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China news tagged with: Olympics (48)

• Officials Say China Should be Stripped of 2000 Olympic Bronze Medal

  

  An investigation has revealed an Olympic gymnast may be stripped of her medal from the 2000 Games for being underage. From the Seattle Times:

  Dong Fangxiao was 14 during the Sydney Games, according to an investigation by the International Gymnastics Federation. Gymnasts must be 16 during the Olympic year to compete.

  “Young gymnasts cannot be manipulated,” FIG president Bruno Grandi said.

  A second gymnast on the 2000 squad, Yang Yun, also was suspected of being underage. But there was insufficient evidence her age had been falsified, and FIG said it was giving her a warning.

  …Zhang Haifeng, the Chinese Olympic Committee’s press attache at the Vancouver Games, called the decision an “old story.”

  “That was in 2000. Now is 2010,” he said. “This was 10 years ago.”

  Questions were raised about the age of gold medalist He Kexin and other gymnasts who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

  » Read more
  • February 26, 2010 9:30 PM

• China Tells Mugabe “To Behave”

  

  Excerpts from this recent Telegraph article also supports the observation that news reports of China’s activities in Africa have dramatically decreased in the run-up to the Olympics. 

  A demand by China that the Zimbabwean government “behave” in the run-up to the Olympics lies behind Robert Mugabe’s surprise decision to open negotiations with the opposition.

  Beijing put pressure on Mr Mugabe to begin talks because of fears that the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe risked overshadowing the Olympics, according to government and diplomatic sources.

  China’s leaders, who have have long enjoyed a close relationship with Zimbabwe’s beleaguered president, feared growing protests in the run-up to the Games and so leaned on Mr Mugabe to agree to the historic talks which began on Thursday.

  Their move came after Russia and China together infuriated the West by blocking a United Nations Security Council attempt to impose sanctions on members of the Zimbabwean regime.

  [...]

  “China exerted diplomatic pressure on Harare for the protection of their own interests in this country, given the threat and risks of their economic investments under a new government. This explains the sudden change of heart by Mugabe. This is all choreographed.”

  The Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe is understood to have told Zimbabwean foreign affairs officials in Harare that his government expects Mr Mugabe’s administration to “behave” and help dampen international outrage over the recent elections.

  [...]

  One diplomatic source said: “Mugabe was told in clear terms by his Chinese friends that he has to behave and act in a way that will silence the international community.

  China does not want a situation in which the Olympics will be snubbed.

  » Read more
  • July 28, 2008 4:35 PM

• Beijing Air ‘Not That Bad’, Olympics Organisers Say

  

  Olympic organisers say air quality in Beijing is “not that bad”, and they say they can guarantee clearer skies for the games. From ABCNews, Australia.

  The pledge came as the city was again blanketed in a thick haze, with temperatures at the Olympic stadium in the low 30s.

  Du Shaozhong from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau says air quality has been improving.

  The city implemented new controls a week ago to reduce the number of cars on the roads.

  Cars with odd-numbered plates can drive only on odd-numbered days.

  A number of heavy-polluting factories have also been shut down for the duration of the games.

  Yet despite the measures, the pollution index for the city has been increasing in recent days.

  Mr Du says “extreme weather” is to blame.

  » Read more
  • July 27, 2008 7:33 PM

• Rain Turned Off for ‘Perfect Weather’ Olympics

  

  China has done all it can do to control humans at the Games, now they have turned their attention to the weather. From The Advertiser, Adelaide now.

  Scientists are primed to launch rockets to stop it raining on the opening ceremony parade on August 8.

  August in Beijing is among the wettest months, typically about 180mm of rain and a downpour every three days.

  China leads the world in “weather modification” – particularly in the practice of cloud-seeding.

  China’s Bureau of Weather Modification is a sprawling department with enough arsenal to put our army to shame: 30 aircraft, 4110 rocket launchers and 6781 anti-aircraft guns.

  China’s anti-algae army, meanwhile, finally has cleared the Olympic sailing venue of a foul-smelling weed.

