‘Shock and awe’: Dancers dazzle viewers around the world from Beijing’s National Stadium during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games. (David Guttenfelder/AP)
Olympic success boosts China’s confidence
The success of the Olympics is expected to help China’s leaders and people trust the rest of the world more readily, and tone down an often aggrieved nationalism.
Peter Ford | Staff writer / August 24, 2008 edition
Staff writer Peter Ford
Staff writer Peter Ford
Beijing
As the Olympic flame flickered out on Sunday night, Chinese leaders could congratulate themselves that the event on which they had staked so much had unfolded almost precisely according to their game plan.
The striking success of the Olympics – burnishing China’s prestige as the world admired its sporting prowess, organizational skills, and dramatically modern urban landscapes – could encourage profound changes in the country, say a range of Chinese and foreign analysts.
“The implications of the Olympics go way beyond a recognition that China is a sports power,” says Wenran Jiang, a politics professor at the University of Alberta in Canada. “There are many ways in which the Games will move China forward.”
One profound change that a number of China-watchers predict, in light of the international respect China has earned: that its leaders and people will trust the rest of the world more readily, and tone down an often aggrieved nationalism.
Beijing invested this summer’s Olympics with enormous symbolic importance: They were to crown the country’s rise to the status of a global power. The months leading up to the Games, though, showed China at its clumsy, ill-tempered, and repressive worst.
The government’s harsh crackdown on an uprising in Tibet was bad enough for China’s image abroad. Its angry reaction to the protests that crackdown attracted in several Western cities during the international torch relay made things worse.
Journalists’ reports from Beijing highlighted fears that the city’s chronic air pollution would hamper athletes, and drew attention to the way the authorities were sweeping embarrassments under the carpet by sending migrant workers home, arresting dissidents, and clearing the capital of as many foreigners as possible.
Almost from the moment the Games began with a “shock and awe” opening ceremony, however, the Chinese authorities regained control of the narrative, and the sports became the main story line.
“China set out to stage a spectacle that would win victories in the consciousness of others without firing a shot,” says Robert Kapp, former president of the US-China Business Council. “And for many people around the world, I imagine they have succeeded.”
From TV audiences presented with a “picture-perfect” Games, in the words of Professor Jiang, to visitors here impressed by what they have found, the spectacle appears to have served its purpose.
Before she came to Beijing, Nadine Lewman says, her impression of China was of “sweatshops and smog.” Now, adds the Portland, Ore. resident, “I think it’s a beautiful country. Seeing it has changed my image and I would love to come back. They’ve sold me.”
“I think the Games have been a stunning success for the Chinese government in terms of its international image,” says David Shambaugh, Director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University. “This is going to earn China considerable international respect.”
That is critically important, argues Xu Guoqi, a professor at Kalamazoo College, because for more than a century China has been afflicted by “a sense of inferiority, crying out for recognition and respect like a teenage boy. These Games may be a turning point to cure that syndrome.”
For more than a hundred years, China’s leaders have set themselves the goal of recovering international respect after humiliation at the hands of Europe and the United States in the 19th century. For more than half a century the ruling Communist party has made “standing up to the world” a key plank in its platform.
Successful Olympics, suggests Dali Yang, who heads the department of politics at the University of Chicago, could help move China from “a sense of inadequacy … to a feeling that China can do this, and do it well.”
There have been signs over the past two weeks of a more relaxed and self-confident Chinese public. Fans have showed exuberant support for the home team rather than the chauvinism that officials had feared. They even cheered Chinese coaches of foreign teams, rather than treating them as traitors.
If China’s leaders decide that their management of the Olympics has earned the country respect, that “offers an opportunity for the Chinese state and the Chinese people to ditch the nationalist narrative of their identity based on shame and humiliation,” says Professor Shambaugh. “Hopefully they can throw all their aggrieved nationalist baggage away and move on like a normal country.”
Where they might move on to, however, is still uncertain.
“What people saw was the patina of a new China,” says Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based political analyst. “Major questions have still not been answered.”
Some troubling answers to questions about the nature of today’s China could be found in the way the government dealt with people who challenged the image of harmony and prosperity that it wanted to project to the world.
