Olympic Pressure on China

Some human rights groups have called on the United States and the European Union to react more forcefully and boycott the Beijing Olympics. Some prominent leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, have said they will not be attending the games' opening ceremony. In April, U.S. President George W. Bush said his plans to attend the games "haven't changed" (Newsweek.com).

While the crackdown in Tibet is ongoing, it was overshadowed in May by an earthquake (WashPost) in China's Sichuan Province. Experts say that despite Olympics-related pressure, China is unlikely to reverse its position on Tibet, given its increasing entrenchment in the region and investment in an expensive train to carry tourists there that opened in 2006. The Indian city of Dharamsala is planning to host an Olympics for Tibetans in exile.

Carrying the Torch

The Olympic torch, which was lit in Olympia, Greece, crisscrossed the world in an elaborate relay. Chinese officials wanted the tour to be a "journey of harmony," but it instead became a lightning rod for controversy both inside and outside the People's Republic.

When the relay route was announced, Taiwan and Tibet became immediate sources of concern. Officials in Taipei objected because Taiwan's stop was scheduled to occur before Hong Kong, which they said was intended to make Taiwan appear part of the Chinese domestic leg (Taipei Times). Beijing's Olympics Committee countered the claim by arguing Taiwan had previously agreed to the stop. The IOC set September 20, 2007, as the deadline for resolving the dispute, and when negotiators failed to meet the deadline, the route was redirected to bypass Taiwan.

Similar concerns were raised by Tibetan activists, many of whom objected to the torch's scheduled stop on Mount Everest. In the midst of the Sichuan earthquake and Tibetan protests, Chinese officials announced that the Tibetan leg of the relay would be shortened from three days to one.

Outside China, the torch attracted criticism as well. In cities like London, Paris, San Francisco, and New Delhi, it was met with throngs of protesters, many of whom used the opportunity to denounce China's human rights record. Despite being flanked by Chinese security operatives, the torch was attacked and even extinguished during its international tour.

Nationalist Backlash

Ever since China won its Olympic bid, critics around the world have taken advantage of the opportunity to criticize the Chinese regime. But the Chinese government has condemned attempts to politicize the Olympic Games. "A few organizations are attaching some topics to the Olympic Games to slur China's image and to put pressure on the Chinese government," said a spokeswoman of the Chinese foreign ministry, adding, "No country in the world is perfect in human rights issues."

Anti-China protests surged as the Olympic torch toured Europe, stoking Chinese nationalism and prompting many Chinese to cancel plans to travel to France. In a CFR symposium, Dru Gladney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute, said that many Chinese were suspicious of the protesters' intentions. "When we criticize China on issues such as Tibet or its treatment of its Muslims, Chinese think that we're trying to drag that country down, we're trying to keep them back," he said. China's state-run news sources have fueled these nationalist feelings by accusing Western media outlets of an anti-China bias.

The IOC has sided with China, arguing that the Olympic Games should be isolated from politics. During an April 2007 press conference, Hein Verbruggen, a senior official with the International Olympics Committee, responded to questions about holding China accountable on human rights issues by saying, "We are not in a position that we can give instructions to governments as to how they ought to behave." But despite efforts by China and the IOC keep the Olympics apolitical, the Beijing games have joined a long list of Olympic Games that have gotten tangled up in political affairs.

Regulating International Media Coverage

China's Communist Party tightly controls media access and coverage. But in January 2007, Beijing began to loosen regulations for foreign journalists, allowing them to report throughout the country without the permission previously required. The eased restrictions -- which also apply to journalists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao -- are supposed to last through the Summer Games, when twenty-thousand foreign reporters are expected to descend on Beijing. It remains unclear if the reforms will stay in place after the games' conclusion, but they are currently scheduled to lapse in October 2008.

An Economist reporter tested the new regulations while reporting about HIV/AIDS in a village in Henan. Local officials initially tried to bar coverage but, after a call to Beijing, they cooperated with the journalist's request. Ashley W. Esarey, an expert on Chinese media at Middlebury College, says in a podcast that the relaxed laws for foreign journalists serve as a Communist Party "experiment" to test out less restrictive media regulations. He warns the laws "will be rescinded if they're seen as jeopardizing the Communist Party's hold on power," particularly if the openness inspires Chinese journalists to seek greater freedoms themselves.

Some journalists have already had their new rights flouted. According to the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, foreign journalists have reported more than 230 cases of harassment, obstruction, and detention since the new laws were enacted. A recent report from the Committee to Protect Journalists catalogues the ways in which journalists throughout China are censored, and argues that China has fallen short of its Olympic promises.

Tibet's unrest poses a particular challenge. Restrictions on media coverage in Tibet, always something of a special case due to China's sensitivity about the once-independent region, grew tighter still with the March 2008 outbreak of violence between protesters and security forces. Even before the violence, applications for travel to the region by international journalists routinely were refused. Beginning in March, reporters were banned from the region completely, telephone and internet service were interrupted, and some broadcasts and Internet sites of major Western outlets, including CNN, the Guardian, the BBC, the Los Angeles Times, and others, were reportedly jammed by Chinese authorities for a time.