2008 Beijing Olympics

 [News] [Papers]

US Disappointed Olympics Didn’t Open China More
(AP, Aug. 24, 2008) The United States says it is disappointed the Olympics did not bring more "openness and tolerance" in China as the games ended and eight American activists were deported during closing ceremonies.

China Urged to Free Americans Held for Tibet Protests
(Reuters, Aug. 24, 2008) The United States has pressed for the immediate release of eight Americans detained in Beijing for staging pro-free Tibet protests during the Beijing Olympics.

Brown Urges China to Take on World Role, Defends Olympic Visit By Mark Deen (Bloomberg, Aug. 22, 2008) U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown will remind Chinese leaders about the need for them to play a constructive role in maintaining peace in the world when he arrives in Beijing today for the closing of the Olympic Games.

Bush Sharpens Public Critique of China’s Idea of Freedom
(Washington Post, Aug. 10, 2008) President Bush is stepping up his public criticism of China's human rights practices, adopting a more confrontational posture than he suggested he might take in the weeks leading up to the Olympic Games.

Opening Gala Wins Raves, Raises Questions
(Reuters, Aug. 9, 2008) Audiences around the world gave rave reviews to the Beijing Olympics opening extravaganza on Saturday, but some questioned the heavy military theme and the show got a decidedly mixed reaction from political rival Taiwan.

Amid Praise, Bush Continues His Rebukes of China Upon His Arrival in Beijing (IHT, Aug. 8, 2008) President Bush rebuked China over political and religious freedoms for a second day, though he tempered his criticism with effusive praise for the country’s history and embraced its hosting of the Olympic Games.

China Eases Internet Restrictions for Journalists
(NYT, Aug. 2, 2008) The Chinese authorities, bowing to criticism from Olympic officials, foreign journalists and Western political leaders, have lifted some of the restrictions that blocked Web sites at the main press center for the Games.

Taiwan Officials to Attend Beijing Olympics Games
(CNA, Jul. 28, 2008) The Cabinet-level Sports Affairs Council announced yesterday that Minister Without Portfolio Ovid J. L. Tzeng, SAC Minister Tai Hsia-ling and Education Minister Cheng Jei-cheng will attend the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the invitation of the International Olympic Committee.

Taiwan Insists on ‘Chinese Taipei’
(China Post, Jul. 25, 2008) Taiwan's national team will withdraw from the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games if it’s title in the event is changed into "Taipei, China" from the established name of "Chinese Taipei" by Olympics authorities, a top sports affairs official said yesterday.

Asia Soft Power Survey 2008 By Christopher Whitney and David Shambaugh (Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Jun. 2008) As China prepares to host the 2008 Olympics and display the result of its great economic progress to the world, the survey finds that in the estimation of most Americans and many Asians, China still has a way to go to claim the world’s full recognition as a multifaceted power.

China Calls for Halt in 'Radical' Anti-France Demonstrations
(AP, Apr. 23, 2008) With praise for the French president and appeals for calm, China's leadership signaled that it is ready to put an end to anti-France sentiment that has swept the country since the chaotic Olympic torch relay in Paris.

Protests of the West Spread in China
(New York Times, Apr. 21, 2008) Nationwide demonstrations against a French supermarket chain spread on Sunday as thousands of people protested what they said was France’s sympathy for pro-Tibetan agitators. The protesters have also been singling out Western news outlets, especially CNN, for what they said was biased coverage of unrest in Tibet.

China Urges Control of 'Patriotic Fervor' over Tibet
(AFP, Apr. 18, 2008) China has urged its people to contain their patriotism, in the first sign Beijing may be growing uncomfortable with a nationalist outburst over the Tibet issue that it has tacitly supported.

China’s Top Paper Says Olympics Shows Party Rule Works By Chris Buckley (Reuters, Sep. 26, 2008) The United States' economic woes show the bankruptcy of Western-style democracy while China's Olympic Games triumph shows the growing "superiority" of its Communist Party rule, China's top newspaper said.

The Olympics Party is over. Now China Has to Clean up By Isabel Hilton (Guardian, Sep. 10, 2008) The full legacy of the extraordinary events of 2008 in the People's Republic of China will take many years to emerge, but in the short term, a number of pressing problems are clear.

China’s Rulers Look to Space to Maintain Olympic Pride
(AFP, Sep. 9, 2008) China's rulers are looking to catapult overflowing pride and patriotism from the Beijing Olympics into another stratosphere when the nation's first "taikonaut" walks in space this month.

Greatest Games Ever or Potemkin Village? By Victor Cha
(PacNet #44, Pacific Forum, CSIS, Sep. 2008) The Olympics was China’s announcement to the world that it is a global power.  But with this prestige comes global responsibilities in foreign policy and in domestic human rights.

