USA Today has published an editorial commenting on various actions by the Chinese government in the run-up to the Olympics, including a recent crackdown on the press and on dissidents:
This overreaction is unnecessary and counterproductive. Allowing the kind of freedom that can tolerate some dissent and free speech is a sign of a nation’s strength.
After a devastating earthquake hit Sichuan province in China last month, the relatively open access for reporters boosted China’s image — particularly in sharp contrast to the way Burma blocked reporters and aid officials after its deadly cyclone earlier in May. The Burmese response was similar to the way China used to behave in the face of natural disasters. China’s shift augured well for the Olympics. But foreign and Chinese reporters are now being hampered in attempts to cover the stories of the parents of children who died in schools that collapsed, and who blame local authorities for shoddy construction.
China has made great strides since the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s, when Chairman Mao forced intellectuals to work in the fields. Its economy is booming; free enterprise is now welcomed, not punished. It has legitimate fears about the Olympics being disrupted by terrorist attacks, as they were in 1972. But the country that proudly touts the Games as its coming-out party needs to allow more spontaneity and openness to live up to its official Olympic motto of “One World, One Dream.”
The paper also published an opposing view of the same topic, from Chinese embassy spokesman Wang Baodong:
As China expects more than 10,000 athletes and 500,000 foreign visitors coming to Beijing in less than two months, international terrorists and anti-China forces are also calculating their chances. To ensure the safety of the athletes and visitors, China has to take necessary security measures, including making some legitimate and appropriate visa policy arrangements. All these are consistent with practices of previous Olympics and major international sports events.
Media regulations promulgated early last year by the Chinese government have given foreign journalists full freedom to report from China in the run-up to and during the Beijing Olympics, and more than 25,600 foreign reporters are expected to cover the Games. Of course, they are expected to follow China’s law, and to present to the world a real China with their pens and lenses.
Read also an op-ed from the Los Angeles Times, “In China, the game has changed.“
