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China
may well be the only country with a government that
fears Bjork.
Three
weeks after filmmaker Steven Spielberg in February cut
ties with the Beijing Olympics, the big-voiced Icelandic
pixie chanted “Tibet! Tibet!” on a Shanghai stage during
a song about independence. As Olympic protests have
grown, China has ratcheted up the rhetoric, sounding a
bit North Korean.
Comments
such as “doomed to failure,” “vicious-minded” and
“splittist activities” have become commonplace. The
Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama is cast by Chinese
officials as “a wolf in monk’s robes” who operates a
“clique.” US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also shouldn’t
expect an invitation to China anytime soon after
sponsoring a resolution criticizing the crackdown in
Tibet.
And then
you read media reports that China is shopping around for
additional help from public-relations firms. To many,
it’s a sign that activists have China on the ropes.
Conventional wisdom outside
Beijing
says the 2008 Olympics are becoming a turning point in
China’s relationship with human rights, transparency and
democracy. Think again. While the Olympics have become a
five-ringed circus and the rhetoric sounds desperate,
China isn’t flinching as much as the world expects.
Activists will certainly try. They’re not buying into
suggestions by China or the International Olympic
Committee that the games are somehow sacred and above
politics. Sorry, but the Olympics are a highly political
undertaking.
Olympic
politics
Governments have long used the Games to showcase power
and economic might. Why else would China care about
world leaders boycotting the opening ceremony? China
wants its global photo op.
Claims
about preserving the spirit of the event are equally
hollow. The Olympic rings have become as much about
economic domination and runaway commercialism as sport.
The games have become American Idol with sneakers, with
athletes vying for multimillion-dollar endorsement
contracts.
The
Summer Olympics are clearly important to China. They
just aren’t as big a deal for the nation’s policies as
many had figured.
Yes,
China has been surprised by the chaos surrounding the
Olympic torch’s travels around the globe. Noises about
heads of state, government leaders and members of royal
families boycotting the August 8 opening ceremony can’t
make President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao happy.
Yet, to
think that
China
didn’t anticipate a certain amount of criticism and is
about to alter its ways is unrealistic.
China’s priorities
None of
this means protesters should give China a pass. An
authoritarian nation that pledged to bolster human
rights to win the Olympics and chose the slogan, “One
World, One Dream” deserves to feel the heat.
It’s
important, though, to remember China’s priorities:
economic growth and support of the Han Chinese, who
constitute more than 90 percent of the nation’s 1.3
billion people. Doing so in the short run means putting
on a good show in August and winning loads of Olympic
medals to boost domestic support.
China
certainly cares what the world thinks of its big
coming-out party, and spinning opinion won’t be easy.
“Changing long-held perceptions is indeed a huge task
for a country as big and diverse as
China,” says Martin Roll, chief executive officer of
VentureRepublic, a Singapore-based consulting firm.
Yet,
when you meet with officials in
Beijing,
it’s clear the views of Chinese are what matter most.
While it seems cynical to say China stands to gain from
the Olympic brouhaha, it does, in a way. It’s feeding
nationalism at a time when China most needs to maintain
social stability.
Public
Relations
China’s
external public relations have been abysmal. Its
state-run media are using protests to whip up a
flag-waving frenzy. YouTube clips seen in London, New
York and Tokyo tell one story; Chinese video-sharing
platforms convey another. Bifurcated media coverage
guarantees that Chinese and foreigners will have
differing views about events in the Himalayan territory
and about China’s support of a Sudanese government
accused of genocide.
While
the rest of the world fulminates over the Olympics,
officials in Beijing are looking at ways to keep Asia’s
No. 2 economy humming. That’s what interests investors
in Chinese stocks, as measured by the CSI 300 Index,
which has dropped 33 percent this year.
China’s
10-percent plus economic growth is its security blanket,
and the country knows it. The United States needs China
as much as China needs US consumers to buy its goods.
The stability of the US bond market depends on China not
dumping its dollars. This makes a broad US boycott
highly unlikely.
Looking
ahead
Keeping
this relationship going means China needs to avoid
overheating. With so much focus on the Olympics, the
country should make sure it doesn’t take its eyes off
the economy.
There’s
speculation about
China
delaying steps to narrow the gap between rich and poor,
revalue the currency and protect the banking system from
the subprime-loan crisis until after the Olympics. Given
the surge in food and energy prices,
China
needs to act sooner rather than later.
Even so,
China’s policies are less about the Olympics than where
it wants to be 10 years from now. None of this means
protesters should shut up. It’s just that those trying
to throw China off schedule or off message should lower
their sights. |