China’s Olympic Run—Part II By Pallavi Aiyar
(YaleGlobal, Aug. 29, 2008) Without the Games and their prestige to drive home the necessity of “harmony” at any cost, China’s ruling party will have to confront its greatest Achilles heel – its inability to admit to the existence of real diversity and dissent – head on.

Where Next for Post-Games China? By Michael Bristow
(BBC, Aug. 28, 2008) The Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 and Seoul in 1988 both marked turning points in the development of Japan and South Korea. Many hope it will be the same for Beijing.

China’s Olympic Run—Part I By Mary Kay Magistad
(YaleGlobal, Aug. 27, 2008) China’s leaders are caught between conflicting instincts – to play to both audiences, to trumpet China’s rise as a formidable power, while trying to reassure the world of its friendly, non-threatening nature.

China Wins Plaudits for Olympics, but Criticized over Rights
(AFP, Aug. 26, 2008) China won global plaudits Monday for staging a successful Olympics, but rights groups were critical and the United States said Beijing had missed an opportunity to improve its global human rights image.

Where China Goes Next? By Simon Elegant
(Time, Aug. 25, 2008) What now for China? Will party hardliners, emboldened by the world's timid response to their brutal pre-Games crackdown on dissent, continue to tighten their grip on power? Or will the spirit of volunteerism and community that arose after the May earthquake in Sichuan be revived?

China Lauds Games as Show of Confidence By Chris Buckley
(Reuters, Aug. 25, 2008) The Beijing Olympics will leave China a more confident and open nation, the country's state-run media said on Monday.

A Victory for China By Edward Cody
(Washington Post, Aug. 25, 2008) The 2008 Games seemed likely to go down as a political as well as an athletic victory for China, reinforcing the image of party leaders as adroit managers of the world's largest nation on a double-step march toward greater prosperity.

After Glow of Games, What Next for China? By Jim Yardley
(New York Times, Aug. 24, 2008) A new, post-Olympic era has begun. The question now is whether a deepening self-confidence arising from the Olympic experience will lead China to further its engagement with the world and pursue deeper political reform.

Post-Games China to Refocus on Economy, Stability By Benjamin Kang Lim (Reuters, Aug. 24, 2008) China's leaders will breath a sigh of relief as the Beijing Olympics close, turning their attention back on the economy, keen to prevent any slowdown and possible unrest.

China’s Tour de Force By Geoffrey York
(Globe and Mail, Aug. 23, 2008) One key question is how the party will choose to use this nationalism. What will it do with this massive pride in China's gold medals, this sense of victory for the party itself?

Will the Olympics Boost China Human Rights? By Bruce Einhorn and Lawrence Delevingne (BusinessWeek, Aug. 22, 2008) Many were hoping a new openness would emerge as the mainland took center stage, but most experts agree the Games won't change much.

Games Behind Bars
(Editorial, Washington Post, Aug. 22, 2008) With harsh treatment of two elderly women seeking to protest, China wins a gold medal for repression.

Behind the Scenes By Sally Jenkins
(Washington Post, Aug. 21, 2008) As a reminder, consider the name Hu Jia. There are actually two famous Hu Jias in this country, one a renowned gold medalist in diving, and the other a jailed dissident. Between them, they tell the full story of these Olympics.

Did China Bend to Critics before Olympics? Not Much By John Chalmers (Reuters, Aug. 15, 2008) What price did China really pay for its day in the sun? In foreign policy terms, not much.

The Drums of Change By Harold Meyerson
(Washington Post, Aug. 13, 2008) On or about last Friday, the world changed. With two very different coming-out parties -- the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and the invasion of Georgia.

In China, Bush Juggles Sports and Diplomacy By Calum MacLeod
(USA Today, Aug. 11, 2008)  Bush’s mere presence in the Chinese capital was a gift to Beijing, said analysts, and meant its communist leaders could condone the criticism Bush offered.

For Many Expatriates, Olympics Signal China’s Arrival By Erik Eckholm (NYT, Aug. 10, 2008) As mainland Chinese greeted the Beijing Olympics with exuberant pride, so, too, have Chinese-Americans, who have often been divided over how to deal with the Communists or the future of Taiwan, but who share a sense that China has taken a long-awaited place on the world stage.

One World, One Dream: China is in the Olympic Games to Win By Charles Moore (Telegraph, Aug. 9, 2008) Looking at yesterday's astonishing scroll of Chinese glories rolled out on the floor of the Bird's Nest stadium, one sees, once again, a political purpose.

China Leaders Try to Impress and Reassure World By Jim Yardley
(NYT, Aug. 8, 2008) If the astonishing opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games lavished grand tribute on Chinese civilization and sought to stir an ancient nation’s pride, there was also a message for an uncertain outside world: Do not worry. We mean no harm.

