Olympic Games Beijing 2008

IOC told it must request Chinese apology for offensive comments in Lhasa

Reporters Without Borders thinks that the International Olympic Committee has not gone far enough in its expression of “regret” today about the political message of hatred towards the Dalai Lama and his followers that two senior Communist Party officials made during the Olympic torch relay in Lhasa on 21 June.

“It is not enough for the IOC to express its regret about the extreme gravity of what happened in Tibet,” the press freedom organisation said. “The IOC’s president, Jacques Rogge, must request a public apology from those who made these comments and from the BOCOG. The IOC’s silence on human rights issues allows these excesses, in which the Olympic Games are used to justify repression in Tibet.” Reporters Without Borders already criticised the IOC’s silence on 23 June.

Agence France-Presse reported that the IOC issued an email statement today saying: “The IOC regrets that political statements were made during the closing ceremony of the torch relay in Tibet. We have written to BOCOG (Beijing Olympics Organising Committee) to remind them of the need to separate sport and politics.”
Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party’s secretary in Tibet, said during the Olympic flame ceremony in Lhasa: “In order to bring more glory to the Olympic spirit, we should firmly smash the plots to ruin the Beijing Olympic Games by the Dalai clique and hostile foreign forces inside and outside of the nation.” Qin Yizhi, another party official, also called for the Dalai Lama’s supporters to be “smashed.”

Source: Reporters Without Borders

China reopens Tibet to foreign tourists

BEIJING (AFP) — China re-opened Tibet to foreign tourists Wednesday after claiming victory over the worst unrest there in decades — which led Beijing to all but seal off the area from the outside world.

China’s crackdown in the wake of violent protests in Tibet in March drew international condemnation, and led to demonstrations in several countries that disrupted the Olympic torch relay ahead of the Beijing Games in August.

On the Tibet government website, spokesman Zha Nuo said the region would be re-opened for tourists — and that a trouble-free run for the torch through the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Saturday showed current stability.

“After the quick quelling of the ‘March 14′ incident in Lhasa, we have realised a great transitional victory in the fight against separatists,” Zha said.

“The successful Beijing Olympic torch relay in Lhasa on June 21 further proves that currently social stability in Tibet has been further consolidated.”

With the Beijing Olympics set to start in little over a month, China faced the prospect of the Games being tarnished by continued overseas criticism of its Tibet policies if it kept the region sealed off.

Despite the announcement that the region was open to foreigners, tour operators in Lhasa said restrictions remained in place and non-Chinese could travel to the region only in tour groups and after obtaining special permits.

“It is still difficult for foreigners to travel here, it is not really all opened up,” a tour agent with the Shendi International Travel Agency in Lhasa told AFP by phone.

“The problem is that the permits are going to take time…. Without the permit to enter Tibet, foreign travellers will not be able to purchase air or train tickets to Tibet.”

Zha said two Swedish tourists would arrive in Lhasa on Wednesday, followed by four from Singapore on Sunday.

He did not mention when a ban on foreign journalists to the region would be lifted.

Beijing kicked all tourists and foreigners out of Tibet after violent protests against Chinese rule erupted in mid-March, prompting a massive Chinese security clampdown.

China allowed mainland Chinese tour groups back in at the end of April, followed by visitors from Hong Kong and Macau in May, when it also began allowing tourists from Taiwan — which China considers part of its territory.

“It is very hard for us to believe that China will allow free access to western tourists,” Paul Bourke, the executive director of the Australia Tibet Council, told AFP.

“China has always seemed to go to great lengths to prevent Tibetans from having any contact with foreigners. We will be watching with interest to see how this so-called ‘opening’ develops.”

Bourke said he continues to receive reports from Tibet about a huge military presence in the region and an ongoing police and military lockdown on Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.

Foreign tourists would likely be watched closely and their movements would be restricted, Bourke said, citing what he said was the stage-management of Saturday’s torch relay in Lhasa.

“They may be saying the torch relay was a success, but it was cut from three days to one day and then to a few hours,” Bourke said.

“It was completely stage-managed, with most Tibetans told to stay at home. There was a huge military presence on the streets, and the journalists covering it were all hand-picked and restricted.”

China’s crackdown on the unrest in Tibet sparked international protests that dogged the Olympic torch’s month-long global journey in April before it arrived in China for a nationwide relay.

Exiled Tibetan leaders say 203 people died in the Chinese clampdown on the riots, which began in Lhasa after monks led peaceful protests to mark a 1959 uprising, and later spread across the Tibetan plateau.

China has reported killing one Tibetan “insurgent” and says “rioters” were responsible for 21 deaths.

Source AFP

Foreign Media Curbed as flame passes through Xinjiang & Tibet

Reporters Without Borders today accused China of breaking its promises to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by preventing foreign journalists from freely covering the journey of the Olympic flame through Xinjiang and Tibet.

Only a few were allowed to go to Kashgar, Urumqi and Lhasa, and they were forbidden to talk to local people. The authorities also used the passage of the flame through these sensitive regions to mount a new propaganda campaign despite the government saying, like the IOC, that the Games must not be politicised.

