitment to improve human rights has always been vague. Its
strongest public statement came from Beijing's mayor, the head of the
country's bidding team, on the eve of the IOC vote in July 2001 to
select the host city for the 2008 Olympics. Awarding the Games to
Beijing, said Liu Qi, would "benefit the further development of our
human rights cause."
Rogge says China made a moral commitment to improve human rights, but
did not sign a contractual agreement. In 2002, he told re****ters he was
convinced the Games would improve human rights in China. The IOC, Rogge
said, would confer regularly with Amnesty International, a human rights
group, to monitor China's progress.
T. Kumar, Amnesty's Asia advocacy director, said meetings did take
place, but mostly between low-level staff members of the two
organizations. He said the IOC did not solicit ideas about how to press
the Chinese on the problems Amnesty was raising. Two weeks ago, an IOC
official publicly dismissed an Amnesty re****t that said China's
crackdown on activists had intensified because of the Olympics.
"The IOC silence all these years is one of the reasons China felt no
need to improve human rights in a meaningful way," Kumar said. "The IOC
behaved in a very indifferent way."
China rejects global anger over its human rights record. Lifting 400
million people out of extreme poverty in recent decades, as the World
Bank re****ts the government has done, is an overarching human rights
achievement, Chinese researchers say.
"It is most im****tant to compare human rights to the past to see if
there is progress, not to compare it with other countries," said Luo
Yanhau, professor of international studies at Peking University. Even
with a fast-rising economy, she said, about one-tenth of the population
still lives on $1 a day or less, according to 2006 World Bank
statistics. "We have to fulfill the right to subsistence and
development," she said.
In the past decade, China has passed laws to better protect the rights
of the disabled, elderly, women, employees and migrant workers. Although
enforcement of those laws is often lacking, rights experts say, the
government has allowed a broader public discourse about these areas.
Li ****'an, a history professor at Renmin University in Beijing, said
China has fulfilled its commitment to Olympic officials on human rights,
arguing that the country would not be as stable if people did not have
rights.
China, which denies that widespread protests by Tibetans for more
autonomy are a human rights issue, recently rejected a request by U.N.
human rights experts to travel to Tibet. Chinese President Hu Jintao
said last weekend that Tibet "is not an ethnic problem, not a religious
problem, nor a human rights problem." In his first public comments on
the issue, Hu said, "It is a problem either to safeguard national
unification or to split the motherland."
Press Freedom
Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Organizing
Committee, told re****ters in 2001 that the news media would have
"complete freedom to re****t on anything when they come to China."
Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, last year signed tem****ary regulations
to allow foreign journalists to travel domestically without advance
permission until the Games are over. Re****ters would still need permits
to travel to Tibet, officials said, although that was not specifically
mentioned in the regulations.
But recently foreign journalists have been detained while re****ting
sensitive stories and escorted by police out of several provinces that
border Tibet, which is closed to foreign journalists and tourists.
Chinese officials say foreign journalists are being excluded from the
areas for their safety. Meanwhile, government spokesmen have accused
international news media of biased re****ting and some foreign
journalists have received death threats.
"If there were no Tibetan issue, the Chinese government would follow
their promises very well," said Zhan Jiang, journalism dean at China
Youth University for Political Sciences in Beijing. "But with the
Tibetan issue, they will not keep their commitment."
Chinese writers can publish on a broader range of topics today than in
years past, domestic media watchers say, but criticizing the government
or the Communist Party can still mean time in jail or a labor camp.
Dissident writer Hu Jia was sentenced recently to 3 1/2 years for
subverting state authority by giving interviews to foreign media and
posting articles on the Internet that compared the Communist Party to
the Mafia and called for greater autonomy for Tibet.
"China is suffering from its policy of suppressing press freedom," said
Cheng, the editor who tracks Olympic preparations. He was editor in
chief of Southern Metropolis Daily before he was arrested for publi****ng
information in 2003 about the severity of the deadly SARS epidemic. He
was cleared of corruption charges and is now deputy publisher of S****ts
Illustrated China.
"The government is suffering from its own propaganda system, which has
been rigid for a long time," Cheng said. "China is lifting a rock only
to drop it on its own feet."
Environment
The Olympics have been used both within China and internationally as an
urgent prod to clean up pollution. "Deliver Clean Energy Towards a
Harmonious World," declares a giant billboard in downtown Beijing.
China has spent about $20 billion over the past decade to clean up
Beijing's air, government media have re****ted. Du Shaozhong, deputy
director of Beijing's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said
the government has shut down 200 heavily polluting factories since 1998.
Another 19 heavy polluters will be forced to reduce emissions between
now and the Aug. 8 start of the Games. Work must stop on construction
sites starting July 20, Du said, and Beijing has warned motorists that
sometime this summer private cars will be allowed on the road only on
alternating days.
China had pledged that by 2008, measurements of carbon monoxide,
nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide would meet World Health Organization
standards and airborne particle density would be reduced to the level of
major cities in developed countries. But the IOC said last month that
Beijing had so far met only WHO 2005 interim guidelines, which are
significantly less restrictive.
"Official data during the Aug. 8 to Aug. 24 Olympic period indicates air
quality was actually worse in 2006 and 2007 than in 2000 and 2001,"
Steven Q. Andrews, an independent environmental consultant, said in an
e-mail interview. His analysis of August 2007 data found that Beijing's
air registered 123 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter,
more than double the WHO guideline of 50 micrograms per cubic meter for
short-term exposure.
Du said there are contingency plans to take more stringent steps if
needed to improve air quality during the Games. "We will do everything
possible to honor the promise," he said.
Staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Wa****ngton and researchers Zhang
Jie and Liu Songjie in Beijing contributed to this re****t.
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