Beijing Olympics: Choking Early?

In the midst of a well-publicized "one-year-to-go" celebration to start the countdown to next year's Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese government is mired in bad press and already facing worldwide criticism for not living up to promises it had made to improve its record on environmental and human rights issues:

It was revealed recently that 40 of China's top athletes fell ill because of foul air-conditioning in the country's sports headquarters in January and have been forced to withdraw from competition. Filthy air-conditioning systems have been blamed for outbreaks of disease in hotels and apartment blocks in the capital.

The genocide in Darfur has now entered its fifth year and no country has done more to support the regime in Khartoum than China: no country has offered more diplomatic support, nor done more to provide money to fuel the engine of genocidal destruction. And no country has done more to insulate Khartoum from economic pressure or human rights accountability by continued investment, trade and weaponry. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is reportedly considering quitting his role as consultant to the Beijing Games unless the Chinese government takes a tougher stand on Sudan.

It was also reported this week that a rare freshwater dolphin found only in China is now "likely to be extinct". The researchers failed to spot any Yangtze river dolphins during an extensive six-week survey of the mammals' habitat. The team blamed unregulated fishing as the main reason behind their demise. If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.

Only a few months ago, the most recent incident of water contamination (caused by lack of government oversight) came to light. In June, Chinese authorities were forced to order heavily polluting industries around China's third largest freshwater lake to close after drinking water for millions of people was contaminated. More than two million people in Wuxi city in the eastern province of Jiangsu were left without clean tap water to drink or wash in last week due to an algae bloom choking Taihu lake, once renowned for its scenic beauty. The filthy water became apparent only when low levels in the lake and an accumulation of industrial waste and untreated raw sewage sparked the putrid algae growth. Residents near the lake have campaigned for years for the closure of the polluting factories. Adding insult to injury, the Chinese government continues to detain one of the most active campaigners, salesman-turned-environmentalist Wu Lihong. Wu, detained in April, faces bogus charges that friends and family say were concocted to punish him for exposing local government inaction.

Six foreign activists were also detained this week for holding a protest on the Great Wall of China. The activists called for an independent Tibet, and claimed the International Olympic Committee was not holding China accountable for human rights abuses. Last week, scores of people were arrested in a traditionally Tibetan area of western China following public calls for the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Immediately afterwards, China published new regulations in a move to tighten its control over Tibetan Buddhism by asserting the communist government’s sole right to recognize Buddhist reincarnations of the lamas that form the backbone of the religion’s clergy. China insists that only the government can approve the appointments of the best known reincarnates, including the Dalai and Panchen Lamas, the No. 1 and No. 2 figures in Tibetan Buddhism.

The Chinese government is still holding captive the last independently-selected Panchen Lama, 18-year-old Gendun Choekyi Nyima. As a 6-year-old, Nyima was picked by the Dalai Lama in 1995 as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. The boy mysteriously disappeared soon afterward and has reportedly been in Chinese custody since. The Chinese government says only that he is living a normal life but has given no details. Having rejected the Dalai Lama’s choice, Beijing installed Gyaltsen Norbu, 16, as the 11th Panchen Lama later that year. To this day, most Tibetans reject China's anointed Panchen, and the resistance to Beijing's successor (the son of a Communist Party official, by the way) has been so widespread that Chinese authorities have long conducted a systematic indoctrination campaign to compel Tibetan monks to accept the boy anointed by Beijing.

Today, IOC chairman Jacques Rogge said that uncontrolled air pollution in China's capital could lead to many of the events at the 2008 Beijing Games being postponed. "Sports with short durations would not be a problem, but endurance sports like cycling are examples of competitions that might be postponed or delayed," he told reporters while visiting the site of the upcoming games.

On top of all that, the Chinese government this week began a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries and trigger a crash of the U.S. economy if Washington imposes trade sanctions against China to force a yuan revaluation.