BEIJING OLYMPIC : EMPTY PROTEST ZONES

ANCHOR: More than a week into the Olympics and the action is heating up. That's true of the sporting events, but it seems equally true of the relationship between the foreign media, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
In an attempt to honor its commitment to the IOC to respect human rights and free speech, Beijing designated three parks-Ritan, Purple Bamboo, and World--as free protest zones where citizens and foreigners could hold legal protests after obtaining permission from the local public security bureau.
The problem is that to date no one has been granted permission--and some who have applied have been promptly arrested.
This is what Olympic Organizing Committee Vice President Wang Wei had to say about the issue during the bidding process in 2001:

"If you want to demonstrate, an application will be required, you'll be designated to a certain place and time, and you can do it, no problem." [Olympic Organizing Committee Vice President Wang Wei as quoted in The Washington Post]
And here is what Wang had to say when under fire from reporters at a press conference on Thursday (Aug. 14):

"...you come here to pick, critically dig into details, but that doesn't mean we don't fulfil on our promises. I did not say China would promise to do whatever; I did say the Games would open up the horizons of China." [ Olympic Organizing Committee Vice President Wang Wei as quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, Aug.15 2008]

The IOC refuses to comment directly on the matter, dodging questions with generic comments on how well the games are progressing.

At the same time the Chinese bloggers seem to think the situation is reminiscent of the infamous Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956-57, when Mao Zedong allowed a brief period of public dissent--some say only to draw out and subsequently crush the opposition.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• olympic
• protest
• appeal
• zone
• beijing
• human
• rights
• IOC
• Wang
• Wei

[TommyTurntables1]

Move to China and be a SLAVE! (((FUCK YOU CHINA!!!)))