Beijing Olympics Term Paper

China, one of the world’s most historically rich and now, in this age of increasing modernization and globalization, economically powerful nations will be hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Despite contemporary China’s best efforts to unite and provide the world with a positive view of itself, due to protests against the People’s Republic of China’s human rights record, the domestic and global environmental pollution and water shortages caused by the ever-increasing industrialization of the country, and the most current Tibet, Taiwan, and Darfur issues, organizations such as western and eastern media and scholars must attend to this situation and analyze or scrutinize just how much truth there is in, what seems like a split opinion, the accusations said against China leading up to the events to take place this summer. As I research these issues, my purpose in writing this essay is to argue that what the foreign media portrays, in respect to China, is not necessarily how the Chinese people view what is happening around them, but then the CCP (Chinese Communist Party, China’s only ruling party), also blocks many things from the Chinese people, so that perhaps only the part of the 1.3 billion population with internet access and foreign contacts can really understand what the western perspective is of their own country. This presents the idea that perhaps China is not fully globalized to the extent that other countries are because the majority of the rural population do not have access to television, the internet, or any other vital means of ‘outside the box’ communication. The concept of “Uneven Geographical Development” can be applied in this situation where East China is way more developed than its rural western counterpart. The issues being protested against in relation to the Olympic Games are not of detrimental cause to be exacerbated out of control. Also, as will be explained in detail later, the CCP holds the

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view that the welfare of the collective should always be put ahead of the rights of any individual for peace and prosperity to hold tight (Adams 52). This is in direct contradiction to how many westerners think: westerners traditionally believe that the government should first and foremost uphold individual human rights over any other matter (Amnesty). This is evident in modern neoliberal practices that are being spread worldwide. With this clash of ideology between two traditionally very different yet recently very similar power houses, most information, in my opinion, is hearsay and no one can really know the truth behind the scenes no matter what is published or spread, better yet, no one can believe both sides at the same time. Like any worldwide media coverage, every good story begins somewhere, and this story begins in 2001 when China won the Olympic Bid for the 2008 summer games. Previously, China had applied for a bid in 1993, losing out to Sydney, Australia at the time, and eight years later, their wait had paid off. China had the mindset to more willingly open its mind to welcome people from all corners of the globe, and to extensively make friends with key figures from other parts of Asia and the western world while unswervingly advance toward the world at breakneck speed. In 2001, the increasingly open China was thought of as fully capable of hosting the Olympic Games successfully, and at the same time, it is the strong wishes of the Chinese people for the games to lead farther along the pathway to allow China to become more respected and equal in the modern world. For this ever-industrializing country from the Orient, which contains one-fifth of the world's population, a territory of 9.6 million km, and a history of over 5,000 years of civilization, the time when the Olympic Games’ five-ring flag flies high in the sky will be a proud day for the Chinese people and a sign that the country has

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taken another great leap towards becoming a part of the top tier of world society (Peerenboom 36-37). One of the most heavily weighing and prominent issues for the international community to criticize surrounding the Olympics taking place in China is the impact the new construction in Beijing and existing industrialization on the Eastern Coast of China is having on the environment and water sustainability, particularly in Beijing, as that is the site of the focus of this paper. To be able to understand the complaints being launched against China during this time is relevant to understanding how these problems can come to affect the world as a whole, i.e. globalization. There are five points relating to environmental damage to China that the Chinese and the rest of the world know to be facts. One is that rapid industrialization is producing massive environmental devastation. China is the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter, beaten only by the US, and huge size portions of coal, natural gas, and oil are being used by China to hastily build accommodations, more convenient transportation, and more luxury ‘sight-seeing’ places for tourists coming from all around the globe to witness the games. There was a study done in Seattle, which measured the air content blowing in from the Pacific Ocean, and to scientists surprise, when examined, the air content contained poisonous aerosols which were concluded to be blowing in from China. Coal is one of the most polluting, filthiest aerosols for the environment, which is why within the past 3 years or so China has been keeping tabs on its coal refineries and trying to resort to cleaner alternatives such as natural gas (Deacon 292). Second, about 60 percent of China’s major rivers are classified as being unsuitable for human contact. In a country consisting of 1.3 billion people, there is triple

