China to tighten Everest access for Olympic torch relay

Kathmandu, 9/26/07 - (AFP) — China has put in place tougher rules on access to the Tibetan side of Mount Everest next year as part of preparations to take the Olympic torch to the summit of the world's highest mountain.

The new regulations, which include stricter background checks on foreign climbers, follow threats by Tibetan independence activists to step up protests against China's presence in the Himalayan region during the 2008 Summer Games.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3HDBc42hNXeIbjlb-_3VZV2-mnQ

Seven high school boys detained for pro-Tibet slogans

New York, 9/22/07 - (AFP) - Human Rights Watch called on China on Thursday to immediately release seven Tibetan high school students it said had been detained on suspicion of writing pro-Tibetan independence slogans.

The seven students studied at a village school in one of China's official "Tibetan autonomous" areas in Gansu Province and were among some 40 students detained by police on or around Sept. 7, the rights group said.

The boys were alleged to have written slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet the previous day on the walls of the police station and other buildings in Amchok Bora village, the watchdog said.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/20/china16924.htm

IOC: Olympic Torch Won't Enter Taiwan

Beijing, 9/21/07 - (AP) - Bickering between rivals China and Taiwan forced Olympic officials to scuttle plans to include Taiwan in the torch relay for next year's Beijing Olympics, with both sides accusing each other Friday of trying to play politics with the event.

After 10 months of squabbling during which Beijing announced Taiwan's participation in the relay only to have Taipei deny it, the International Olympic Committee notified both sides Thursday that their talks had reached a dead end. It said that the Taipei leg would be dropped. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092100923.html

Olympic torch to scale new heights

Beijing, 9/20/07 - (AP) - Chinese mountaineers will carry the Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest, making the final assault on the world's tallest peak from a staging camp some 500 yards from the summit. China unveiled the the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch, designed by Lenovo, in August 2007. The head of China's mountaineering team, Wang Yongfeng, said plans for the Everest leg of the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics were still being finalized, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. From base camp at 17,000 feet, the torch will be taken to a staging area at 27,400 feet and from there to the 29,035-foot summit, Wang said.

Taking the torch up Everest is one of the most technically challenging and politically charged events Beijing has planned for the August 8-24 Games.

Aside from the physical challenge of climbing the mountain, which straddles the border of Nepal and Chinese-controlled Tibet, the torch had to be designed to burn in bad weather, low pressure and high altitude.

While Beijing hopes the feat will impress the world, groups critical of China's often harsh 57-year rule over Tibet have decried the torch route as a stunt meant to lend legitimacy to Chinese control.

In April, five American activists were expelled from China after unfurling a banner at Everest base camp that read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008," in a dig at the Beijing Games' official slogan "One World, One Dream."

WHO Fears over Beijing Pollution

Beijing, 9/17/07 - Some spectators attending the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing face serious health problems due to air pollution, a leading health expert has warned.

Dr Michal Krzyzanowski of the World Health Organisation told the BBC that those with a history of cardiovascular problems should take particular care. He also said the city's poor air quality could trigger asthma attacks. The warning came as Beijing began a four-day test scheme to take 1.3m vehicles off the city's roads.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6950883.stm

Arrests and incidents involving foreign journalists show government is not keeping Olympics promises

France, 9/14/07 - (Reporters without Borders) - The arrest of two Agence France-Presse reporters on 12 September is the latest in a string of cases of foreign journalists being obstructed in their work. They show that the less stringent regulations introduced in January are being applied erratically and only when less sensitive issues are involved. At least 32 foreign journalists have been detained or prevented by police from doing reports since January.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23667

China to Evict Petitioners Before Olympics

Beijing, 9/13/07 - (Christian Science Monitor) - For centuries, Chinese with grievances against hometown officials have trekked to Beijing to appeal to central authorities for legal redress. They must often stay for months, or longer, living in petitioners' settlements while they pursue their cases. More than 1,000 such citizens have been warned that they are to be evicted next Wednesday. The capital's largest petitioners' settlement is to be torn down to make way for roads serving the new Beijing South railroad station, due for completion by next year's Olympic Games, according to official notices recently pasted on walls here.

The project illustrates how the Chinese government is using the Games as an opportunity both to beautify the capital and to deal with awkward political problems, say human rights activists. "The government at different levels considers petitioners the enemy," says Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology who has studied the petition system.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0913/p01s06-woap.html

Olympics of Spin

Beijing, 12/9/07 - China Rises (Blog by Tim Johnson, Mclatchy Newspapers) - A battlefield whiff is already in the air before the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games.

