Activism and Awareness

asap: Beijing Olympics update

asap ’s reporter Nick Tatro speaks to Scott McDonald, news editor in Beijing, to talk about the status of the Beijing Olympics:

China’s Olympics: a status check
July 9, 2007

Here are some of the interesting topics they discuss:

• McDonald talks about how the construction of buildings and new transportation routes is pushing people out of their homes and neighborhoods, referring to a similar situation in Chongqing last March, now known as “nail house” (dingzihu) incident, when a woman named Wu Ping refused to move to make way for a new apartment and shopping mall complex proposed by the Chongqing Zhengsheng Real Estate Company. See a video of her story on Danwei.

• Beijing is working hard to change its “image” to the outside world. The government regulates a series of public announcements, such as “Don’t Spit in Public” or “Don’t smoke in your taxi.” Charm school for China!

• But even more significant than practicing good etiquette is handling the PR for China’s involvement with Sudan. Newsflash! There’s a genocide going on in Darfur, and China is contributing to it by giving money to Khartoum in the form of foreign investment and military equipment. (See an article about the “Genocide Olympics” by Businessweek.)

There’s also that whole Mount Everest fiasco…

• The Chinese government is constructing a paved road (highway?) on the China side of Everest, planned to be the last leg of an elaborate relay across five continents to bring the Olympic torch to the top of the world, broadcast live for everyone to see. Chinese climbers are already doing practice routes on it. The goal is to make that part of the route easier, for tourists and future mountaineers, McDonald reports. But Free Tibet activists aren’t happy about it.

Check out this YouTube video showing footage of Tibetan independence activists who protested on the eve of the International Olympic Committee’s announcement last April of the final Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay route. The five activists were detained for three days by the Chinese government.

Chinese activists on Tibet
“We’re here to tell the rest of the world that it is our responsibility, your responsibility, to stand up and take a stand for the Tibetan people.”

For more multimedia coverage of the protests and the aftermath, click here.

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