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the amount of wastes of any other country. Nuclear wastes, everyday garbage landfills, electronic wastes, also known as e-wastes, all of it piles up when there is no where else for it to be disposed of, and a lot of the time is carelessly dumped or overflows into rivers and water supplies (Ma). Third, seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world are located in China. Air pollution alone claims 300,000 lives prematurely per year, while acid rain falls on 1/3 of the territory, more than 1/3 of industrial wastewater and 2/3 of municipal wastewater is released into waterways without any treatment (Ma 56). There was an incident not too long ago in Hong Kong where a skilled runner in a competition began to exhibit shortness of breath symptoms and eventually died, seemingly attributed to the polluted air and smog hovering over the city. Fourth, over the last few decades, increased industrial agriculture and commercial grazing has resulted in creating over 2.67 million square kilometers of desert land, adding up to around 27.9 percent of China’s total territory (Li). More and more once habitable areas are being converted to wastelands and deserts resulting in farmers having to become nomads wandering from place to place trying to find suitable land to farm. The majority of the population lies on the eastern coast of China, with the Gobi Desert lying to the South West and ethnic minority territories in the Mid to North West including Tibet and Xinjiang. Western China is comprised of desert and mountainous regions, with the majority of sustainable soil in the east, but with the overworking of the soil due to continuous industrialization, it is becoming harder and harder to rely on the country’s own resources for sustainability.

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Lastly, according to Deacon, “Many claim that foreign investment and the  introduction of “green” technology will help clean up the environment in China; however,  this has not been the case to date. One of the reasons for this is because China’s State  Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has little authority. SEPA estimates that  although water treatment facilities are installed in most major industrial plants under  government mandate, around one­third are not operated at all and another one­third  operate occasionally. Often the fines it levies are less than the expenses of using the  “green” technology” (300­303).  Basically, what it comes down to in the end is the fact that you can’t rise up and  become a competing world power without economic development, but as you speed up  economic development, as in China’s case and specifically due to the looming summer  games, you cannot help but destroy the environment. Take automobiles for example. In a  decade from now, there could be four times as many cars in China as there are in the US,  and China’s fuel emission levels are out­dated by four years when compared to European  vehicles. In order to cultivate more land you have to build roads, destroy forests and trees  decreasing the oxygen output and increasing carbon dioxide emissions, and it is the same  case for the building of factories and skyscrapers. As a result, with this kind of economic  development, emissions of industrial waste and gases massively increase, as does human  wastes, with the rise in population density and living standards. It is a sickening cycle.  According to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), in the beginning of economic 5

development, little weight is given to environmental concerns, raising pollution along with industrialization. After a threshold point, when the basic physical needs are met, interest in a clean environment rises, reversing the trend. Now society has the funds, as well as willingness to spend to reduce pollution. However, this is only the case when it comes down to the basic water and air pollutants (Deacon 302). There are many others such as CO2, which is of main concern now due to global warming, which cannot be met due to the rising energy consumption with the higher income levels. Put together in the same corner as environmental degradation is the fact that China is facing one of the world’s worst water shortages. This also fits in with the human rights issue because every individual has the right to drinkable clean water. When 16,000 athletes and officials arrive in Beijing this summer, they will be able to turn on the taps and get drinkable water, something that has been rare for most Beijing residents. But to keep those taps flowing for the Olympics, the city is draining surrounding regions, depriving poor farmers of water. There are two opinions concerning this issue, one that facilitates Chinese pride for the games at no expense, and the other a warning that has never been heeded. Ma Jun, a Chinese environmentalist, states that, ''For two years the farmers have not been allowed to use water for rice, because it's been given to Beijing, but the individual interests submits to the state interests” (26). Rapid urban development has been a detriment to the underground water tables for Beijing. Some people are against the Olympics for this reason protesting that there is not enough water for China to hold the Olympic Games, but the government does not listen in its conquest for glory. One could blame the neoliberal stance China has taken by using funds from the multinational corporations coming into China and Beijing to fund the Olympic Games to build pleasing

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architectural marvels for the international guests. In an attempt to make equal what has had to have been done, China has begun digging up the countryside south of Beijing for a canal that will bring water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, and its tributaries to the arid north by 2010 (Ma 86). To give a bit of background, the country is divided into two regions: the “dry North,” referring to all areas north of Yangtze basin, and the “humid South,” which includes the Yangtze River basin and everything south of it. Due to the deteriorating ability of local vegetation to conserve water, there has been a tremendous over-pumping of ground water, which has shrunk northern China’s river’s water supply in the last several decades. Because of these water shortages and wide spread pollution of surface water, more cities and villages are increasingly tapping into underground aquifers. Under the North China Plain, a region that produces 40 percent of China’s grain, the water table is dropping by an average of 1.5 meters per year. In 1999, the water table under Beijing dropped by 2.5 meters. Since 1965, the water table under the city has fallen by some 59 meters. Manufacturers treat the environment like workers, as an expendable commodity that should not stand in the way of profits. Pollution is exacerbating the water scarcity problem as well. Contamination is also spreading to underground aquifers. It is estimated that 25 percent of the aquifers are being polluted (Ma 55-59). If things continue in this manner, the pride and glory China receives from the success of the Olympics may only have short-lived momentum. The second and most current issue surrounding the 2008 Beijing Olympics is the protesting of China’s human rights record. China is one of the most powerful developing countries at the moment, and its human rights record affects all of us in some way or

