The Beijing 2008 Olympics on August 8, 2008 is the fourth held in Asia. Beijing has been busy rapidly completing preparations. These Olympic games have broken many records and has been called ‘the Supersized Olympics’. Most spectacular of all is the Beijing National Stadium, begun in March 2004.
The Stadium, made of woven steel, is called ‘The Bird’s Nest’ because of the shape of its structure, which is similar to that of the Beijing Olympic symbols. The stadium is 330 meters long by 220 meters wide, and is 69.2 meters tall. This stadium can hold 91,000 people at one time. With the completion construction of thirty-seven Olympic stadiums, the preparations and facilities for the Olympics including infrastructure has successfully been completed.
Beijing West Railway Station, now the largest in China, which links provinces to Beijing and to its downtowns can carry 300,000 passengers per day. Many spacious parking lots have also added.
The Third Building of Seowood International Airport has already completed, as well. It is the biggest in the world and twice as large as Inchon International Airport at 986,000 . It takes approximately 30 minutes to find luggage, move through the immigration counters, and take a five-minute monorail from the airplane landing. The approximately 3-kilometer-long Swing Street is so long that some people have called it ‘Mini-city’.
The China Olympic Committee recruited 100,000 volunteers to work inside and outside the Olympic stadiums and convention facilities. Furthermore, an additional 400,000 volunteers for the 500 information centers are located in the downtown area of Beijing to provide informational services during the Olympic period. The number of volunteers is eight times larger than that of Athens 2004 Olympics for offering one-to-one service to Beijing tourists estimated to be between 500,000 to 800,000 people.
Meanwhile, the Beijing Olympics have brought about several problems. The first issue is concern with the environment. Air pollution in Beijing was said to be potentially very harmful to physical health and even the Investigation Panel had reported the results and warned of its seriousness.
The problems of air pollution could be an obstacle to the successful holding of the Olympics. Gebeureu Selah, a marathon world record holder and Jwiseutin, a world-class woman tennis player declared their absences. There were other problems, as well. Environmental issues, lack of facilities and accommodations and civic consciousness are considered problems and recently a lack of public toilets has been another issue. The Chinese government temporarily shut down the factories emitting air pollutants and controlled the operation of automobiles in order to make air in Beijing clean. In addition to expanding lodging facilities, the Committee was trying to improve civic consciousness through campaigns, but experts have said they are ‘insufficient and have a long way to go yet’.
Second, the political issues concerned with the situation of Tibet are recognized to be more serious since the Chinese government suppressed Tibetan protesters who campaigned on the streets, demanding autonomy. However, the Chinese government said it would not relate the political situations of Tibet to the Olympics. The world started publicly criticise Beijing. First, the European Parliament adopted a resolution stating “If the Chinese government does not start a conversation with Tibet, the leaders of European Union (EU) will boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.” Consequently, this resolution, 580 votes in favor and 24 opposed, was overwhelmingly approved and adopted. Hans Gert Poettering, President of the European Parliament, said, “The resolution was passed almost unanimously. I hope that the Chinese government will understand this well.”
The EU also criticized the hard suppression by the Chinese government, and urged the United Nations investigation on violence in Tibet. Also, the EU summit declared absences in the opening ceremony. Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister
decided that he wouldn’t be present at the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. Marie Okabe, the Secretary-General’s Deputy Spokesman, said in a regular briefing, “We told the Chinese government a few months ago that because Ban Kimoon,
Secretary General of UN has an important event that day, he might not accept an invitation to the opening ceremony.” An official of the UN said concerning this, “That means it is a matter of arrangement. It has not decided yet.”
Angela Merkel, the Premier of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy, French President also said that the Chinese government must start to converse with Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. Unless the Chinese government starts a dialogue, they won’t attend the opening ceremony. Moreover, Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator and Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, urged Bush not to attend the opening ceremony. John McCain, Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator also confirmed “President Bush should consider whether he will attend the opening ceremony in the China Olympics, his absence is appropriate under the current situations.” Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman said “It is extremely premature to announce President's August schedule” and she hinted at Bush’s absence from the opening ceremony.
Third, In addition to the absences, the torch relay of the Olympic flame was a big problem. Human rights organizations around the world and Tibetan protesters interfered with the travel of the torch relay even though extinguishing the torch has been internationally forbidden. Torch extinguishing before the closing of the Olympics had happened during the Canada 1976 Summer Olympics and the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics.
However, the cause of the Montreal and Athens’ incidents were related to strong wind, but this case is exceptional as it was put out the torch by the relay runners because of being threatened by powerful demonstrators. These demonstrations were triggered since a demonstrator was jumping in to try to stop the torch burning from Olympia, in Greece. The Olympic Torch traveled from Olympia in Greece to Beijing, a total of 137,000 kilometers for 130 days, but each relay event faced obstacles. In
Africa, despite no threat to stop the torch they shortened relay tracks, and the torch in India located in Tibetan refugee government traveled in air-tight security. The torch relay in San Francisco, the only area in North American continent. That was similar to India.
Theses situations have caused international disputes. The Chinese began the boycott campaign for nations which wouldn’t participate in the opening ceremony. As a result European companies including France’s Carrefour have been boycotted. In addition, since one of the temples in Japan deny the torch relay, two countries even showed the signs of a bad relationship. Meanwhile, the Chinese government said that Tibetan situations and the Olympics are separate.
In this way, the Beijing Olympics has been drawing an international interest. The Chinese government revealed its indisposition. However, if China wants one further step of China development through the Olympics and becomes an influential member in the world, they must take the international opinions into consideration.
The Olympic Games is the world’s festival, thus that the Olympics should be considered by China not as a only means of its own benefits but a chance of the world peace and harmony without defaming the spirits of the Olympics.