Two septuagenarian Chinese ladies were sentenced last week to a year’s “re-education through labor” for daring to apply for a permit to publicly protest the destruction of their homes. The authorities had said authorized protests would be allowed, but in the end approved not a single application to demonstrate.
That drew a rare public rebuke from the US Embassy here, which called Sunday for release of eight US citizens who had been detained in the wake of pro-Tibet protests and said, “We are disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness.”
Instances of fakery also drew criticism both abroad and at home: at the opening ceremony the little girl who sang “Ode to the Motherland” lip-synched to the voice of another girl judged not pretty enough to appear; the children representing harmony among China’s 56 ethnic minorities, dressed in their national costumes, were in fact all from the Han majority; the televised image of some of the fireworks was the work of computer graphics.
Chinese gymnastics officials were also angry and embarrassed by allegations that at least two of China’s gold-medal winners were under age, a charge being investigated by the International Gymnastics Federation.
As the music from the Olympics closing ceremony dies away, however, grass-roots anxieties that the government stifled during the Games will make themselves felt, says Professor Yang. “When the overriding preoccupation with the Games has gone, individuals will have more opportunities to assert themselves.”
“With society more confident, some elements may try to lead the system forward faster than the government thinks is right,” adds Moses, which could lead to tensions.
When they are confronted by crises, Chinese leaders “tend to hunker down,” says Moses. “Now we have had a successful international event that has gone rather splendidly … this is a good test of how they deal with success.
“China is clearly out of the starting blocks,” he adds. “The question now is how fast it wants to run and in which direction.”
Comments
3. Chris Chase | 08.24.08
You guys just have to wait for my latest column on Yahoo. There is so much junk to dish out about this particular olympic (in fact, it’s my mission to prove that this Olympic did not exist). Why do we have to admire such a blatant display of socialist power? Where’s the emphasis on the individual? Individuality and selfishness for one’s own personal goal is what makes this country great. We didn’t do a good job because we lose that edge: the same passion little bullying boys have in the playground, those boys who just grab marbles from the weaker ones without feeling guilty. We will show the world what shock and awe is in London 2012 and destroy all the competition in track and field and other events.
4. capitalism with chinese characeristics | 08.24.08
The West has to learn that China will change at its own pace. Its own leaders have recognized that reforms are necessary, that it can’t stall change, and that its burgeoning middle class creates its own political consciousness. Every East Asian economy from South Korea to Taiwan has followed that path of evolution. Non-engagement and hostility frm the West will only stoke nationalism and prolong, not hasten, this process. Westminster took centuries of evolution. Expecting China to radically transform its political culture overnight reflects nothing more than historical ignorance, hubris, and the taking of your own history for granted. China can and should be fairly criticized — but gently. Critics of China with hostility as an agenda need not apply.
5. Randy | 08.24.08
The China games a success? When China quits imprisoning, beating, enslaving, and killing those who want to practice freedom of speech and religion, that will be a success. Until then it’s just another country ruled by thugs. Nothing to be proud of in my book.
7. OVEN | 08.24.08
Chris Chase,
You are such a loser. You article about counting out gold metals that involved judges, is ridiculous. You are such a shame to Americans.
The best you can help is get to the gym, try to get a gold metal in Olympic. Stop whining.
8. capitalism with chinese characeristics | 08.24.08
And after centuries of African slavery perpetrated by the West, practised on a scale exceeding that of any other, sanctimonious lectures from the West ring hollow. Stick to foreign military adventures in the Middle East — that’s what you’re good at. And obviously, the games were a success even from the perspective of those who want a more liberal China. The games will have an liberalizing effect on the country, just as Seoul ‘88 helped South Korea in its transition from military autocracy to the democracy it is today. But then your little bout of China-bashing was never about concern for the Chinese, is it? Your hostility has a more sinister agenda to it than the faux concern you display here.
9. OVEN | 08.24.08
Oh really? so it’s fine for US imprisoning, beating, enslaving, and killing people in other countries in middle east. and the media like cnn, times wash your brain with bleach, make you thinking other countries ruled by thugs. and that’s fine too. Next time before you say something about other governments, check your own government first.
5. Randy | 08.24.08
The China games a success? When China quits imprisoning, beating, enslaving, and killing those who want to practice freedom of speech and religion, that will be a success. Until then it’s just another country ruled by thugs. Nothing to be proud of in my book.