  » Read more
  • July 17, 2008 11:35 AM

• Spotlight on China as Sudanese President is Indicted

  

  From the AP:

  The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges Monday against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.

  The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the world’s first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges against a sitting head of state, but al-Bashir is unlikely to be sent to The Hague any time soon. Sudan rejects the court’s jurisdiction, and senior Sudanese officials said the prosecutor was politically motivated to file the charges.

  Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for al-Bashir to prevent the slow deaths of some 2.5 million people forced from their homes in Darfur and still under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.

  Moreno-Ocampo said it was up to the U.N. Security Council to “ensure compliance with the court’s decision.” Achieving unanimous backing for any action will be fraught with problems since two of the council’s members, China and Russia, are Sudan’s allies.

  China, which is Khartoum’s biggest arms supplier and a major investor in its oil industry, already had indicated its opposition to an indictment. China’s United Nations ambassador said that any action against al-Bashir may put peacekeepers in Darfur at risk. And since the prosecutor announced his plan to bring charges against al- Bashir, council members met privately, with China and Russia warning that a direct move against the Sudanese president would jeopardize any future peace talks.

  With its decision last week to veto a UN attempt to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and with al-Bashir now indicted, China’s overall foreign policy of non-interference and no-strings-attached investments is once again under the spotlight.  In what surely is very bad timing for the Chinese, the indictment comes only one month away from the start of the Olympics.

  From the BBC:

  Next month’s Beijing summer games have been dubbed the ‘Genocide Olympics’ by Hollywood campaigners.

  They accuse China of supplying the Sudanese government with arms to enable it to wage a campaign of violence in Darfur. Stephen Spielberg recently cut his ties with the Olympics over the issue.

  Beijing and Khartoum have long had strong political, economic and military ties. Because of this strong relationship, Chinese leaders have traditionally resisted international pressure to use their clout to bring peace to Darfur, where there is conflict between government-backed militias and rebels.

  » Read more
  • July 14, 2008 10:19 AM

• Study: China Will Top United States In Beijing Medals

  

  Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers has issued a report that predicts China will win 88 medals at this summer’s Olympics, one more than the United States. From AP via International Herald Tribune:

  “As the host nation in Beijing and (with) an economy which has grown very strongly since 2004, the medal ‘target’ of 88 for China according to our model is much higher than its actual medal totals in Athens (63) or Sydney (59),” said John Hawksworth, the report’s author.

  China was third in overall medals at Athens 2004, behind first-place United States (102) and Russia (92). China was second in gold medals behind the U.S. in 2004 — 32 to 36.

  “The bottom line is that size matters, but it is not everything,” Hawksworth said. “David can sometimes slay Goliath in the Olympic arena.”

  PWC’s full table of predictions and an explanation of the survey methodology is available here.

  The survey contradicts an assertion by sports official Cui Dalin last year that China would finish behind the US and Russia in the 2008 Games medal count.

  » Read more
  • June 22, 2008 8:52 PM

• Superstitions Fly as Chinese Reel from a Bad (Luck) Year

  

  The Christian Science Monitor’s Peter Ford takes a look at Chinese superstitions in light of the country’s recent woes and the upcoming Olympic Games:

  Chinese popular culture is rich with symbolism: It is customary to eat long noodles on your birthday, for example, because they signify long life.

  Words that sound like one another, and dates, have an especially powerful attraction; September 18 is a popular day to open a business because the Chinese word for that date “jiu yi ba” (nine one eight) sounds like the phrase meaning “get rich quick.”

  August 8 has been regarded as a particularly auspicious date, both for its numbers and for the fact that the Olympic Games, a matter of intense pride to most Chinese, will open on that day. Beijing hospitals say they are expecting a spike in births that day, according to the state-run press, even if it means an even higher number than normal of C-section deliveries.

  Parents of prospective “Olympic babies,” however, laid their plans before doubts set in about just how lucky the number 8, or even the Games themselves, actually are.

