Русская версияDuring the last two weeks, the world has watched in awe as athletes
from around the globe broke records, leapt to new heights and swam
faster than ever.
Along with its record number of gold medalists, host country China
likewise had its shining moment as countless news features reported
on the billion-dollar polishing of the communist nation's image.
From the uniquely-designed Birds' Nest stadium to the efforts to
eliminate smog in the one of the world's most polluted cities,
nothing -- not even China's approach to human rights issues -- was
left undiscussed.
Despite efforts to bring the world's focus onto positive
developments in the nation, however, the Chinese government faced
stream of criticism about its policies, most notably from
journalists frustrated by a lack of press freedom.
Small success for free speech
After stories appeared lamenting the censorship of certain Web
sites, including the Chinese language version of DW-WORLD.DE, in
the Olympic press center, restrictions on foreign journalists
seemed to loosen.
Bans on several Web sites were lifted in the
press center and requirements for registering interviews with
government authorities were theoretically removed.
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Web censorship had many journalists up in arms
Human rights activists applauded this step toward transparency.
"We had a small success," said Annette Hartmetz, campaign
coordinator for Amnesty International Germany, whose Web site was
one of those banned by Chinese officials. "We hope it stays that
way after the Games."
Liu Binjie, responsible for the Administration of Press and
Publications, told the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without
Borders that the newly "open door" for foreign journalists "would
not be closed even after the games," he said.
The popular
Beijing
Youth Daily
took Binjie's sentiments one step further.
"Even though the Beijing Games have ended, China's opening up and
exchanges with the world will not cease, and the Chinese people's
participation in the development and improvement of mankind will
not change," it wrote.
Cracking down in the background?
But while the world watched Michael Phelps achieve an Olympic
first, Chinese security forces instituted a crackdown in the
country's separatist Xinjiang region. Representatives of the Muslim
Uighur minority group, the exiled Uighur World Congress, said over
500 activists were detained there.
The remote Himalayan prefecture of Garze, one of China's most
volatile and isolated Tibetan regions, likewise saw an increase in
oppression as armed soldiers set up checkpoints throughout the
province and plainclothes policemen monitored Buddhist temples for
signs of dissent.
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Authorities arrested 10 Pro-Tibet demonstrators during the Games
Those are just two in a laundry list of accusations human rights
groups have leveled at the socialist regime, begging the question
of just how much the government has changed.
One foreign journalist working in Beijing told Reporters Without
Borders she was surveyed very closely in the run-up to the Games.
"They constantly follow me, taking photos and video," she said. "I
have to think twice about who I speak with about delicate issues
because I'm afraid afterward they'll be arrested."
Reporters Without Borders reported that this year 31 journalists,
bloggers and free speech activists have been arrested or put in
jail.
Public protests quashed
Though the government established three protest areas in public
parks to respond to the IOC's concerns that public speech against
the government would be quashed, no protests were held. Potential
protestors were made to register with the authorities, who then
denied all of the 77 applications.
Two of the applicants, women in their late 70s, were sentenced to
re-education camps for trying to protest a land dispute.
"Of all the ways in which we tried to game out what rock bottom
would look like, even we would not have anticipated that two
septuagenarians would be sentenced to re-education through labor
while the Games were going on," Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy
director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
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Olympic venues like the Birds' Nest stadium led to the relocation
of 1.5 million residents
With such developments taking place while the cameras were still
rolling, some are concerned about what will become of the human
rights issues when the international spotlight isn't on Beijing.
"As happy as we may be about the progress that was made, the
Olympics have also created new human rights problems and that makes
for a lousy balancing of accounts," said Hartmetz. "But China has
always been a big place for us to continue our work and of course
we'll carry on."
Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, head of the German parliament's human rights
committee, reaffirmed her commitment to continuing the discussion
about China's human rights in an interview with DW-WORLD.DE.
"We'll be in Beijing in October and carefully observe the human
rights situation," she said. "But I'm against lecturing people. We
should clearly and unequivocally demand human rights, and we have
to keep doing so, also as human rights activists and politicians.
... It's very important to me that the question of human
rights doesn't get taken off the agenda."
(Deutsche Welle)
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