10. messagebin03 | 08.24.08
@ Chris Chase
‘Individuality and selfishness for one’s own personal goal is what makes this country great. We didn’t do a good job because we lose that edge: the same passion little bullying boys have in the playground, those boys who just grab marbles from the weaker ones without feeling guilty.’
I am not sure if you’re trying to extoll America or insult it.
11. Moris | 08.24.08
90% of the readers here im sure have not read the history of China..Please guys..read at least the wikki entry of China.
You have to understand first the circumstances that lead to China being what it is today and what made China adopt Communism.
China had 100 of dynasties, 5000 years of bloody conflict, 100s of ethnic groups ..If China had adopted Democracy…The nation would have divided into 100 small countries based on ethic group..like what we saw in USSR…it is for the sake of unity that religious freedom was suppressed else the country would have being divided again in the name of God…just like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were divided.
You Guys have to understand…Democracy divides..democracy is flawed as much as communism is but at that time Unity of the nation was of utmost importance than religion or freedom. what good is freedom and religion..when the nation breaks into pieces and then fight among themselves just like india and pakistan are doing now.
The unification of China is complete, people now identify themselves as Chinese…we will see more and more religious tolerance, opening up of China and more freedom in next 20 years.
12. DL | 08.24.08
Americans are hypocritical to link Tibet with the Olympics. Remember Waco? Back in ’93, Janet Reno ordered the massacre of Branch Davidians, It resulted in more than 70 people, many of them children, being burned to death. It remains the most horrendous government sponsored religious persecution in recent years, on a scale that easily dwarfed Tibet.
Well, that didn’t put a damper on the Atlanta Olympics, did it?
13. Peggy | 08.24.08
#5Randy，
“imprisoning, beating, enslaving, and killing those who want to practice freedom of speech and religion”? Oh, I guess you surely be a torturer or a victim or a eyewitness, or a nonsense bla-bla-bla. How about this? “Two or more British women were beaten untill dead by their husband or boyfriend every week.”
14. rights not spectacle | 08.24.08
This is nuts. Really. Mentioning slavery and the middle east, that’s all it takes? Not even mentioning how Chinese themselves have subject ethnicities, and would be glad to use racial slurs for African-descended people that would make a Ku-Kluxer blush? Not even how the Red Army manufactures cheap guns used in the hood by gangbangers? That’s all you’ve got? Really?
Do you know why the US has been able to get away with its fascist tendencies? Because China provided the labor for corporations to low-ball wages, to produce cheap goods created by near-slave labor, and to get the leverage to strip Americans of their rights as workers and as citizens, because corporations can always pay and treat Chinese worse, with Communist Party permission.
The corporations sell heavy surveillance and security equipment and techniques to the Chinese, who road-test it on their protesters. (Naomi Klein’s article: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye)
Beijing 2008 will be as significant as Berlin 1936, in producing spectacle and suppressing dissent and exporting those techniques for any government/corporate alliance who needs them.
16. S.M | 08.24.08
China displayed a great ability to shock and awe the people of the world with it’s soft power and it’s ability to use technology for the good of the people of the world. ameicans are losers and the only way they can shack and awe is by bombing poor defensless and weak countries such as Iraq and afghanistan and torture people in gitmo.
ameriac is no longer a big power in the world. It is only ahypocritical state on it’s way to diminishing power and disapperaing off the face of the map.
17. DK | 08.24.08
I must agree with SM. All americans are good for is violence and torture. They are always last in academics and their children can not compete with the world. americans are hypocrits.
18. Steven | 08.24.08
capitalismwithchinesecharacteristics,
Your historical-context based apologism for China’s many, many shortcomings deserves applause. Understanding the unique historical background Chinese society is emerging from is critical for any political prescription writing, a point overlooked by the great majority of Westerners. That said, I am highly dubious of the idea of the Olympic Games as a watershed for change. Drawing a parallel to Seoul ‘88 is easy and perhaps it will prove to be accurate, but as of now I’m wondering what concrete developments are there to point towards a move to greater opening or (non-architectural) progress? I’m not even speaking democracy here — how about indicators of a relaxation in heavy-handed authoritarianism? Endemic low-level corruption and exploitation?