“The Olympic flame relay journey has never been such a trumped-up operation where local people have been told to stay indoors because they are seen as a threat,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said. “And never have foreign journalists been so restricted in reporting on an event that has been outrageously politicised by the Chinese government.

“Yet the IOC remains silent in the face of this new violation of the Olympic Charter by Chinese officials using the Olympic flame to justify political repression,” it said.
Only about 50 foreign journalists were allowed to report on the passage of the flame through Lhasa on 21 June and nearly half of them were from media outlets in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan who were handpicked by the Chinese government. International news agencies and some TV stations with rights to broadcast the Beijing Games were allowed two days in Lhasa. Other parts of Tibet have been closed to foreigners for more than three months. No US or British daily paper was allowed in.

When they got to Lhasa, foreign reporters were barred from going to the Jokhang temple in the old part of the city and instead guided to Potala and the Sera monastery. “A large number of uniformed and plainclothes police filmed our every move and there were very few monks we could talk to and question,” one journalist told Reporters Without Borders.
Journalists were kept in a park opposite the old summer residence of the Dalai Lama where the flame set out from. They were not allowed to follow the flame, go into the old city or talk to local people. Official guides also tried to deceive journalists about the situation in Lhasa. One Canadian reporter who asked why all shops were shut as the flame passed through the city was told that shops in Tibet were always closed on a Saturday (21 June). What is not true.

“The passage of the flame was a sad affair,” said another journalist. “Those watching were chosen by the authorities, police lined the whole route and there were military checkpoints throughout the city.”

Website access in China to some of the reports filed by foreign journalists, such as the reporter of Canada’s Globe and Mail, was later blocked by the authorities.

Officials in Xinjiang strictly supervised the activities of foreign journalists allowed to report on the passage of the flame through Kashgar and Urumqi. Despite promises made to foreign media, reporters were banned from speaking to the local Uighur population at the roadside.

“Don’t worry, we’re still giving you freedom to report,” one official told a Reuters news agency journalist in Kashgar on 18 June. The few reporters present were surrounded by police who stopped them leaving the security area. The Xinjiang authorities even printed a guide for foreign journalists saying that if there was a sudden event, meaning demonstrations, they would be asked to leave at once.

As in Lhasa, those allowed to see the flame pass were Han and Uighur people chosen by the authorities, who had asked most people to keep off the streets and to watch the passage of the flame on TV.

Government-controlled media coverage included harsh comments, such as the Tibetan Communist Party chief’s attack on “the Dalai Lama clique” that he said had to be destroyed. “The red flag with its five stars will always fly above Tibet,” he said.
One Tibetan official said most of the 1,300 people arrested after the demonstrations in March had been released, but there was no way to verify this. The authorities said an Amnesty International report on the imprisonment of more than 1,000 Tibetans did not have”an ounce of credibility.

The Chinese official media said the passage of the flame through Lhasa was a success from the security point of view and the Xinhua news agency said people were joyous and peaceful. The official search-engine Sohu said the flame’s journey had been a big success in Lhasa after arriving from Mount Everest. Government TV broadcast special programmes boasting about China’s economic development of Tibet but showed no film of military police present as the flame passed through Lhasa and Kashgar.
Several foreign journalists in Beijing told Reporters Without Borders that the recent claim in the official paper China Daily by Liu Qi, head of the official 2008 Olympics website BOCOG, that no request for interviews would be refused was false. Liu said the government would step up its propaganda before the Games so as to “create favourable public opinion.” One French journalist said there were more press conferences but face-to-face interviews with officials had become hard to obtain in recent months.

Source: Reporters Without Borders

China wont go to the 2010WC

The Chinese soccer team wont make it to South Africa in 2010. That is not a good publicity for their bid for the 2018 or 2022 WC.

Team China were hoping for a second chance to squeeze into the final of the 2010 World cup. But this time around, they failed to even make it into the final rounds of Asian zone qualifiers after losing to Iraq 2-1 at home Saturday night. 33 minutes into the match, an error by Iraqi goalkeeper Hasan Noor awarded China a free kick inside the area. Zhou Haibin didn’t waste the chance, and gave the hosts a 1-0 lead.

But the favorable situation only lasted for eight minutes as forward Ridha Emad leveled the score with a header. Going into the second half, China opted for more offence. But the empty defensive zone let them fall behind by one goal in the 65th minute. The match ended 2-1. With the victory, Iraq top the group with Australia and Kuwait, while China’s World Cup dreams are over.

Beijing Projection

In order to celebrate and promote the upcoming 2008 Olympic in Beijing, Nike stepped up to the plate big time, literally, by projecting images of some of China’s greatest athletes onto the sides of the new CCTV government building in Beijing. Designed by Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas, the building represents China’s rapid progress and its bright future. Nike chose the perfect medium for this campaign as it showcases China’s athleticism with a very symbolic backdrop.