It’s not about sports either. It’s about publicity and spin and image and all those other crass things that seem to cut to the core of the modern Olympics.

There’s a big dose of fear in there, too, to match China’s rightly deserved confidence that the Games (the sporting part, that is) will go well. China is getting nervous about what it sees as “intensifying negative publicity.” So it has done what comes natural: tighten the muzzle on the domestic press.

The South China Morning Post reports this morning that officials from the Central Publicity Department (the former propaganda bureau) ordered Chinese journalists last week to begin steering clear of any Olympics stories that would cast the nation in a bad light.

http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/china/2007/11/the-olympics-of.html

Venturing into Unreported China

Beijing, 7/9/07 - (BBC) - China has pledged more freedoms for reporters ahead of next year's Olympics, but when the BBC's Dan Griffiths travelled to the countryside to investigate reports of unrest he was detained and questioned.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6983247.stm>

Taiwan Says Near Deal with China on Torch Relay

Taipei, 7/9/07 - (Reuters) - Taiwan and China have tentatively reached an agreement to let the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch pass through Taipei, which rejected the emblem in April for political reasons, an official said on Friday.

China has viewed self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory rather than as a separate country since the island split from Mao Zedong's Communists after civil war in 1949. China has threatened to take the island back, by force if necessary.

After negotiating for about a month, Olympic committees on both sides are close to a "basic consensus" that would bring the torch to Taipei without disrespecting Taiwan, the island government's Mainland Affairs Council chairman, Chen Ming-tong, said on Friday.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090700203.html>

China: Media Freedom Attacks Continue Despite Pledges

New York, 7/9/07 - (Human Rights Watch) – The Chinese government continues to violate the rights of journalists in spite of assurances to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the 2008 Beijing Olympics would foster improvements in human rights and of specific pledges of wider media freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today.

Just 11 months before the 2008 Beijing Games begin, journalists in China continue to face physical abuse and harassment from police and plainclothes thugs who appear to work at official behest.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/07/china16823.htm

Bush Accepts Invitation to Beijing Games

Sydney, 6/9/07 - SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Thursday he and his family would attend the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao. Bush said he had eagerly accepted Hu's offer, which was extended during talks ahead of this week's Asia-Pacific summit in Sydney. Bush last visited China in 2005.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090600469.html

China Hurting in World Opinion Polls

USA, 5/9/07 - (Frank Ching, The China Post) - Public opinion surveys taken in the United States and other countries around the world show that China's image has been badly dented in the wake of widespread reports of unsafe food, toxic toothpaste, dangerous toys and poisonous drugs.

[...] The recent poll numbers have important implications for China, far beyond the question of its future exports. China's deteriorating image could put in jeopardy its plans for a successful Olympics. The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll cited above asked Americans if they would be interested in visiting China to see the Games. Two-thirds said they had little or no interest.

There have been calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics over the Darfur issue and human rights. Some China critics such as the actress Mia Farrow are dubbing the Games the "Genocide Olympics." While polls currently show little support for a boycott, this could change as China's image continues to sink under a barrage of negative stories.

Interestingly, Americans in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll ranked "improving human rights" as the most important thing the Chinese government could do in the run-up to the Olympics, ahead of implementing environmental policies or practicing fair trade. And in the May UPI/Zogby poll 58 percent of Americans supported using the Games to protest China's human rights policies.

China Arrests Anti-Olympics Activist

Beijing, 4/9/07 - (AP) - China has arrested an activist who gathered 10,000 signatures on an open letter rejecting the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and demanding more respect for human rights, a watchdog organization said Tuesday. Land rights activist Yang Chunlin was detained July 6 in his native province of Heilongjiang in northern China and formally arrested on suspicion of subverting state power on August 3, said the China Human Rights Defenders, an international network of activists and rights monitoring groups. Yang`s family told the group the arrest was linked to Yang`s campaign to gather signatures for an open letter titled `We want human rights, not the Olympics.`

Full story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/china.activist.ap/index.html>

Olympic Village to Have Worship Center

Beijing, 4/9/07 - (AP) - Beijing Games organizers say they plan to build a multi-faith worship center in the Olympic Village, a striking move in a country that heavily restricts all religious activity. `All will be arranged in accordance with the practices ... adopted by other Olympic host cities,` Liu Bainian, vice president of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, said in the official China Daily newspaper.

Full story: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/09/04/china.olympics.ap/index.html>