Beijing announces ‘protest pens’
Peter Ford | 07.23.08
One of the dilemmas the Chinese authorities have been wrestling with as they plan next month’s Olympics has been how to deal with protesters against Beijing’s policies on Tibet or on human rights – to pick two particularly contentious issues.
Today they announced their plan: They will set up “protest pens” in three Beijing parks, where demonstrations may be held so long as they have been previously authorized by the city police. Anything else will be banned.
This, the government hopes, will prove an acceptable compromise between its own tradition of strictly forbidding public demonstrations against official policy and international expectations that Beijing will uphold free speech for visitors.
But it will be interesting to see who actually ends up using these pens, which are bound to attract heavy media attention, despite the fact they are due to be located in parks between 30 minutes and an hour’s drive from the Olympic Green (on a good traffic day).
Dissatisfied Chinese citizens would hardly be advised to use them: they would be down at the local police station faster than you can say “my rights under the Chinese Constitution.”
And one of the reasons Chinese visas have been so hard to come by recently is that the authorities have been scrutinizing applications especially carefully in order to weed out foreign “threats to the social order” such as Tibet activists or human rights defenders who might cause trouble.
So the competition for police-approved demonstration permits may not be so fierce. Nor is it clear where the “protest pens” are to be set up.
The head of security for BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games - and you had better remember that because I am not going to spell it out every time I post a blog) - Liu Shaowu, listed three parks at a press conference this morning. But, curiously, that list, and the journalist’s question that elicited it, were excised from the official transcript of the press conference carried later on BOCOG’s website.
In the end, protesters seeking some international attention will probably be better off at Tiananmen Square, where they could try to position themselves and their banners just behind NBC correspondents doing their live stand-ups on camera. It seems unlikely that any Chinese policeman would try to haul them off in front of umpteen million viewers.
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An Olympics to get excited about
Mark Sappenfield | 07.22.08
At times, it seems almost indecent to be excited about the Beijing Olympics. Every conversation ends with an asterisk.
The reasons are plain. The issues of human rights and Tibet demand a thorough discussion. But for the purposes of this article, let us take one enormous leap. Let us acknowledge that the Olympics are here and nothing can be done about it.
Now, as a lover of sport, let me fill the glass half full.
Four years ago, Athens cleared out for the Olympic Games. Athenians were tired of the hassle. So Michael Phelps vied with empty seats for top billing as the biggest story during the first week of the Olympics. The turnout for some tennis matches resembled scenes from “I am Legend,” minus Will Smith and the apocalyptic hell hounds.
Cue tumbleweed blowing across the screen.
This was the great downfall of Turin. In the end, the Olympics just weren’t that big a deal for the Italians. Unlike Salt Lake or even Athens, Turin felt it had little to prove to the world, and the Olympics paled in comparison to soccer and Formula One.
But ask anyone in Beijing where they will be in August, and they can’t conceive of being anywhere else. The venues will be full, the excitement palpable.
Here, the Olympics have become entwined with the country’s very image of itself. The organizers have spared no expense. The Olympic Green is a menagerie of some of the most inventive sports architecture in the world. It is like stepping into what we thought the 21st century would be, wondering where the flying cars are.
For a moment, look through the eyes of the athletes, who have worked for four years for this moment. Who had no authority to influence the choice of host city. Imagine full stands crackling with anticipation, venues better than any they have ever before seen, and the promise of competing against the best athletes in the world.
I am excited about the Beijing Olympics.
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Beijing’s goody-bags for reporters: plenty of bling
Peter Ford | 07.22.08
So, today I went along to the Beijing International Media Center, a smartly refurbished hotel taken over for the Olympics, to pick up my journalist’s accreditation card. It soon became apparent just how far the Chinese authorities are pulling out the stops for these games.
I went for my card, but I got given a whole lot more. At the 2004 Athens games, if I remember rightly, I got a card and a free pen at the press center. Today my card came with a goody-bag that my paper’s ethics committee would probably want me to report to the IRS, or hand back in embarrassment.
It was a goody-backpack, in fact, a smart black number made by Kappa (an Olympics sponsor, natch) and decorated in gold with the company’s logo (a silhouette of two women sitting back to back). Inside I found:
A lime-green and silver fold-up umbrella
A nifty little card, the size of a credit card but marginally thicker, with a slimline USB plug on a pullout metal tab, which is both a 2G flashcard and provides instant access to the BIMC website when I plug it into my computer
A man-sized fan decorated with requisite Chinese artwork
A universal adapter allowing me to plug anything into a Chinese wall (a good idea, that, for visiting foreign reporters)
A mobile phone SIM card already charged with $7.50 worth of calls and instructions on how to access the BIMC’s daily schedule of press events
A small flask of Feng You Jing Essential Balm, an emerald green oil which when rubbed into the temples has “effect of cooling, soothing pains, expelling wind evil (???) stopping itch” according to the instructions
A white large-billed baseball cap (emblazoned with “2008 BIMC” on the front – I am dubious about the fashion value of this item)
A white Lacoste-style shirt to match (only it’s a Kappa model)
A map of Beijing
A large notebook
Two 2008 BIMC lapel pins
And a pen. They must have pinched that idea from the Greeks.
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The Olympics: infuriating, heartbreaking, and breathtaking
Mark Sappenfield | 07.21.08
Beijing is just about the biggest thing to happen to the Olympics since the Persians invaded Marathon in 490 BC.
At long last, the curtain will rise in China – inviting the world to join in an athletic fortnight that’s doubling as the country’s coming-out party.
Already, the storylines are savory: boycotts and protests, reemerging rivalries of East and West, drug cheats, records in slick swimmers’ skinsuits designed by NASA, and a host nation determined to make a statement.
They are sure to become only more intriguing in days to come.
Through our stories and blogs, we hope to give you a compelling and unvarnished look at the world of the Olympics and Beijing’s astonishing effort to make them perfect.
In covering three Olympic Games from 2002 to 2006, I have begun to see this cultural phenomenon from the inside – removed from the edits, tape delays, and sweeping string accompaniments of NBC. The Olympics can be infuriating, heartbreaking, and breathtaking, often within the space of a single minute.
But they are always interesting. We hope you will think so, too.