For China, It’s Showtime By Edward Cody
(Washington Post, Aug. 8, 2008) The 29th Olympiad in Beijing has from the beginning been a political as well as an athletic event. 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.

Beijing’s Game
(Editorial, Washington Post, Aug. 8, 2008) Wonderful as it may be, this quadrennial spectacle comes at a price. It's the intangible cost that these two weeks of Olympian international comity will exact on the cause of democracy itself.

What China Wants from the Game By Michael Bristow
(BBC, Aug. 7, 2008) China hoped to showcase all it had achieved over the past 30 years since opening up to the outside world, but outside criticism has changed all that.

U.S. in “Firm Opposition” to Chinese Human Rights Policies, Bush Says By Michael Abramowitz (Washington Post, Aug. 7, 2008) President Bush on Thursday used some of his bluntest language to date on human rights in China, saying that "America stands in firm opposition" to China's detention of political dissidents and religious activists.

China’s Leaders Are Resilient in Face of Change By Jim Yardley
(NYT, Aug. 6, 2008) If the Olympics have presented unmistakable challenges and crises, the Communist Party has proved resilient. The short-term byproduct of the Olympics has been a surge in Chinese patriotism that bolstered the party against international criticism.

Getting in Shape for Games, China Strengthens Ties with Neighbors By Edward Wong (NYT, Aug. 5, 2008) After two years of intensive and often secretive overtures, Taiwan and Japan, two neighbors long viewed as the most likely to face a military threat from a rising China have been drawn closer into its orbit.

Why China Has the Torch By Jere Longman
(New York Times, Aug. 3, 2008) Parsing the impact of the seven-year buildup is difficult. Even before its selection for the Olympics, China was, gradually, becoming more open for ordinary people.

Calling China’s Human Rights Bluff By Jim Hoagland
(Washington Post, Aug. 3, 2008) Every aspect of life under totalitarian governments is political, from sports to culture to business. President Bush and other world leaders attending the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics this week should stop pretending otherwise.

China’s Dash for Freedom
(The Economist, Jul. 31, 2008) On balance, the award of the games has done more harm than good to the opening up of China. The big forces driving that opening are independent of the games.

China to Limit Web Access During Olympic Games By Andrew Jacobs (New York Times, Jul. 31, 2008) The International Olympic Committee failed to press China to allow fully unfettered access to the Internet for the thousands of journalists arriving here to cover the Olympics.

Bush Meets 5 Dissidents from China before Games By Sheryl Gay Stolberg (New York Times, Jul. 30, 2008) President Bush held private talks with five prominent Chinese dissidents on Tuesday, and urged China’s foreign minister to relax restrictions on human rights.

China Using Olympics as ‘Pretext’ for Crackdown: Amnesty
(AFP, Jul. 29, 2008) China is using the Beijing Olympics as a pretext to pursue -- and in some cases tighten -- a crackdown on human rights, notably ridding the capital of "undesirables," Amnesty International charged Monday.

Rights Issue Looms as Bush Heads to China By Michael Abramowitz
(Washington Post, Jul. 28, 2008) With President Bush set to leave next week for the Olympics in Beijing, the White House is coming under increased pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to make a public statement of concern about the crackdown on human rights and freedom in China.

Olympics: Wary China Readies for Some Patriot Games By Jonathan Watts (Guardian, Jul. 28, 2008) With less than two weeks until the opening ceremony, the tide of nationalist fervor is rising to fever pitch as the torch enters the final stages of its epic and controversial journey to Beijing.

China’s Agony of Defeat By Orville Schell
(Newsweek, Aug. 4, 2008) The Beijing Games present a fraught and sensitive moment. China has made a Herculean effort to prepare the way for this spectacle, in which ordinary Chinese, not just their leaders, can announce themselves to the world as having regained their national greatness.

In Washington, China and Critics Spread Separate Versions of Coming Olympic Games (AP, Jul. 25, 2008) The Olympic games begin in Beijing on Aug. 8, but already the competition to sway public opinion in the United States is heating up between anti-China activists and Chinese authorities. It is transforming the run-up to the global sports gathering into a public relations marathon.

Open China’s Great Firewall
(Christian Science Monitor, Jul. 24, 2008) China has more people online than any other country. But its rulers are also world-class obstructors of the Internet, a practice sure to be under scrutiny during the Olympic Games, when foreigners used to Web freedom will visit Beijing.

China’s Unreality TV
(Editorial, New York Times, Jul. 22, 2008) We will never know whether China’s leaders intended to keep their word. What we do know is that the International Olympic Committee, corporate sponsors and governments around the world should have held China to its word.

