OPINION> Commentary
Wild Games theories
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-11 08:39

The Olympic Games is on, so is a spate of rumors and supposed worries.

The Games is described as the country's "coming-out party"; China is believed to be hoping to seal its rise to superpower status in sport by topping the medals table at the Games; Beijing's 70,000-odd cabs are "bugged" with the GPS-equipped devices - a microphone that can be activated remotely, at any time and without the driver's knowledge, to spy on the outsiders.

Just to name a few.

Rumors were flying long before the Games started. Some were so bizarre that they could scare the foreign athletes and tourists away from the country.

Those who dared to come for enjoying the Games and seeing the country will tell how ridiculous the rumors are.

The GPS devices are a popular thing in cabs in alien lands, especially the industrialized Western countries. When China's cabs are installed with them, it is believed to be an effort by police or other security forces to "eavesdrop on conversations on passengers," as Human Rights Watch put it.

So devices can be dangerous when they are placed in unexpected places. There are up to 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people. But this is not sensational stuff.

When China exerts its heart and strength to the utmost for the Games, how could it snoop on the suspicious, if not everyone of, foreigners, roaming around in its capital? The influx of offshore tourists into the country is estimated at half a million.

Then China's desire to win gold medals at the Games on home turf is an issue.

To win the race for gold, China is said to work on improving its chances in areas where the gold medals are plentiful - focusing especially on sports that have not been China's traditional strong suits.

Though the informal Olympic motto - "The most important thing is not to win but to take part" - introduced by the founder of the modern Olympic Games Pierre de Coubertin, is well known, the victory rostrum is the place, of which every athlete dreams.

American swimming sensation Michael Phelps is aiming for eight gold medals in Beijing.

It is natural for our sports men and women, who trained for years for the Games, to put their hearts out and go for the medals. Our athletes will perform up to expectations in events such as table tennis, gymnastics, diving, rowing and sailing, where tradition or intensive training has given them a leg up.

The Beijing Games is about more than just sport - as so many Olympics have been. On the larger playing field - that is, on the political world stage - China knows that the Games can be a chance for the rest of the world to see it. We believe that seeing is the first step to understanding.

We are an image-conscious nation - we do house-cleaning when guests visit.

Rather than a coming-out party, the Olympics signals a coming-in party for the house that the late Chairman Mao Zedong built as a full-fledged member of the global establishment, which, however, once dismissed it as an interloper.

"Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history," affirmed De Coubertin.

It is a call to see the Games succeed.

(China Daily 08/11/2008 page7)