Beijing Games

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THE CHINESE government was denounced on May, 1, 2008 when human rights groups gathered in Washington to mark the 100-day countdown to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. They called upon world leaders to boycott the games’ opening ceremony on August 8, saying that China was “the foremost enabler of human rights abuses around the world”. Groups represented included Human Rights Watch, International Campaign for Tibet, Save Darfur and Amnesty International.



The gathering highlighted the plight of Chinese human rights activists such as Yao Fuxin, who was imprisoned in 2002 for his labour activism. He was detained secretly and then charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb social order” after leading tens of thousands of workers from Liaoyang factories in a peaceful protest against corruption and demanding the payment of back wages and pensions. He was later charged with the far more serious crime of subversion, due to alleged involvement in the banned China Democracy Party, and given a seven-year custodial sentence. Then there is Hu Jia, an outspoken Beijing-based worker for AIDS victims, who received a three-and-a-half-year jail term in April this year for calling for more human rights in China, including an “Olympics with a human rights touch”.





International concern



It isn’t only the treatment of prominent Chinese human rights activists that raises international concern. Inhumane labour conditions and weak legal protection for Chinese workers have attracted criticism. In June 2007, for example, a massive network of illegal brick kilns employing kidnapped slave labour in Shanxi and Henan provinces was uncovered and widely reported on in domestic and international media. Although some progress has been made in improving workers’ legal protections, the government continues to deny fundamental rights such as the right to organise independent unions and the right to strike. Since 1999, the government has banned many religious organisations such as Falun Gong, whose followers have endured large-scale persecution, including torture, illegal imprisonment, forced labour, and psychiatric abuses. Falun Gong comprise 66 percent of all reported torture cases in China, and at least half of the labour camp population. China also has the highest death penalty rate in the world, with between 8,000 and 10,000 people sentenced to death every year.





One World, One Dream



Seven years ago, as part of the understanding for Beijing to hold the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, the Chinese authorities promised democratic reforms and human-rights improvements. In April, 2001, Liu Jingmin, Vice President of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee stated that “by allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help the development of human rights”. Liu Qi, mayor of Beijing, also pledged that by hosting the games, social progress and economic development in China would move forward, as would China’s human rights situation. In June 2004, Beijing announced its Olympic Games slogan as, ‘One World, One Dream’.



There has been more openness in the media. Since March, for instance, people in China are able to access English language stories on the BBC News website in full, after years of strict control by Beijing. The Communist authorities often blocked news sites such as the BBC in a policy dubbed the ‘great firewall of China’. However, the firewall remains in place for Chinese language services on the website and for any links in Chinese. In December 2006, the Chinese authorities announced a new regulation allowing foreign journalists to travel across the country for news coverage without the usual prior approval from local authorities. Yet, more recently, it is clear that press openness is not allowed in conflict regions. In October 2007, foreign reporters trying to cover the Tibet riots were stopped in cities of Lhasa, Beijing, Chengdu, Xining, and several places in Gansu province. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club in China said they received more than 30 complaints.



China’s reform efforts have not met Western expectations in many aspects. It doesn’t mean there is no momentum pressing ahead for democratic reform in China’s own way, but the slow pace has been highlighted by Olympic preparations. Many rights activists feel the Chinese government has failed to honour its words. These include individuals imprisoned after sending open letters to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) calling for improvements in China’s human rights, the thousands of Beijing residents forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for Olympic-related construction, and intensified suppression of groups – such as religious groups – that the authorities fear may embarrass the nation during the Games. There have been concerns too for the welfare of migrant workers called in to help build Olympic facilities.





Olympic casualties





The Olympic Games will take place in showcase stadiums, amidst skyscrapers, spacious streets and spotless new facilities, but there have been casualties in the run-up. It is thought that at least 10 workers were killed building the futuristic ‘bird’s nest’ stadium in Beijing, where work started in 2003. The sheer ambition of the design required workers to weld for long periods at great heights. Witnesses have told of seeing workers plummet to their deaths. The bodies were swiftly removed by police, who sealed off accident scenes with orange tape and cleared personnel from the area while the dead were loaded into police vehicles. The authorities ensured the silence of bereaved relatives by making generous compensation payments of up to $25,000. By contrast, labourers on the site have earned about $5.80 a day and skilled welders about $8.60 a day. These labourers have spoken of relentless pressure to get the job done, of abusive subcontractors who frequently withheld pay, and of harsh restrictions on their personal lives, such as being forced to live in dormitories where men bunked 12 to a room. Most of the workers employed on the project were poorly educated migrants from the inland provinces of China, who had scant specialist training and no experience of building on such a gigantic scale.



There are fears that athletes could become casualties of Beijing’s massive air pollution problem. Some sports federations, like those of the United States, Australia and Britain, have decided to house some of their athletes away from Beijing until right before the competitions so they will not be exposed to poor air. Polluted air poses a triple risk to endurance athletes like marathoners, cyclists and triathletes who spend a prolonged time outdoors. Beijing organisers have said stringent pollution controls will go into effect from July 20, including closing cement factories and foundries, halting hundreds of building projects and banning about half of Beijing’s 3.3 million vehicles.



Olympic Ideals





Preparations for the Games were rocked in March this year when Tibetans staged violent protests against Chinese rule and security forces cracked down on monks and other supporters of the exiled Dalai Lama in parts of Western China. The clashes set off sympathy protests and calls around the world for a boycott of the opening ceremony by world leaders. Demonstrators turned the 21-city torch relay into a public relations fiasco for Beijing and the Olympic committee. China’s support for the Sudanese government, despite its genocidal actions in Darfur, attracted criticism; also its bolstering of the government of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in arms deals.



In April, the president of the Olympic committee, Jacques Rogge, called on the authorities in Beijing to respect their “moral engagement” to improve human rights in the months leading up to the Games and to provide the news media with greater access to the country. He also described the protests that have dogged the international Olympics torch relay as a “crisis” for the organisation. Though Mr Rogge predicted the Games would still be a success, his comments were a sharp departure from previous statements in which he avoided any mention of politics. He felt forced to underline that human rights is a universal concept endorsed by the Olympic Charter.





Building bridges





There are, however, many hopes too that the international gathering of young athletes in Beijing will provide a sense of global solidarity, and opportunities for engagement with a China that is far more open than at any time in the past 60 years. In early May, Pope Benedict XVI described the Beijing Olympic Games as “an event of great importance for the entire human family” while receiving the China Philharmonic at the Vatican. This was in the spirit of the Church trying to build bridges with China, and even working towards establishing diplomatic relations.

Church people throughout Asia also marked the 100-day countdown to the Olympics on May 1, and they focused on the opportunities it offers. The Bishops of Malaysia, Singapore, and Japan publicly prayed for the success of the Games. Within China: from Beijing to Si Chuan (southwest), from Shaan Xi (midwest) to Hei Long Jiang (northeast), from central Mongolia (north) to Yun Nan (south), Chinese Catholics celebrated the event with prayers and Masses. During the event, Catholic priests, religious, and laity will work as volunteers, offering spiritual and linguistic assistance to the foreign visitors who will be present. The eyes of the world will be on China for much of August.