China is Growing Unfriendly to Foreigners, Visitors Say By Ariana Eunjung Cha (Washington Post, Jul. 19, 2008) Some human rights advocates, business associations and foreign visitors say the visa crackdown has more to do with keeping out potential foreign protesters. They say the process is alienating foreigners.

Faster, Higher – But Freer?
(Editorial, The Guardian, Jul. 12, 2008) The opening ceremony will be less of a coming-out parade for Chinese leaders than a coronation. For the very same reasons, western leaders rightly remain uneasy about giving their imprimatur to a regime which jails dissidents, persecutes religious groups, backs Burma and bankrolls Darfur.

China Crackdown Targets Critics Ahead of Olympics By Henry Sanderson (AP, Jul. 11, 2008) As Beijing enters the final stretch before the August 8-24 Olympics, the government is trying to shut out anyone it believes might mar an event meant to showcase China as a modern nation.

Fraying at the Edges
(The Economist, Jul. 10, 2008) Taiwan is a big unfinished nationalist project at a time when Chinese nationalism is gaining potency. Beijing’s present policy relies on Taiwan’s refraining from any “provocation”. This is dangerously fragile.

Around the World, Activists Assemble to Press China on Rights By Robin Shulman (Washington Post, Jul. 9, 2008) Marking the one-month countdown to the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, activists gathered here and in cities around the world Tuesday to call on China to ease crackdowns on dissenters and release political prisoners.

China Seen as Reneging on Media-Freedom Vow By Geoffrey York
(Globe and Mail, Jul. 7, 2008) When 25,000 foreign journalists descend on Beijing next month to cover the Olympics, they will face restrictions that are far from the "complete freedom" China promised in its bid for the Games.

China Protests: A New Approach? By Simon Elegant
(Time, Jul. 4, 2008) The incident that took place in the remote town of Weng’an is more than a mere pre-Olympics anomaly and may be part of a new, more open approach by Beijing to outbursts of long-simmering rage.

Nationalist Fervor in China Is Backed by Anger By Ted Plafker
(International Herald Tribune, Jun. 27, 2008) Wrought from several sets of interwoven strands, the Chinese impulse toward nationalism is an intricate fabric. Love of country is mixed with a sometimes venomous ethnic chauvinism.

Return to Repression
(Editorial, Washington Post, Jun. 23, 2008) The suppression of critical coverage and the harassment of foreign journalists are the norms in China. What makes it remarkable now is not only the brief relaxation of control that preceded it but the fact that it comes just weeks before the Olympic Games in Beijing.

In China, the Game Has Changed By Victor D. Cha
(LA Times, Jun. 15, 2008) Political change in China is unavoidable, however. Beijing's leaders face a Catch-22. The price for seeking the Olympic limelight to showcase China's greatness is increased exposure to pressures to change.

Victim Or Victor? China’s Olympic Odyssey By Ian Buruma
(Wall Street Journal, Jun. 7, 2008) Resurgent nationalists are counting on a torrent of gold medals to erase centuries of humiliation. Will the Beijing Games complete a restoration of Chinese greatness or arrogance?

China's Pride Versus Western Prejudice
(Asia Times, May 2, 2008) New wave of Chinese nationalism: This is at least the fourth outbreak of Chinese patriotism or nationalism in the last decade: previous triggers include the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, the EP-3 US electronic surveillance plane incident in 2001, and protests against the Japanese prime minister's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in 2005.

For Chinese, a Shift in Mood, From Hospitable to Hostile By Edward Cody
(Washington Post, Apr. 29, 2008) Just weeks ago, most Chinese were welcoming foreigners as Olympic guests and partners in the country's meteoric economic development. But as the country enters the final 100 days before the Olympic Games in Beijing, the mood has changed. Many Chinese have begun to regard foreigners as adversaries interfering in domestic affairs or, at worst, bigots unwilling to accept China's emergence as a great power.

China Falls Short on Vows for Olympics: 'Long Way to Go' On Rights, Pollution And Press Freedom (Washington Post, Apr. 21, 2008) China has spent billions of dollars to fulfill its commitment to stage a grand Olympics. But beneath the shimmer and behind the slogan, China has not lived up to a pledge in its Olympic action plan, released in 2002, to "be open in every aspect," and a constitutional amendment adopted in 2004 to recognize and protect human rights has not shielded government critics from arrest.

What a 'Dissident President' Would Do at the Games By Ellen Bork (Washington Post, Jan. 7, 2008) China's government arrested one of the country's most prominent dissidents late last month. State security agents entered the home of Hu Jia on Dec. 27, according to reports, cut the phone line and gave his wife, Zeng Jinyan, a warrant accusing her husband of subversion. The arrest of Hu, an advocate for AIDS victims and a critic of Beijing's handling of the 2008 Olympics, poses a problem for the White House.