China: Olympic spotlight

Friday, March 14

Government policy has been developing in two particular areas this year where there is significant global attention. They are:

• the civil war in the Sudanese region of Darfur; and
• China's environmental record.

Both have come under the spotlight in the run-up to the Olympic Games this year, and the government has been making highly visible moves, many of them aimed squarely at the international community. China is commonly understood to be showing more urgency on Darfur and the environment in order to appear cooperative, although public relations considerations have also been feeding into decision-making. China wants to be seen to be operating according to international norms. The strategy appears to have been succeeding:

• Steven Spielberg's gesture has created little wider anti-China feeling.
• US President George Bush still plans to attend the Beijing Olympics.
• China benefits from a widespread assessment that it cannot be held directly to blame for Sudanese human rights violations, or at least, that its 'double standards' are no worse than those of the West.

Nevertheless, Beijing remains highly sensitive about the pressures building around the Olympics. On March 12, the establishment of a high-level group to oversee the Games was announced. Headed by Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) member Xi Jinping, with another PSC member, Zhou Yongkang, a deputy head, along with Beijing party head and president of the Games organising committee, Liu Qi, the heavyweight group is intended to ensure the smoothest of preparations for the Olympics, on all fronts.