SMOG READY: Members of the US cycling team arrived Tuesday in Beijing wearing respiratory masks. (Yeves Herman/Reuters)
Olympic torch – and U.S. cyclists in masks – arrive in Beijing
China tries to choreograph a happy ending to its troubled international tour.
Lindsay Beck | Reuters / August 5, 2008 edition
Chengdu, China
The Olympic torch arrived in China’s capital on Tuesday after a jubilant reception in the quake-ravaged southwest, as Beijing tries to choreograph a happy ending to its troubled international tour.
Beijing’s residents have been warned they will face sweeping security to prevent any more trouble – and bad publicity – on the last leg of the tour ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony. In recent weeks, about 1,000 Chinese petitioners in Beijing, people from the provinces who have come to seek redress for mistreatment from local officials, have been rounded up and moved out of the capital. Many inexpensive hotels and inns in the city, where such petitioners live, have been shut down.
“This is the pride of the Chinese people,” worker Xu Min said amid cheering crowds watching the flame in Chengdu, capital of quake-hit Sichuan Province where 70,000 people died in May.
But far to the northwest, questions about dissent and China’s human rights record refused to go away, after suspected Islamist separatists killed 16 policemen on Monday in what a senior local Communist Party official called a “terrorist attack,”
Riot police flooded the streets in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar and stopped cars. Exiled dissident groups said many local Muslims had been rounded up, and some beaten. Japan protested after police also beat up two of its journalists there.
The government and Olympics chiefs shrugged off the attack, assuring 10,500 athletes from 205 countries they would be safe.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also tried to reassure visitors and athletes that the smog which often envelops the capital would not pose major health problems.
But not everyone is convinced.
Members of the US cycling squad arrived at Beijing’s swanky new airport terminal on Tuesday wearing black respiratory masks.
The sun made a welcome appearance on Tuesday afternoon as a light breeze dispersed the pollution-fueled haze that had earlier obscured a skyline boasting numerous futuristic new Olympic venues and towers bearing testimony to China’s new wealth.
The IOC’s medical chief said the masks were an unnecessary precaution, and the US Olympic Committee urged the Chinese not to take offense.
“It was in no way intended to be disrespectful,” spokesman Darryl Seibel said.
The last leg of the Olympic torch’s global 130-day tour starts at Beijing’s Forbidden City on Wednesday, before touring landmarks such as Tiananmen Square.
In a tradition introduced before the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the flame is lighted from the sun’s rays in ancient Olympia, Greece, then carried across the globe by thousands of runners.
Comments
2. Kat White | 08.06.08
It doesn’t matter what the IOC says, anyone that has seen pictures of China in the upcoming weeks, leading up to the Games can see that China has some serious air quality problems. A lot of the athletes are not used to these conditions and are only looking out for themselves. I would wear a mask. I’ve been to Beijing, breathing there isn’t pleasant if you’re used to CLEAN AIR.
3. Sam | 08.06.08
Paul Wang//
Who cares about being disrespectful with Chinese? It’s the Chinese that failed to deliver what they promised when they made a bid for the Olympics.
You guys shouldn’t fault anyone but yourselves. Let’s deal with it: Beijing is dirty.
4. BlueL | 08.06.08
This is a typical western style self-promoting and self righteous show. What that little mask can protect if the air is really that bad for health? – are those little masks going to really filter out micro pollutants? Are they going to wear these masks while eating, sleeping, showering, going to the street during their entire time staying there? These silly Americans are making themselves laughing stocks for the world to see! These wimps should just stay out of the Olympics and not going there at all. Pathetic!
5. John | 08.06.08
The only laughing stocks are going to the entire Chinese nation when this Olympics goes down in history as the largest failure ever. Besides the horrible polution, the world will see how draconian the government is as soon as someone decides to say something “subversive”. I think the pictures of the PSB attacking old ladies whose sons were murdered in Tianamen in 89 and grieving parents of children killed by poorly constructed houses in Sichuan is going to make more headlines than any sports performance. Mark my words - this is the beginning of the end for the communist government in China.
6. Michael | 08.06.08
…Ummm, don’t the Chinese, as well as other Asian city-dwellers, also wear masks to keep the particulate pollution out of their lungs? Or, was it just for the bird flu epidemic? There are masks worn in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and even occasionally in San Francisco.