It’s an honest question.
Thanks,
19. shawn | 08.24.08
Go China. Long live China. Love China without any conditions…..
Ladies and Grntlemen, let’s LOVE China together ,OK?
22. WYW | 08.25.08
Really enjoy the games!
BJ is a good host of the international event. Wish to see more in other cities of the countries in the future
23. capitalism with chinese characeristics | 08.25.08
“Beijing 2008 will be as significant as Berlin 1936, in producing spectacle and suppressing dissent and exporting those techniques for any government/corporate alliance who needs them.”
Drivel. And another example of historically illiterate China-bashing. Germany in 1936 was moving toward totalitarianism. China in 2008 is moving away from it. This simple distinction would have aided you in your bizarre anti-capitalist rant, which is mostly poor ecnomics gleaned from the laughable Naomi Klein. Try taking a class in the relevant subjects, instead of reading pop-drivel from the likes of Klein.
“but as of now I’m wondering what concrete developments are there to point towards a move to greater opening or (non-architectural) progress? I’m not even speaking democracy here — how about indicators of a relaxation in heavy-handed authoritarianism? Endemic low-level corruption and exploitation?”
The indications are legion. Compare China to a mere 15 years ago. Ordinary Chinese are far, far freer now than they were even then. Not free by Western standards perhaps, but freer by their own standards. The internet has helped. Sure, the government monitors net activity, but its voracious existence in itself reflects a qualitative difference in freedom of opinion, and in how far individual Chinese are willing to go to assert themselves. Well-founded criticism of local government has caused the communists pause in more than one instance. For example, groundswell criticism of corruption. The Chinese government is smart enough to tolerate these because it provides a pressure outlet for relieving the citizenry’s sense of frustration; it also provides the anti-corruption bureaus some measure of the depth of feeling at ground level, which in turn, provides a separate information channel from which to monitor corruption. Was this possible even a mere decade ago? Emphatically not.
There are now even experiments in local elections for grassroots mayoralties, village headmen, and other such posts. The goal is to build civil institutions from the ground up, and not have it imposed nation-wide from the top down. Economically, this was how China managed its departure from a socialist economy. Politically, it only makes sense to follow the same model. In this, it is no different than federalism in the United States, where political experiments at the state level are adopted nationally only when success is apparent at the grassroots. This lessens the shock of transition should something go wrong at the experimental level — at least it would be confined to one region, and not involve the whole country in a paroxysm. Was this possible even 15 years ago? Clearly not. There was neither a middle class nor civil institutions sufficient to the task. It is possible now only because economic and civil progress have made it possible — something that happens only with the passage of time. The Russians transitioned suddenly and poorly when the communists lost power. China, having seen this, now prefers to manage the reforms gradually.
The ignorant sort of critic tends only to focus on the negatives of today, and fails to appreciate that change is built on an accumulation of incremental steps towards openness. They want revolutionary change, and they want it yesterday. This is unrealistic nonsense. There is no blank slate. The last time they tried something like that during the Cultural Revolution, China reaped the tragic consequences. Too many of China’s communist leaders remember the terror all too well that they won’t even risk the destabilization that goes with overnight change. Hence the incrementalism.
To any seasoned observer of China, the change has been palpable, obvious, and generally, in the right direction. Helping it along is the best the West can do. China-bashing of the sort fashionable today will get you nowhere, and indeed, will only lengthen the process.
24. rikker | 08.25.08
people,
let’s not judge each other by our governments actions. i would bet my life, that most people, in any country, want peace, and an end to hunger and disease. please, let’s look through the political haze, and acknowledge this.
HUMANS, while prone to submit to the lure of greed/materialism, are essentially good natured.
anything that divides HUMANS (reigion, race, gender, age, intelligence…)stifles evolution, and therefore be should be opposed.
world peace day = September 21st.
put pride aside, and love one another.
27. shu jinsong | 08.27.08
Rikker: I am happy and comfort to see what you wrote; I am sad that I can see only one person (you) here who wrote such kind of sentence, “put pride aside, and love one another.”
capitalism with chinese characeristics, you talked about the situation in china and I agree with your point.
Hello guys, when you try to criticize with each other and each other’s country, do you think this is the correct way to peace, harmony and happiness? Who can win? No one! Because no country, no person is perfect!
