For China, It's Showtime
Edward Cody - Washington Post Foreign Service
BEIJING, Aug. 7 -- In the lobby of a provincial Chinese hotel stood a 25-foot-high inflatable character, a beaming Olympic mascot cheerfully inviting one and all to enjoy the 2008 Beijing Games. But in small Mandarin characters stenciled neatly across its polyurethane rump was a discreet reminder: "For Government Use Only," it said.
The 29th Olympiad opening Friday evening in Beijing has from the beginning been a political as well as an athletic event, its impact extending far beyond the fields and stadiums where 16,000 athletes from 200 countries and regions are set to vie for glory. As the giant plastic mascot suggested, the competitor with the most at stake is China's Communist Party, particularly President Hu Jintao and the eight others on the Politburo's elite Standing Committee who rule this vast nation of 1.3 billion people.
For them, the Beijing Games have provided a platform to herald the party's achievements over the past three decades in leading the world's largest country toward ever-increasing prosperity at home and growing acceptance as a reliable partner abroad. It has been a long journey from the Maoist ideology that guided the party for its first three decades in power -- and shattered millions of lives in the process -- and now is the time to bask in recognition.
The celebration of the party's dark-suited and prudent managers starts with a spectacular ceremony at the auspicious time of 8:08 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008. (Beijing is 12 hours ahead of Eastern time.) The extravaganza will have an international audience, but it has been aimed primarily at China's own people. Theirs is the endorsement the party and its 70 million members need most to stay in power.
According to Chinese analysts and a wide range of interviews over the past few months, the Beijing Games have worked their magic in this regard, drawing broad enthusiasm from millions of people and effectively crystallizing the message that China can be proud of the distance it has come.
"Through the Olympics, people feel they are experiencing their own success," explained Kang Xiaoguang, a sociologist and researcher at People's University who monitors public attitudes in China.
Some complaining has emerged, particularly on the Internet, with Beijingers mainly criticizing the inconvenience of it all. Travel agencies propose a "bi yun tao," an itinerary that will get well-to-do residents out of town for the duration of the Games.
But among most people, the signs of enthusiasm for Beijing's role as Olympic host have become increasingly visible as the time has drawn near. According to government calculations, 1.7 million Chinese, from Beijing and elsewhere, have enrolled as Olympic volunteers for the next three weeks to patrol the streets, guide confused foreign spectators, help visiting athletes and make sure journalists get to their news conferences.
Legions of teenagers, vacationing teachers and retired couples, sporting red armbands and bright baseball caps, took up position last weekend along Beijing's main avenues and in its narrow alleys to offer assistance and report to the police on suspicious characters. Traffic wardens received bright new uniforms and, for the first time in memory, began to signal to drivers turning right against a red light that it would be a good idea not to plow into pedestrians crossing on green.
"I'm happy to be living in this era, with such a big event taking place," said Ye Shaoye, a graying 63-year-old doing a two-hour shift Thursday along a street near the Olympic Village.
Even the People's Armed Police, a starchy paramilitary corps used mainly to enforce the party's idea of social order, has bent with the Olympic rhythm. Young armed guards who previously stuck their palms in people's chests and brusquely demanded passports at Beijing's Qi Jia Yuan diplomatic compound have switched to smiling and saying hello when asking residents for ID.
"Did you get a chance to see the Olympic torch relay in Tiananmen Square today?" one of them asked a resident Wednesday evening, gesturing that there was no need to show identification. "It was really nice."
The arrival of more than 80 foreign heads of state to be on hand for Friday evening's opening extravaganza, including President Bush, also has played an important role in shaping Chinese views on the Games. Many Chinese, Kang said, interpret the visits by foreign dignitaries as an endorsement of the party's rule in recent times and a show of faith that more reforms are on the way to soften the Leninist political system.
"They believe this is the international community recognizing China's success over the last 30 years," he said.
Noting the appeal of the large Chinese market, some analysts have slyly compared the visiting leaders to foreigners who traveled to Beijing in ancient times to pay tribute to Chinese emperors. But for most Chinese, interviews show, the meaning is rather that China is no longer an ideological outcast and is regarded by foreigners as a normal, powerful country with which they can do business and must have friendly relations.
The perception on this and other issues has been driven home by relentless propaganda in the controlled press and television news, noted Li Datong, a prominent editor who was once fired for overstepping censorship lines. And for the overwhelming majority of Chinese, these reports are their only contact with the Olympics, Li noted.
Under guidance from the party's Central Propaganda Bureau, the Olympics reports have unfailingly described happy Chinese readying a joyous festival and delighted visitors exulting in their encounters with friendly natives.
"To ensure safety, all village residents have to pass the safety check," began the caption of a photo in last Thursday's People's Daily that showed a Puerto Rican team official arriving at the Olympic Village and being patted down by a smiling young woman. "Seeing the safety workers' conscientious attitude and warm-hearted services, all guests are happy to cooperate."
In fact, foreigners have complained loudly in recent weeks about what they consider heavy-handed security and overly tight visa restrictions. Because of the new visa controls, many foreigners working here have been forced to leave; others who planned to visit for the Olympics have canceled. Beijing hotel managers who began the year expecting a bonanza have reported fewer tourists than usual for this time of year.
With a bombing attack against border police in the far western Xinjiang region Monday, the government has every reason to take precautions, said Shi Yinhong, who runs the Center for American Studies at People's University. But many of the measures have created an impression of going overboard, he added.
Some airports require half a dozen security checks, for instance, and Beijing authorities have banned kites and homing pigeons out of concern they could interfere with aviation.
"I think they have put too much emphasis on security, at the price of taking the fun out of the Olympics," Shi said.
Partly because of the tight security climate, China's hope that the Olympics would also become a showcase for the rest of the world to join in appreciating the party's achievements has largely faded. Instead, the government has been forced to defend its human rights record against foreign criticism and answer charges that it oppresses the Tibetan and Uighur minorities in western China. Foreign Ministry spokesmen repeatedly have accused the foreign critics of "ulterior motives," harking back to an earlier era of hostile relations abroad.
In mounting criticisms, international human rights groups have accused China of reneging on promises made in 2001 when it won the right to hold the Games. But anyone who expected that holding the Olympics would provoke genuine change in China suffered from a fundamental misunderstanding, Li said.
China is so large and burdened by such a long history, and the Communist Party so entrenched at every level of society, that any substantial change will take years, including changes in the way the party approaches human rights, he said. "This is a real Communist Party, not like Cuba or something," he said. "A few days of Olympics, how can that change China? It's not possible. Of course not."
But the seeds of at least one change may have been planted in the emphasis on trying to clean up Beijing's polluted air for the games, Shi suggested.
Nearly half Beijing's 3.3 million cars were taken off the street beginning July 20 by driving restrictions. Although the city remains under a polluted haze, Shi noted, its residents have embraced more than ever before the idea that something should be done to clean up their environment.
"They have never had such a strong sense of the importance of pollution," he said. "Maybe the greatest heritage of the Olympics will be our sense of the importance of a blue sky and traffic conditions that are not so horrible."
TO VIEW VIDEO CLICK ON: