The public face of the Beijing Games, American-educated former professor Wang Wei, is eager to draw attention to China, warts and all. An interview excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:
WSJ: With just months to the Olympics, what are some challenges that remain?
Mr. Wang: For one thing, there is the environment — a lot of attention and concern about the environment. All we have to do is to let the world know how much effort government has made to improve the environment. The campaign started in 1993 before [China’s] first bid for the Games. We’ve invested $12.2 billion to improve air quality, and there’s been improvement. We are still working very hard toward the goal, but as we go along it becomes difficult because it’s not just Beijing but the whole of northern China working together. We’ve set up 27 monitoring stations among all the sports venues to make sure the air quality is good enough for athletes. [Full Text]