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another. Almost everything it seems consumers buy is ‘Made in China’. Products assembled in China span the globe, and some people see the view as the more money we put into China, we are legitimizing China’s human rights record. If they had their way, then no one would buy anything from China and possibly live a very uncomfortable life. We have to interact with China for globalization to succeed. But as mentioned earlier, the CCP views human rights as a collective entity, not an individualistic one. However many individuals within China and abroad disagree with this, which causes problems within China’s own boundaries. In order for the CCP to prove their conviction, they point a finger towards the rapid social deterioration, increasing geographic, religious and racial segregation, the alarmingly rising crime rates, domestic violence, and political extremism in Western societies, which they believe to be a direct result of an excess of individual freedom (Bowles 172-173). According to the Chinese government, these issues are all violations of human rights and should be taken into account when assessing a country's human right record. Furthermore, the government criticizes the United States, which publishes human rights reports annually, by insisting that the United States has also caused human rights abuses such as the invasion of Iraq by American troops. In addition, yet on a contradictory note, the PRC government also argues that the notion of human rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic prosperity, which right now, according to sources, China’s inequality gap is one of the largest, with a huge population of some of the poorest people in the world (such as those working for almost nothing in sweatshops) and the AIDS epidemic in Henan province that is either being ignored by or passing over the top government officials would not want to be noted on the human rights record (Khan). For the record, I won’t state for

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myself that the majority of women working in sweatshops for those companies who outsource to China are demeaning themselves in any way. I am aware that most of these women know what is going on around them and that they are receiving unfair pay. Sometimes they do go on strike about this, but for others they cannot risk the chance of the company picking up and moving somewhere else because then they will be left without a job. The women work in these factories because they need what money they can earn with the little education they have received or maybe none at all. They do not want us to feel pity for them, because all they are doing is trying to survive just like the rest of us. There are many side stories related to the main picture that find their way through the cracks of the CCP’s crackdown on making public what they don’t want the people to know in fear of an uprising against the party. Such cases become public through the media or internet, or some people who have foreign connections henceforth other countries broadcast the news. Most of these side stories only a few native Chinese have heard about or vehemently deny because of the danger they could put themselves in if the story has something to do with hearsay against the CCP. One example is of the AIDS epidemic in Southeast China’s, Henan Province. To make the story short as it is rather complicated, poor farmers or field workers give blood in exchange for payment, while in the process of doing so unknowingly acquire AIDS due to contaminated needles and uncared for and untreated facilities. The local municipality does nothing to aid these victims, while in the process altogether denying what is going on. In recent years, partly due to the outbreak of SARS in 2002, the government is beginning to acknowledge the sad state of rural health care. Though no one has been brought to trial or held accountable

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yet, what happened in Henan is widely acknowledged to be a national scandal. Selling blood is now illegal and steps have been taken to improve blood donation services (China Trials New Rural). Another major issue surrounding human rights in China that is heavily covered up by the CCP’s control over media concerns capital punishment and political freedoms. The Chinese government recognizes that there are problems with the current legal system, such as a lack of laws in general, not just ones to protect civil rights. A follow up to that is a lack of due process and conflicts of law. About 80% of cases are legitimate, but right now because of the corruption in judicial power, many cases are not even seen or ignored. As judges are appointed by the State and the judiciary as a whole does not have its own budget, this is why corruption and the abuse of administrative power have become so common (Espy 110-113). China had the highest number of executions in 2007, but Amnesty International claims those official figures are much smaller than the real number, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets. Amnesty stated that according to various reports, in 2005 3,400 people were executed (4-6). In March of that year, a senior member of the National People's Congress announced that China executes around 10,000 people per year. The inconsistent and sometimes corrupt nature of the legal system in mainland China bring into question the fair application of capital punishment there. In January 2007, China's state media announced that all death penalty cases will be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court, so it seems that the PRC is trying to make reforms to its legal system despite foreigners debatable arguments whether that is in fact the truth or not.

