Posted on 05/16/2007 7:38:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Air quality remains a major concern for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a top official organizing China's first Games said Wednesday.
Factories belching pollution as they fuel breakneck economic growth and dust blowing from thousands of local work sites and western deserts frequently brown the sky over China's capital.
While pollution controls are having an effect — Beijing experienced 241 "good air quality days" last year, up from 100 in 1998 — there's room for progress, said Wang Wei, secretary general of the Games' organizing committee.
"We want to make sure the athletes have the best air quality," Wang, who is visiting the United States for four days, told a conference sponsored by Asia Society Southern California.
In a subsequent interview, Wang dismissed criticism of China's human rights record as "an old topic."
Critics of China's authoritarian government hope to swing the Olympic spotlight to human rights, environmental blight and other areas where Beijing promised reforms before it won these Games in 2001. Wang told reporters at that time he thought the Games could "promote" human rights.
"I think that human rights conditions keep improving in China," Wang told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "And I think this is going to be a good thing for the general social progress including human rights, that's no problem."
A report last month from Amnesty International echoed the refrain that China is limiting freedom of political dissidents, human rights activists and adherents of the Falun Gong faith. The Olympics, Amnesty concluded, are actually prompting a crackdown, including sweeps of petty criminals and vagrants considered a potential blemish on the Games' happy face.
The Games, which begin Aug. 8, 2008, represent a coming out party for a nation that has turned decades of stagnation into a staggering resurgence.
An estimated 500,000 foreign visitors are expected to cram Beijing and billions more will visit China through television coverage.
For the hosts, it's a chance to showcase a nation that's becoming a dominant economy and a political player.
With its long view of history, China sees itself returning to an accustomed role as a world power. The nation also has been investing heavily in athletics — a golden haul of medals, after all, is a matter of national pride.
China has become an international athletics powerhouse.
Wang promised foreign reporters who will flock to China will be free to roam the country to cover not just sports but social problems created by the nation's vast wealth gap and failings of the central government to alleviate corruption and rural poverty.
"The world does not really know as much about China as we wish," Wang said.
He also promised a well-mannered host city — as he put it a "sound social atmosphere" that visitors sometimes have found lacking in years past.
He cited public education campaigns on standing in line, and not spitting or littering.
There's also a campaign to educate Chinese about how to watch sports they may not know well. Do not clap or yell, Wang pointed out, when someone is about to shoot a rifle.
Wei Wang, executive vice president and secretary general of the 2008 Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, speaks during an interview following a luncheon meeting of the Asia Society of Southern California in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday, May 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
Paramilitary policemen take part in a drill preparing for football hooligans ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympics at an army base in Beijing May 16, 2007. REUTERS/Joe Chan (CHINA)
My Chinese friend (2nd generation) just came back from China and said the place is already over-run by Westerners.
I thought the problem was the lack of “air quality”.
On a side note a co-worker just took off for 30 days - to bicycle across China - North to South.
He will keep us posted via internet cafes.
Could prove to be intersting.
It appears you can’t even breathe their air.
A country of over 1,000,000,000 people, and they're "overrun"?
My NZ neighbor is over there presently and has extended his two week stay by another week...says he's having a ball. So...
I think he was speaking specifically about Bejing where the Olympics will be.
A place I would never ever want to visit. Never.
Their solution: seed the cloud two weeks before and get the rain out of the way and in the process, clearing the pollution.
Asked if they had ever attempted this before they said, “We’ve been studying this process for 30 yrs......this would be a great time to try it.”
Thanks for the ping.
Heard ticket to games are cheap.
Good to see he's not buzzing American planes these days.
I can’t even tell you how much I would love to see full-scale rioting during these Games.
I would rather see the Olympics in Iran. Its going to be a complete disaster, many athletes will find new ailments or experience “unknown ills” from the multitude of air and waterborne pathogens.
Lets send a message to China about the recent food additives, boycott the Olympics!
Lets send a message to China about the recent food additives, boycott the Olympics!<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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^5!!!!!!
You might already be breathing it.
I recently heard a report on the radio that China's air pollution is starting to reach across the Pacific to the western parts of North America.
Seven years ago you could go 100 miles out of the main cities and the air was still overcast, smelly and dangerous. It made downtown LA air look pristine.
Despite the political problems that do exist in China, the overwhelming majority of Chinese (92%) support the Olympics. And like any other country, want their athletes to bring home the Gold.
Personally, I hope 2008 Beijing Olympics is met with astounding succeess and that attendance surpasses that of Athens or Sydney.
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