If China considered this a "coming out party" it must be seen as a success.  Any concerns about pollution, human rights, or Tibet seemed to vanish; despite some small banners being unfurled, none of the negative news really stuck. 

If - and this is a big if - the gymnasts are deemed to be underage, the fallout will be huge.  Forget the fact that medals will be stripped and China may lose face internationally; if they are proven to be underage it will point to an organized cover-up orchestrated in concert with a number of state-run sports associations and the Foreign Ministry, which issued the passports.

I haven't found myself inside a venue long enough to become incredibly hungry.  But a friend of mine from Canada watched three tennis matches the other day and said he heard people complaining all around him:  all they could eat were potato chips, and some were in the venue for 8 or 9 hours.

"It is all about projecting the right image of China with no respect for honesty or for the audience.  I do not think the Chinese state realizes how unethical this is, they don't understand what kind of values they are reflecting."

The way the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG) and the Chinese Government continue to flagrantly break their promises astounds.  Now, as many of the world's major media have reported, Internet usage will be censored in Beijing.  Is this, in fact, a broken promise?  We turn to the BBC's report from Thursday July 12, 2001, one day before the 2008 Olympic Games were awarded, for an answer.

A steam bath at the Forbidden City

Caught in the middle are the Chinese people, who after listening and believing the government for so long are embarrassing themselves by parroting the government line on international television.  I’m not advocating a revolt, but the Chinese people need to demand more honesty and accountability from their government.  If they choose not to, they must accept the fallout, which will be intense criticism of China and potentially a very negative global image of their country.

What startled me at that moment - something I remember to this day - was that he used the word "Chinese" instead of "Mandarin", a distinction many westerners are taught to make.  In Canada and the United States, we would joke at people who use the term "Chinese" as it betrayed their ignorance about the complexities of China's dialects, particularly Cantonese and Mandarin.  With so many dialects - some influential globally - should we be calling "Mandarin" the "Chinese language"?

This is Beijing in June 2008, weeks before it throws open its doors to the world. The taxi chaos at the station is typical of problems the city is facing. Services and preparations for the Games just aren't up to the standards westerners are used to.

It’s time they started pulling their weight, or at least other people’s luggage up and down the stairs. Give them a mandatory daily quota of smokers whom they have to shame into butting out in no-smoking areas. And if that fails, the subway station toilets can always use a good scrub. Let’s face it. These clowns are never going to stop a real (or imaginary) terrorist threat. I’d be happy if they just stay out of my way.

(Photo from Imagethief)

This blog doesn’t necessarily believe that protests in Tiananmen Square would be a “public relations disaster”.  Those disasters occur when armed and impatient police begin to panic, the truncheons come out, and images of bloody crackdowns are beamed across the world; in fact, if China allowed open protests in Tiananmen Square and showed a great deal of maturity and restraint, it would actually be a positive public relations move for the country and government.