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The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long periods of time and without trial. Incidents of torture, forced confessions, and forced labor are widely reported. Such dissident groups include members of the Falun Gong religious sect of China. Amnesty International states that the persecution is politically motivated and a restriction of fundamental freedoms. Particular concerns have been raised over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labor, psychiatric abuses, and since early 2006, allegations of systematic organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners (13). These charges are vehemently denied by the PRC, but in my opinion, I think we will never really know what goes on regarding criminal punishment anywhere in the world. There are too many sides to know the real truth, and even if there is some truth to the accusations, every country in the world is guilty of horrendous offenses to political prisoners. Freedom of assembly and association is extremely limited. The most recent mass movement for political freedom was crushed in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources. Political reforms towards better information disclosure and people empowerment is under way. The Chinese government began direct village elections in 1988 to help maintain social and political order in the context of rapid economic reforms. Today, village elections occur in about 650,000 villages across China, reaching 75 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people (Khan 24). The One-Child policy has received international media attention and criticism for its implementation which was originally put into place to reduce China’s ever-expanding population crisis. However, many people see it as ineffective or morally objectionable.

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Such critics argue that it contributes to forced abortions, human rights violations, female infanticide, abandonment and sex selective abortions. These are believed to be relatively commonplace in some areas of the country, despite being illegal and punishable by fines and jail time. This is thought to have been a significant contribution to the gender imbalance in mainland China, where there is a 118 to 100 ratio of male to female children reported (Li). What most people may not know is that in 2002, the laws related to the One-Child Policy were amended to allow ethnic minorities and Chinese living in rural areas to have more than one child. The policy was generally not enforced in those areas of the country even before this. And even more recently, the policy has been relaxed in urban areas to allow people who were single children to have two children. I can understand how some people might view this as a human rights issue because the government is not controlling, but putting in place safeguards to prevent couples from having more than one child. In America, we are free to have as many children as we want, but for China’s situation, that is not what is best for the nation and country as a whole. The policy has been in effect for so long, the Chinese people are in favor of it and agree that it has significantly altered the population from skyrocketing as it was before the policy was put into place. Although the amended Chinese constitution guarantees freedom of speech, there is very heavy government involvement in the media, with most of the largest media organizations being run directly by the government. Chinese law forbids groups to advocate for independence or self-determination for territories Beijing considers under its jurisdiction, as well as public challenge to the CCP's monopoly in ruling

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China. Thus references to democracy, the Free Tibet movement, Taiwan as an independent state, certain religious organizations and anything remotely questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China are banned from use in publications and blocked on the Internet (China from the Inside). So, how is it, you may wonder, can the Chinese people have any counterargument to the Tibet, Taiwan, and Darfur issues if they do not know about them? Well to begin with, the CCP bans Tibetan Buddhism to be practiced by students and CCP members. The CCP is by nature atheist, so any religious affiliation is forbidden if you submit your loyalty to the party. Students demonstrated their protests during the Tiananmen Square incident. The government knows students are the most likely to have radical ideologies and revolt, so if they were to be on Tibet’s side and follow the Dalai Lama, that is a major threat to the security of the CCP, hence why it is forbidden to be practiced. If it is forbidden, the people have to know there is a reason behind it. I don’t know if the protests in Paris, London, and San Francisco make it to air in China, but the government cannot block everything on the internet. Things are bound to get out, and once a student casually surfing the internet one night happens upon something from foreign presses, word will spread and get out no matter what blocks the government has put in place. Information spreads like fire, and the CCP cannot control everything. Since Tibet’s rebellion against China in 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled into exile,

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religious buildings have been razed to the ground, monks and nuns imprisoned, and thousands of Tibet’s monasteries were devastated in the 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. It is because faith is so central to the lives of Tibetans, and so closely entwined with their national identity that it worries the Chinese state, of which Tibet is a part (China from the Inside). The atheist Communist Party exercises religious tolerance as a function of political control. In China, if a person uses their religion as a cover to try to split China, or harm national security then they are breaking the law. Buddhism has been feared as a rallying point and cover for Tibetan independence. The CCP believes that the Dalai Lama uses the Tibetan religion as a cover to split China and let Tibet be independent but as we see or hear almost everyday on the news recently, “Tibet has always been a part of China, and always will be”. The intolerable acts we hear against Tibetans have no legitimate proof for the protesters to rely upon. And, again, even if the acts are true, it is not just China who commits these acts, but the US against Iraqi soldiers and terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. I believe it is the same issue with Taiwan and Darfur. An article in The New York Times clearly states what is going on between China and the Darfur ‘genocide’ in the Sudan, Africa. China and the US are the two biggest competitors for oil right now, and the Sudan in Africa is a major oil producer. China has a good business relationship with the Sudanese government by providing them funds for their oil without concern as to where the funds travel thereafter. In Darfur, thousands of innocent people 14

