Is Beijing ready to host the world?

The shouts of "Beijing! Beijing!" are likely still echoing through this city of more than 16 million.It was the night of July 13, 2001, when the thousands gathered in Beijing heard the televised announcement from then-International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch that their city would host the first Games ever held in China, a nation of 1.3 billion, the most populous country on earth.Fireworks and lasers filled the sky. Lion dancers spun wildly. Many spontaneously began singing the national anthem. It was a glorious time for a city and country that had come a long way since the isolationist days of Mao Zedong.In 1978 the communist nation began opening its economic doors under Deng Xiaoping. In 30 years it has built itself from a non-player internationally to a country with the second-largest economy in the world. The 2008 Olympics would be international acknowledgement that China had indeed arrived."Possibly today this opens a new era for China," Samaranch said at the time."In the next stage of our national development we will continue to open ourselves wider to the outside world and carry out more reforms," said Yuan Weimin, China's minister of sports.So, Beijing announced its slogan for the Games, "One world, one dream," and invited the world to join in the celebration.Seven years later, the smile has grown a little forced as Beijing prepares to light the torch on the XXIX Olympics on Aug. 8.World criticism, environmental issues and a run of natural disasters of biblical proportions have tested the resolve of the host nation."There's an old saying in China that good things only come after enduring a lot of hardship," Jiang Xiaoyu, vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, was quoted saying in a recent Bloomberg story. "We expected to face many challenges so it's not a surprise."Politics:Much as IOC president Jacques Rogge has expounded on his belief that the Olympics should be above politics, few Games have been. From the black fist salute at Mexico City (1968) to the Munich tragedy (1972) to the Centennial Park bombing in Atlanta (1996), the Olympics have been used as a world stage for political protests. Beijing has drawn international controversy like a magnet:- Complaints over China's history of human rights violations began almost immediately with the 2001 announcement. The infamous Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989 in which pictures of unarmed protesters being nearly run over by government tanks were flashed around the world came back to the front burner. At one point, China announced it was banning any live television coverage from Tiananmen Square during the Games, although it relented.- Groups ranging from the World Association of Newspapers to Amnesty International have demanded release of dissidents jailed in China during what critics say is a crackdown on dissent leading up to the Olympic Games.China has steadfastly denied any such crackdown. - China was roundly blasted for its refusal to help deal with the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. China, Sudan's largest trading partner, has until recently been unwilling to push for humanitarian reform in Darfur. The Sudanese government has supported militias responsible in a large part for the estimated 400,000 deaths during the region's civil war. Film director Steven Spielberg was set to serve as artistic adviser of the Olympic opening ceremonies but withdrew in protest.- The always-simmering controversy of China's control of Tibet ignited in March during a crackdown on dissidents just as the Olympic torch relay began. Tibetan sources estimated a death toll ranging from 16 to more than 100. French president Nicolas Sarkozy said initially he would boycott the Opening Ceremony because of China's refusal to improve the situation and only recently relented. China has ruled Tibet since taking over the country by force in 1951. President George W. Bush recently confirmed he would attend.In his book, "The China Fantasy," author James Mann indicates this is all a case of China being China. He contends the idea that China would change for the better because of the world focus on the Olympic Games is a delusion of the West. He writes: "We should not assume China is headed for democracy or far-reaching political liberalization. China will probably, instead, retain a repressive one-party political system for a long time."Olympic historians, however, point to the Seoul Games of 1988 in which the embarrassment of attention on the repressive South Korean government actually brought about a new constitution and improved human rights. No one expects that kind of change in China but the Olympic spotlight can shine brightly. Environment:In a 2007 report, the World Health Organization said air pollution in Beijing was five times the safety level recommended. Reports of athletes coughing black soot from their lungs after races have been widespread. Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, the world record holder in the marathon, announced he plans to run in the shorter 10,000-meter race instead because of air quality concerns.China has made a $16 billion-dollar effort to improve the situation and claims to have reduced pollution by 13 percent. It will close hundreds of factories before and during the Games and extremely limit vehicle travel. There are even plans for cloud seeding before the Games to induce showers and cleanse the air.Still, many teams are postponing arrival into Beijing, training instead at Asian sites outside the country like South Korea and Japan. Disasters:This year has been a natural nightmare for China. The worst China snowstorm in 50 years hit southern and central China in January. More than 24 people died, approximately 827,000 had to be evacuated from their homes, and more than 20 million households were without power. The cost of the storm was estimated at $3.2 billion.Then the Sichuan earthquake in May killed more than 69,000 people. The Chinese Earthquake Administration measured the quake at 7.9 on the Richter scale. The administration reported 17,441 aftershocks. The injury total was 374,176, and 4.8 million were left homeless. The cost to deal with the quake was estimated at more than $10 billion including foreign aid.By contrast, recent natural problems leading up to the Games seem almost comical, but have still been problematic.In July, more than 10,000 workers were needed to collect more than 290,000 tons of algae from a lake near Qingdao where the five-day sailing competition will be held. By July 15, Olympic organizers said the problem was under control.The latest calamity is a report of large swarms of locusts in Inner Mongolia, an area just 250 miles from Beijing. More than 33,000 people have been mobilized to deal with the locusts, which had reportedly eaten up more than 3 million acres of grasslands. Let the Games Begin:Indications are the Opening Ceremony at the glamorous National Stadium will be the first single broadcast to be viewed by one billion people worldwide.A recent poll by the Ogilvy Group and Millward Brown stated that 72 percent of Chinese are proud of China's role as Olympics host and that 90 percent will watch the Games on television.World criticism, environmental issues and the tragic string of natural disasters have done little to dampen this nation's enthusiasm for the Games.In a recent Times of London story, the IOC's Rogge was asked if bringing the Games to Beijing was such a great idea."It is very easy with hindsight to criticize the decision," Rogge responded. "It's easy to say now that this was not a wise and sound decision. (However) without any doubt the bid of Beijing was the best. It offered something that no other country could bringing sport and Olympism to one-fifth of mankind. That was the reasoning behind awarding the Games to Beijing."(Contact Steve Ahillen of The Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee at XX(at)xxx.com.)