Question About China And The 2008 Olympic Games?
Posted by China Sourcing CommentatorNov 3
What is the national interest China has in the Olympics, and how will the Olympics affect China’s economy, security, values and health of its citizens?
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Chinese Olympic won great success for letting people around the world learn China better. Before the games, anti-China propaganda myths formed the majority of the information that western citizens believed about China.
It helped with the infrastructure in Beijing, gained the Chinese troops and police more experience, won the hearts of the younger generation and helped confronting the pollution problem in Beijing.
After the games, people in Beijing have better stadiums for sports practice and have more subway.
Young Chinese are more united than ever and no longer so addicted to the western ideology as they saw with their own eyes how western “free” media lied and distorted the facts on Tibet and flamed attacks on China and tried to sabotage the games. Chinese people now believe more in their local reports and look down on western medias like BBC, CNN, etc.
The pollution control introduced a system that requires half of the cars to stay parked at home everyday and Beijing saw its clearest skies in years. The system stayed after the games.
The 2008 Olympics in China did increase tourism and help dispel some myths about the country. For instance, they accepted international help after the massive earthquake because if would have looked really bad if they had let their people suffer because of national pride.
The 2008 Olympics meant that many shantytowns in Beijing were destroyed, so the homeless situation is still bad.
They appeared to open up, but on the 20th anniversary of Tianamen Square (June, 2009), the Chinese government would not allow any foreign correspondents to report on the anniversary.
Many of the changes in Chinese society are ooccurring because of the young people wanting and quietly pushing for change.
Also, the economic growth of China has fallen from over 10% to around 5%. That might sound good in comparison to Capitalist countries which are facing 0% of less, but for a country the size of China, an increase in unemployment of that magnitude is going to have an impact. It will be interesting to watch over the next year or so.
Hope that helps.