are being slaughtered by the Sudanese government rebels, and people see China aiding them because of the money they give them for oil (Cooper). Because of the attention this has raised, a Chinese representative went to Darfur and asked for them to agree to the UN peacekeeping agreement. This was a very brave move on their part and helped China’s image a little bit better concerning Darfur. Many of the protesters who are against China because of the Darfur incident may not keep up on their information concerning what China is doing to better the situation in Darfur. Because it is not related domestically to the Chinese people, I am sure the media does not headline news concerning Darfur either. The CCP’s stance on Taiwan can be summarized in the Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao’s, quote at a press conference early in 2006, “Our country has never sent a single soldier abroad… to occupy an inch of foreign soil. Taiwan is a domestic issue for China alone. We brook no interference from any foreign country” (Bowles 182). Take heed US, China does not want interference from any foreign country according to the Taiwan issue. I agree, and I do not think the US should interfere with matters between foreign bodies. But, other people have their opinions and that is part of what continues on with the protesters. Everything that I have previously mentioned in this essay is cause for protest against China and it’s holding of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. But these issues are nothing new by international standards relative to other countries. In 1936, Germany’s Berlin Olympic Games received criticism for its racial prejudice against anyone who was not of the ‘Aryan’ race, specifically African American runners (Bramwell 53). The media coverage of Olympic Games’ politics in the past has always been biased depending on a country’s relationship with the other (Roche 14). There have always been controversies

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regarding human rights for many countries. This is my own personal opinion and many others, but I think that the Olympic Games are not the proper stage to voice such discontent against a nation. That setting is reserved for a political stage, although I agree the world does not have control over how the CCP runs its country and the Chinese people cannot, overnight, elect a new government. Those types of changes must be made slowly and efficiently, like raindrops, not a rainstorm, which will flood everything in sight. Although the media may be controlled by the Chinese government, the word is still out there and the educated people of society hold that information secretly while quietly stirring the winds of change in China. Globalization is like water in this modern world we need it to survive. It flows everywhere in the world the more and more we integrate ourselves with each other. Eventually, word spreads to those on the brink of globalization and change does happen. The Olympic Games are a success story for China and the Chinese people, and these protests have not destroyed any sense of pride in the nation. Yes, it may be embarrassing to some extent for this to happen, but the people promoting this cannot change anything by protesting a sports event. The world will just have to wait to see how it all plays out in the end and what economic and global miracles China can present to us in the ever-modernizing future of globalization. The economic miracle that is China, has come a long way and will not succumb to international pressures and protesters, for only the Chinese have a say in which path they will take into the future.

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Works Cited Adams, F. Gerard. East Asia, Globalization, and the New Economy. London; New York: Routledge, 2006. Amnesty International (2007) People’s Republic of China: The Olympics Countdown – Repression of Activists Overshadows Death Penalty and Media Reforms. London:  Amnesty International, available at:  http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/015/2007 http://www.uygur.org/wunn07/OlympicsCountdown2007­04.pdf (Accessed March 2008).  Bowles, Paul, ed. Regional Perspectives on Globalization. Basingstoke, England; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 169-204. Bramwell, S. “China and Olympism”. In J. Bale and M. K. Christensen (eds) Post­ Olympism? Questioning Sport in the Twenty­first Century. Oxford: BERG, 2004.  pp. 51­64. China from the Inside. Dir. Jonathan Lewis. DVD. PBS Home Video, c2006. “China Trials New Rural Health Care Network.” China Daily. November 21, 2003. Available from: 17

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/21/content_283670.htm Cooper, Helene. “Darfur Collides With Olympics and China Yields”. The New York Times, April 13, 2007. Deacon, R.T. and C.S. Norman "Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Describe How Individual Countries Behave?". Land Economics. Vol. 82. 2006. pp. 291 - 315. Espy, Richard. The Politics of the Olympic Games. Los Angeles, California. University of California Press. 1981. Khan, Azizur Rahman and Carl Riskin. Inequality and Poverty in China in the Age of Globalization. Oxford University Press, 2001. Li, Minqi, ed. Andong, Zhu. “China’s Public Services Privatization and Poverty  Reduction: Health Care and Education Reform (Privatization) in China and the  Impact on Poverty.” UNDP Policy Brief, Beijing, 2004. Ma, Jun. China’s Water Crisis. Berkeley: International Rivers Network, 2004. Miller, David, Olympic Revolution. London, England. Pavilion Books Limited, 1992. Peerenboom, R P. China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest?. Oxford, England; New York: Oxford UP, 2007. 257-297. Roche, Maurice. Mega-Events and Modernity Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture. New York, New York. Routledge, 2000.

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