  » Read more
  • June 20, 2008 2:00 PM

• China Lists Dos and Don’ts for Olympics-Bound Foreigners

  

  Keith Bradsher of the New York Times reports on some of the limitations Beijing is putting on foreigners headed for this summer’s Olympic Games:

  Do not bring any printed materials critical of China. Do not plan on holding any rallies or demonstrations in China. Do not think that you are guaranteed an entry visa because you hold tickets to an Olympic event. And do not even think about smuggling opium into China.

  That is some of the eclectic advice issued by the Beijing Organizing Committee on Monday, in a document listing 57 questions that foreign visitors to the Olympic Games in August may have: “Does China have any regulation against insults to the flag or national emblems?” “After eating or drinking at restaurants or hotels, if you have diarrhea or vomiting symptoms, how do you lodge a complaint?”

  The advisory to foreigners, posted on the committee’s Web site, but only in Chinese, provides answers for each question in a deadpan style. (Burning or soiling the Chinese flag or emblems is a criminal offense; food poisoning symptoms are to be reported to the local health department.) Some of the rules, like a ban on religious or political banners or slogans at Olympic sites, appear aimed at preventing protests of China’s crackdown in Tibet this year and other Chinese policies.

  » Read more
  • June 2, 2008 9:36 PM

• Update: Liu Xiang Misses Race With Tight Hamstring

  

  From Sports Illustrated:

  Chinese track and field athlete Liu Xiang was scheduled to compete in this Saturday’s Reebok Grand Prix event in New York. Liu had to drop out of the event due to a tight hamstring but appeared track-side to greet flag-waving fans. Liu’s coach, Sun Haiping is no doubt protecting the star athlete from injury before his much anticipated Olympic performance.

  NEW YORK (AP) -Chinese hurdles star Liu Xiang scratched from the Reebok Grand Prix on Saturday due to tightness in his right hamstring.

  Liu, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the 110 hurdles, told race organizers he still hoped to compete next Sunday at the Prefontaine Classic. His coach, Sun Haiping, wasn’t as optimistic.

  “Given his condition, it looks like it would be difficult for him to compete,” Sun said.

  Liu Xiang competed in and won last year’s Reebok Grand Prix event. Watch exciting YouTube footage of Liu winning the 2007 Reebok Grand Prix:
  

  Read complete results from the 2008 Reebok Grand Prix here.

  » Read more
  • May 31, 2008 8:49 PM

• Video: Liu Xiang atop Empire State Building

  

  From the New York Times:

  Liu Xiang, Chinese Olympic track and field star, appears soft-spoken and playful, posing for pictures and speaking through a translator atop the Empire State Building in New York City. Liu Xiang is featured in a video report by the New York Times, he is in town to compete in the Reebok Grand Prix on Randalls Island this Saturday.

  Watch the Video.

  

  Liu Xiang, the defending Olympic gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, at the Empire State Building on Wednesday. (
  Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)

  In baggy jeans, sneakers and a Nike windbreaker, Liu Xiang stood on the observation deck of the Empire State Building on Wednesday morning. Perhaps surprisingly, he did not have a sports psychologist at his side.
  Just 71 days before the Beijing Games, Liu may be carrying a greater mental weight than any Olympic athlete. He is the biggest sports star in the world’s most populous nation — a nation that expects Liu to deliver a crowning moment in the Games by successfully defending his gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles.

  » Read more
  • May 29, 2008 9:38 AM

• Who Is Liu?

  

  From Times Online:

  “Girls like him, old ladies like him, even men,” says Feng Shuyong, head coach of China’s national athletics team. But who is Liu Xiang?

  He is the 110 metres hurdles Olympic champion, just one of China’s 32 gold medal-winners from Athens but the only one who needs a blacked-out car to drive him to private rooms at karaoke bars. He is the only one who cannot step outside his home in Shanghai for fear of being mobbed. The only one handed the Olympic torch by President Hu Jintao in Tiananmen Square. In short, Liu is the biggest star in China.