Again, I admire rikker: put pride aside, and love one another. This is the only correct way- God’s way.
28. TZ | 08.27.08
American whites think they are so, so entitled to judge, advise Chinese.
That’s just plain ridiculous and laughable.
Who the **** do you think you are?
China will be fine regardless how you think of it.
Why don’t you guys just drop dead and mind your own business?
29. ZX | 09.04.08
不知道可不可以用中文回复。
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”
30. ZX | 09.04.08
rikker,
“that most people, in any country, want peace, and an end to hunger and disease.”I agree with you.
31. ZX | 09.04.08
Welcome to China,If you need ,I can help you to understand my country and my people,though my English isn’t very well.
Yes,there are too many pending problems with China. And it may take a long time to find a solution to these problems.I’m just a employee in a small company, I can only pray for my nation . But I think I do my best.
Please give your bless to our nation,let’s pray together~
32. Tony Tu | 09.06.08
Good comment:”So it’s fine for US imprisoning, beating, enslaving, and killing people in other countries in middle east. and the media like cnn, times wash your brain with bleach, make you thinking other countries ruled by thugs. and that’s fine too. Next time before you say something about other governments, check your own government first.”
The US is the most sinisterous terrorist in the world!They are jealous of the great achievements China has obtained!They are falling down!Just like the setting sun!
I am extremely angry about your flibbertigibbet news and reports about 2008 Olympic Olympics itself!! Why do you care so much about the nasty behaviors of the mean mobs? Why don’t you pay much attention to the US’s invasion in Iraq and other parts of the world, in which numerous innocent citizens were killed and were made homeless? Why can you bear an aggressive ugly BUSH? His ******* deeds have nothing to do with human nature, but all of you turned a blind eye to him!!! Why didn’t you condemn him? He can lead the US to develop and research nuclear weapons while it’s forbidden in other countries!
What kind of logic is this? It’s the logic of a bandit, a robber, a rascal and a heister! Where is your justice and conscience? Is it the gap of value recognition between West and East?
Easterners are fond of peace while some westerners are cheerful about bloody wars and riots! It’s exactly true!!! We Chinese are all peace-lovers! Why does China have no right to host a successful Olympics? What’s your opinion about the protests and demonstrations when Bush visited other parts of the globe? What’s your opinion about the fact that an activist peed towards Bush when he was in public? He is really unacceptable all over the globe, so are the unfriendly westerners and journalists! We are eager to make friends with you, if you are just and honest enough!
33. Colin | 09.06.08
16. and 17. Hey what are you terrorists? The Only reason America invaded iraq was because of the dictater. And I know we are the ones who proped him up, but he was gassing his own people. And your view of americans is a view of our goverment. Many americans hate our goverment. Don’t judge us by our goverment. I hate the chinese goverment, but not the people. 32. Hey buddy why do you think all of that? we brought to so many countries. I can see where your coming from but seriusly? Have you seen the polls about Bush approval? 89percent of Americans hate his filthy guts, myself included. And we think you chinese are to be pitied for your communist goverment. I hope you accept peace, but your goverment is not peace-loving. One word:Tibet. We have brought relief through the red cross to so many countries. I agree with rikker.
34. Colin | 09.06.08
16. and 17. Hey what are you terrorists? The Only reason America invaded iraq was because of the dictater. And I know we are the ones who proped him up, but he was gassing his own people. And your view of americans is a view of our goverment. Many americans hate our goverment. Don’t judge us by our goverment. I hate the chinese goverment, but not the people. 32. Hey buddy why do you think all of that? we brought war to so many countries. I can see where your coming from but seriusly? Have you seen the polls about Bush approval? 89percent of Americans hate his filthy guts, myself included. And we think you chinese are to be pitied for your communist goverment. I hope you accept peace, but your goverment is not peace-loving. One word:Tibet. We have brought relief through the red cross to so many countries. I agree with rikker.(sorry i messed up on the last one)
35. Colin | 09.06.08
you adults can be real stupid sometimes. Us kids have very few political views, we don’t judge people by their goverment.
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1. Steve | 08.24.08
proud of china…!! I love my country so much that I want to cry and hug and fight for it…! zhong guo jia you…!!