Across a Nation, Olympic Fervor

"With its economic and social development, China has become more or less like any other country," Shi said.

Rallying Around the Party

The Communist Party under President Hu Jintao has seized on the Games as a tool to stoke enthusiasm for its rule, to rouse the 68 million party faithful and induce the others to overlook its failings. Conveniently enough, the Beijing Olympics coincide with the 30th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's decision to open the economy to private enterprise and engage with the world, giving the party a second framework for celebrating its achievements. It has not hesitated.

"These days, the whole party and the whole country, including all ethnic groups, are rallying around Comrade Secretary General Hu Jintao heart and soul," Li Changchun, the Politburo Standing Committee member who runs party propaganda, told an audience Feb. 21.

To make sure the two-week Olympic festival makes China shine -- and its government look good -- the party recently called on a powerful Politburo Standing Committee member, Xi Jinping, to manage the preparations. Naming such a senior figure as Xi, who is considered the most likely successor to Hu, was seen as a demonstration of resolve to make sure nothing goes wrong during China's moment in the sun, which is expected to attract an estimated 500,000 tourists and 4 billion television viewers around the world.

Already, though, critics of China are making themselves heard. Director Steven Spielberg, for example, announced this month that he would withdraw as an artistic adviser for the opening ceremony. The move, he said, came in protest of China's failure to press Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Chinese officials have strongly condemned efforts by foreign human rights groups to use the Games to forward their own political agendas by embarrassing China. Now, caught up in the enthusiasm, many ordinary Chinese have joined in.

"A certain Western movie director is very naive," the commentator Ding Gang wrote in the party's official People's Daily after Spielberg's declaration. "He exhibited unreasonable behavior on the Beijing Olympics issue. Probably, this is a special characteristic of Hollywood people. But the naivete showed by some Western media on this issue looks laughable."

Managing China's image through the Olympics celebration is a major concern of party censors as well. Prosecutors in the Feb. 19 trial of political activist Yang Chunlin told judges one reason he deserves to be jailed is that an appeal he sent out on the Internet, which said "We want human rights, not Olympics," attracted the attention of foreign correspondents in Beijing.

Part of the zeal is due to the party's own mobilization campaign, a skill that cadres long ago mastered. In schools and advertising jingles, and on television programs and outdoor signs, the government has spread the word relentlessly that the Olympics are good for China.

Even the traditional Lantern Festival this month was a platform. Officials in Wuhan hung up 200 questions about Olympics history alongside the lanterns in a city park. In the city of Zibo, a local craftsman constructed a one-ton lantern with the five-ring Olympics logo. In the city of Changsha, a 280-yard-long dragon slithered around the city with the Olympic symbol emblazed on its flanks.

Cashing In on the Games

Shenyang, a relatively prosperous city of 5 million inhabitants, has set up Olympics-related programs for its schoolchildren, beginning with first graders. Liu Fengming, the sports department official overseeing school programs, said the Olympics campaign has reached even into farming villages, where students are encouraged to stage competitions and every village has been required to build an athletic field.

A balding, retired coach predicted that China's athletes will do poorly in the Olympic competition despite the high hopes of many Chinese for a long list of gold medals. But he added that the Olympics are still a great achievement for China because the gathering will foster friendship between Chinese and people from around the world.