I think that the masks are a good idea for athletes who depend on their lungs for performance. I would hope that they were worn for protection, and not to embarrass the Chinese government.
7. Janet | 08.06.08
These are high quality athletes competing at the peak of their game. Anyone who has ever had to fully exert themselves in poor air quality conditions can attest to the discomfort it causes, and the resultant reduced performance. Take it from a school kid who missed recess on many a smoggy day when air quality in the Los Angeles area became “unhealthful”. But these athletes worked very hard to get to Beijing, and they are going to give it everything they have. A properly rated respirator makes a big difference in filtering out particulates that irritate the lungs. For very sensitive individuals, it can mean the difference between relative comfort or roaring headaches and asthma attacks. For an Olympian athlete, even slightly better air quality can mean the difference between winning, and missing the bar. Who wouldn’t wear a little mask to protect that investment? This is not intended as disrespectful to the hosts, but as respectful to the athletes’ own bodies and their commitment to the competition.
8. joeboo | 08.06.08
Paul Wang//
Who cares about being disrespectful with Chinese? It’s the Chinese that failed to deliver what they promised when they made a bid for the Olympics.
You guys shouldn’t fault anyone but yourselves. Let’s deal with it: Beijing is dirty.
10. Kayla | 08.06.08
Let those cyclists breathe in the air. It’ll toughen them up for the real competition, although it would still be useless because China’s definitely going to top the US in the gold medal count anyway! Suck it up!
11. susan rattray | 08.06.08
The “UglyAmerican” has raised its ugly head again. Just makes the rest of us westerners feel shame for you yanks. You americans just cannot help being insensitive and stupid, can you?
12. Leo @ Shanghai, China | 08.06.08
Kathy//
Looks like you’re under 7 or you’re acting so because you just terribly don’t know China. Take a shower and go to bed. Do read books start from tomorrow, not just play adult here.
13. Leo @ Shanghai, China | 08.06.08
I’d like to see U.S. cyclists in masks all these days until they go back. People will get to know them better via TV.
Silly masks.
Why don’t you try evacuation body suits? It works better, stupid.
17. mike the american ass kicker | 08.16.08
you stupid moronic foreigners! THE CHINESE WORE MASKS WHEN THEY CAME TO AMERICA! you idiots!
18. Chen | 08.19.08
This is absolutely amazing, the amount of US media targeting and bashing China and their athletes. If anyone has been watching any of the NBC coverage, they’ll know what I’m talking about.
What else is absolutely amazing is how the people that support this point of view from the media have NEVER EVER been to or LIVED in China.
I don’t know what it is. Is the US sore from losing out the bid on the location for the Olympics? Are they sore from losing out meddles to Chinese athletes? Or is it just some twisted sense that the US the best and that they deserve every single gold over the Chinese?
While there is nothing wrong with the Athletes wanting to wear the masks, the criticism on China stemming from things like this is absolutely outrageous.
HEY! Does anyone remember the US in the 80’s and early 90’s? American’s were about as environmentally conscious as my bag of potato chips. China still is in the most part a developing country and hasn’t learned about the importance of being environmentally conscious. That does NOT mean that there aren’t activists in China who are trying to change policy with dealing with pollution.
What else is great is that all these people screaming COMMUNISM don’t even have an idea of what communism is. To them, communism is like the facehugger from Alien that will pounce on you, lay eggs in you, and then a terrifying slimy being will burst from your chest. The problem is that communism is designed for an ideal society free from corruption. In the real world, this form of government eventually degrades into a from of dictatorship. It’s really getting tiring that people automatically associate communism with every single Chinese out there. Yes, China’s human rights sucks, but that doesn’t mean EVERYONE supports it. So do NOT associate politics with the Olympics in order to slander the amount of hard work and resources that has been put into it by the country’s PEOPLE.
All I have left to say now is GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES YOU IGNORANT HATERS.
19. Mossy Frame | 09.06.08
My kids are even smarter than these stupid athletes when we traveled around the world including many beautiful third world countries. My niece said she feels bad that these guys behaved badly. We are a happy american family and we are proudly say we don’t travel wearing masks. Despite a few blemishes, we still believe the world is a beautiful place, period.
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1. Paul Wang | 08.05.08
Wearing masks is disrespectful to the Chinese. These cyclists should not go to Beijing if they do not even trust the IOC’s medical chief. They will be booed in China.