The elaborate closing ceremony that ended the Olympic Games on Sunday also ended nearly a decade in which the ruling Communist Party had made the Games an organizing principle in national life. Almost nothing has superseded the Olympics as a political priority in China.
For Chinese leaders, all that effort paid off. The Games were seen as an unparalleled success by most Chinese ”” a record medal count inspired nationwide excitement, and Beijing impressed foreign visitors with its hospitality and efficiency. And while the government’s uncompromising suppression of dissent drew criticism, China also demonstrated to a global audience that it is a rising economic and political power.
But a new, post-Olympic era has begun. The question now is whether a deepening self-confidence arising from the Olympic experience will lead China to further its engagement with the world and pursue deeper political reform, or whether the success of the Games and the muted Western response to repression will convince leaders that their current model is working.
“China was eager to present something that shows it is a new power that has its own might,” said Shen Dingli, a professor at Fudan University in Shanghai. “It has problems, but it is able to manage them. It has weaknesses in its institutions, but also strengths in those same institutions.”
It seems now that the Olympics are over, it is back to business as usual. While I love the athletic competition of the Olympics, it was a grave mistake to hold them in China. It only strengthened the Communist leadership. It did nothing for the people of China.
What’s next for China? A little girl adopted yesterday will grow up in the States and become a doctor or a lawyer (or some career of note hopefully says her currently exasperated “baba”). And she will become an ambassador between our countries. Her new family is now tied inextricably to the country of their new daughter’s birth. Her father will hopefully take many trips exchanging medical knowledge and service in the years to come.
Congratulations Robroy,
A great blessing to you and your family.
Congrats Robroy! May the Lord bless your family and your new daughter and may she grow to know and love our Lord.
TheChinese were broadly in agreement about the working of its government, and they are favorable. There is dissent of course, but china knows how to deal with it, and by and large the Chinese do not disagree about its techniques. The Olympics shows that top-down management can produce very substantial results. Americans in their arrogance think the Chinese are hungry for democracy, and they are simply wrong. Larry
I was speaking to a Christian living here in China and he said that people believe somewhat tautologically that it will relax after the Olympics or the government will see that they had some success with tightening control and they will continue it. I favor the former, in that the Christian Chinese showed themselves to be cooperative and that they are team players.
Neglecting the times and date since I didn’t memorize them – didn’t the original city states of Greece stop their warring for awhile to have the original Olympic games and then when they were over continued fighting and killing each other again?