China's Olympic Odyssey

The opening ceremonieshave been widely recognised to be one of the most spectacular in Olympic historythough now we find out that the stunning firework show included digitallyenhanced computer graphics and the pretty girl who sang "Ode to theMotherland" was actually just lip-synching to another child’s voice who wasnot considered pretty enough to be at the podium.

The Olympic Games havebecome a mirror into China as China has spent around $43 billion in trying totransform Beijing into an Olympic city with tens of millions of dollars spentonly on the opening ceremonies. "Can I help you?" is the most popularEnglish refrain in Beijing these days. The Chinese government opened severaltraining centres where the populace of Beijing got ready to welcome the world totheir city for the Olympics. It’s an extraordinary spectacle: one of the mostclosed societies opening itself to outsiders to announce its arrival as one ofthe world’s pre-eminent power while at the same time signalling that it is notas troublesome as its image sometimes might suggest.

The city of Beijing seems as giddy with excitement as a teenager on his or her first date. And inmany ways, it is not simply Beijing’s but China’s most important date withthe global community. The city’s makeover is almost absolute. It strikes youthe moment you land in the Beijing airport -- the swanky new architecture thatcombines logistical efficiency and aesthetic exhilaration in equal measure.Beijing today has one of the world’s best new airports designed by the leadingarchitect, Norman Foster. And, with 126 aircraft stands, two separate sectionsfor domestic and international travel, a train station for a new rapid-transitline to downtown Beijing, it is probably the largest building in the world.

Smartly dressedvolunteers approach you with smiling faces to help you navigate through thelabyrinth of this gargantuan structure even though you may not require any help.The security is tight with hordes of security personnel moving around the city,though with requisite subtlety so as not to give away the fact that China forall its outward trappings remains an authoritarian state. From sophisticatedsystems of weather management, to facial recognition software for enhancedsecurity, to microchips that will enable the Chinese citizens to watch the gameson their mobiles, a technological revolution is sweeping Beijing under thewatchful eyes of the Chinese Communist Party.

It’s the smogsurrounding Beijing, however, which initially at least refused to abide by thedictates of the Communist Party. It got worse for the first few days of theGames despite the government closing polluting factories in and around Beijing,suspending work on most urban construction projects and banning vehicles thatfail to meet emission standards. Australia became the first country to let itsathletes withdraw from the Olympics should they decide that the environmentalconditions are not suitable for participation. Many other countries soonfollowed suit.

When the Chinesegovernment found out that algae was growing thick and fast occupying almost athird of the area to be used for the sailing competition, it rapidly deployedits armed forces and more than 100,000 tons of algae was cleared in days.Clearing of smog, unfortunately, does not lend itself to such organisationalprowess. And so the Chinese government has come up with an ingenious responsesuggesting that what the western media has been calling smog is actually justhaze occurring due to an unusual dry spell. Concern with weather remains highwith military precision rockets ready to be fired into the sky to keep the darkclouds at bay. The Olympics which were conceived off as China’s coming outparty have paradoxically ended up underlining the environmental costs of theChinese model of development, much to the annoyance of the nation’s politicaldispensation.

Sports and politics make for a potent mix. The Olympic Games, in particular, have been the mostpolitical of all sports competitions. They are a mass spectacle andauthoritarian regimes are particularly well-disposed to such pageants as theygive a boost to officially sanctioned mass nationalism. The Olympics areimportant for contemporary China because they restore Chinese pride and thenation’s sense of greatness. China has always thought it was the centre of theworld and for these two weeks in August it indeed has been that.

The eyes of the worldare on China and, with these Games, China has certainly made it clear that it isnow the new kid on the block. Yet it is also clear that that kid will have tosoon grow up if the world is to take it seriously. China’s restrictions onaccess to internet for foreign news media, despite promising otherwise, are asign that the government wants to retain control of the information flow duringthe Olympics. It has been suggested that hosting of Olympics will make China’stransition to a more open society easier and even the International OlympicCommittee had argued that China would be forced to become more open tosuccessfully conduct the Olympic Games. It’s not clear if any of these wisheswould come to fruition anytime soon as China seems intent on making these Games"Olympics with Chinese characteristics." The start was rather inauspiciouswith the Chinese government’s heavy handed reaction to the Tibetan riots inMarch forcing the international community to rethink the gamble the world hadtaken by awarding Olympics to China

In many ways, China’sbehaviour post-Olympics becomes even more important. China has made some heavyduty diplomatic investments recently in improving its ties with two of its mostintransigent neighbours, Japan and Taiwan, so as to reduce the chances of aflare up spoiling China’s Olympic moment. There is a concerted attempt toproject the rise of China as different from previous great powers where militaryconflict often accompanied power transitions. The question is, will thisbehaviour go beyond the Olympics or is it merely about putting the best footforward before the world as an Olympic host? This is especially true for Indiawhere there’s a growing nervousness about the Chinese intransigence on theboundary issue. And as India prepares to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010,India can learn from the Chinese experience. India will also be under similarglobal scrutiny and the China-India comparison will become even morecommonplace.

"One World, OneDream" is the official slogan of the Beijing Olympics. It remains to beseen if China will be able to live up to this lofty ideal once the pomp andcircumstance of the Olympics has died down.