  Why, you ask? The answer is twofold. First, he beat the West in one of their own events, a cross-cultural contest of speed and strength out of kilter with traditional metiers such as diving, shooting and table tennis. And secondly, Liu is a good citizen, a proud patriot and a man with traditional manners.

  

  Liu xiang, Chinese athlete. Photo taken in Hong Kong Stadium, 2004
  » Read more
  • May 27, 2008 8:19 AM

• Video: House Speaker Meets with Dalai Lama

  

  From Associated Press:

  U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, wearing a symbolic yellow scarf around her neck, delivered a speech in Dharamshala, India. Pelosi met with the Dalai Lama to help shed “the bright light of truth” on the situation in Tibet.

  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with the Dalai Lama in India Friday and called on the world community on Friday to denounce China in the wake of its crackdown in Tibet, calling the crisis “a challenge to the conscience of the world.”

  Read more about Nancy Pelosi’s visit with the Dalai Lama on BBC News.

  Nancy Pelosi has a reputation among some Beijing government officials. Pelosi was present when President Bush presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal last October, and in 1991, she demonstrated for democracy in Tian’an men Square.

  

  » Read more
  • March 21, 2008 9:41 AM

• Olympics 2008, UN Sports Advisor to Visit Beijing

  

  The United Nations will send Willi Lemke, a newly appointed Special Representative for Sports and Development, to Beijing as soon as possible. Lemke, who doesn’t advocate boycotting the Olympic Games, hopes his mission will include a trip to Tibet. “I know I will go [to] Beijing without heavy armament, I have only the power of words,” he said. From The Times of India:

  

  “UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants me to inform him how the Olympic Games can be used as a platform for peace,” Lemke said in a press conference.

  “I want to see the situation for myself,” added the 61-year-old. Lemke, whose new UN position was announced on Tuesday, said the human rights issue and recent unrest in Tibet is the “main problem” which will occupy him during the forthcoming months.

  » Read more
  • March 19, 2008 6:51 PM

• China on the Brink of Sacking Women’s Football Coach

  

  From Servihoo:

  Olympic women’s football coach, Elisabeth Loisel, could be permanently benched as China’s Football Association tries to position the team for Olympic glory. The Frenchwoman coached the Women’s football team for only five months, things turned sour when the general manager Zhang Jianqiang was hired in November. Loisel claims Zhang tried to sabotage her work as coach. Who are the new coaching prospects for the women’s team? They include Bora Milutinovic, and three domestic coaches. Swedish coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors has already turned down the job.

  China’s football association has proposed sacking Olympic women’s football coach Elisabeth Loisel as it looks to revive the team’s chances of home-town Games glory, state press said Friday.

  A proposal handed to the sports ministry on Thursday includes the option of keeping the Frenchwoman on as head coach through the Beijing Olympics but also offers alternatives, the Titan Sports Weekly said.

  

  Read a FIFA interview with Loisel at the start of her stint as head coach.

  Loisel has endured a fractious relationship with her players and officials during her five months in the job and the controversy came to a head after China finished ninth place in the just ended Algarve Cup in Portugal.

  China’s sports authority was expected to make a decision as early as Monday next week.

  » Read more
  • March 14, 2008 10:08 AM

• Video: Chinese Men’s and Women’s Teams Dominate at World Table Tennis Championships

  

  From The Canadian Press:

  China claimed a sweeping victory at the World Table Tennis Championship in Guangzhou. The tournament was considered a dress-rehearsal for the upcoming Olympic Games. China’s men’s team beat South Korea 3-0, while the women’s team won against Singapore, 3-1.

  Winning the titles seemed inevitable as China’s players outclassed and outlasted opponents throughout the weeklong tournament. Hong Kong and Japan placed third in both the men’s and women’s events.

  Pressure has been mounting on China as the Olympics approach. Table tennis is its national sport, and anything less than gold in the Chinese capital will be simply unacceptable.

  » Read more
  • March 4, 2008 12:51 PM

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