MB Civic

August 7, 2007

BEIJING (Reuters) – Free Tibet activists on
the Great Wall, a barrage of critical rights
reports, a shroud of smog hanging over
Beijing — China’s government must surely
have imagined a more auspicious one-year
countdlown for the Olympics.

On top of that, the flood of food safety
scandals shows no sign of abating and a
group of dissidents has written an open
letter to President Hu Jintao calling for the
Games’ slogan to be changed to “One
World, One Dream, Same Human Rights.”

The weather is also refusing to cooperate
in the run-up to the eighth day of the
eighth month on Wednesday, which will
start the one-year countdown to the
opening ceremony. Torrential rain has
brought Beijing traffic to a standstill
several times, and it seems so long since
the sun last broke through the pollution
that some are dubbing Beijing “Greyjing.”
And few are convinced by government
pledges to ensure media freedom.

On Monday, police prevented several
journalists from leaving a Reporters Without Borders conference calling for
greater media freedom. They were let go
two hours later, without explanation. “The
ongoing harassment and detention of
journalists make Beijing’s Olympic pledge
on media freedoms seem more like a public
relations ploy than a sincere policy
initiative,” said Brad Adams, Asia director
at Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based Committee to Protect
Journalists said China was holding at least
29 reporters and editors behind bars
because of their work. “A decade ago we
saw a tendency towards the liberalization
of the media in China and under the Hu
government we’ve seen a backing away
from that. …We don’t see a liberalization,”
committee Asia program coordinator Bob
Dietz told reporters.

“LET EXILES COME HOME”

Celebrations to kick off the one-year
countdown start on Wednesday with a
series of colorful events across the city,
including in central Tiananmen Square,
where soldiers bloodily put down pro-
democracy protests in 1989.

Ding Zilin, whose son was killed in the
protests and leads a campaign to seek
redress for the events of 1989, was one of
40 people who signed an open letter to the
government calling for more freedoms
ahead of the Olympics. “Let Chinese citizens
who have been forced into exile for
reasons of politics, religion or belief, come
home, so they can enjoy the Olympics in
their motherland and not some strange
country,” the letter said.

As if the government needed reminding
about the potential for protests at the
Games, the Free Tibet Campaign said six
demonstrators had been detained for
unfurling a banner on the Great Wall
demanding independence for the
Himalayan region.

“The Chinese government is exploiting the
Olympics to gain acceptance as a world
leader,” said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director
of Students for a Free Tibet. “By protesting
at the Great Wall, the most recognizable
symbol of Chinese nationhood, we’re
sending a clear message that China’s
dream of international leadership cannot
be realized as long as it continues its brutal
occupation of Tibet.”

Health in the country that spawned SARS
and whose tainted pet food, toothpaste
and cough medicine has caused worldwide
alarm, is another concern which won’t go
away.

Olympic organizers have promised to use
satellite tracking to monitor food supplies
for the Games and have stressed on
numerous occasions that hygiene is one of
their top priorities.

But still the bad news comes. The
government is now trying to crack down
on diseased pork entering the market, a
phenomenon which has increased as prices
have risen on the back of an epidemic
which has killed one million hogs in the last
year. And if the food doesn’t kill you, the
smog might.

Chinese city traffic police have an average
life expectancy of just 43 years because of
the dire working conditions and pollution,
state media said on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley)