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  Politics and Games: Was Beijing 2008 a Mistake?

Politics and Games Was Beijing 2008 a Mistake?

By SPIEGEL Staff

Part 2: Different People, Different Chinas

As we reflect on the nature of today's China, it is important to draw a clear distinction between the state and society, which is gradually emancipating itself. It's an important distinction to make before addressing the issue of whether it was wrong to allow Beijing to host the Olympics. No one can deny that China’s dynamic society has earned this honor over the past few decades. This cannot be said, however, about China's ruling elite, which has used the opening ceremonies for its own purposes, sending idealized images to broadcasters around the world -- but primarily feeding them into their own national media network.

Indeed, if China’s athletes win the most medals, the party and the government will surely milk it for all its worth. The IOC has either underestimated these secondary effects or irresponsibly acquiesced to them. The IOC also presumably overestimated its soft power. Out of pure vanity -- and wrongly, as it turns out -- the masters of the games assumed that they had so much power over China’s leadership that they could actually influence its behavior.

In countering such criticism, the committee points to the history books. IOC representatives did this repeatedly last week in Beijing as they tried to draw attention to the social changes that took place in Japan after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and how the 1988 Seoul Olympics gave a boost to democracy in South Korea.

The question is, however: Can you really compare China with Japan and South Korea? One person who seems to think so is US President George W. Bush, who seems to be playing a wild new form of ping-pong politics. Only a week before Friday's opening ceremonies, Bush hosted five Chinese dissidents at the White House. On Wednesday, he severely took to task the human rights policies of the Chinese government. And then on Thursday, Bush boarded his jet to travel across the world to be present as the most important guest of honor at the opening ceremony. Does Bush lack principles? Or is that how things are done in the world of politics?

The German Position

For Germany, at least, the fact that not a single member of the German government -- neither a member of parliament nor German President Horst Köhler -- was sitting in the VIP lounge in the Bird’s Nest on Friday is not going to do anything to enhance its influence in China. Nor does it help that Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's minister for both sports and the interior, and Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung are only planning to visit German athletes in China two weeks into the competition. Granted, Germany is remaining true to its principles. At the same time, though, it is unwilling to venture into uncharted waters by actively taking part in a difficult historical process.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel can be praised for her moral integrity, but diplomacy is still defined as the art of finding the right means to meet your goals. When it comes to China, Merkel’s tool of choice has been the club, and she most recently swung it in November when she put German-Chinese relations on ice for six months by receiving the Dalai Lama in the Chancellery. This prompted objections from her coalition partners, the left-leaning Social Democrats, and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was very frustrated by what he called Merkel's “window dressing policies.” For her part, however, Merkel interpreted this as only causing minor damage to domestic politics.

Indeed, Merkel won’t achieve much more on China, nor is she even really trying. The chancellor has neither launched any initiatives nor actively supported any dissidents, as have Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Nor has she spoken out clearly on China’s human rights record, as both Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have. Under these circumstances, it should come as no surprise that Merkel did not openly boycotted the opening ceremony of the Olympics, which was no longer even an option. Instead, she somewhat meekly blamed “previous engagements” for not being able to attend. In reality, these engagements turned out to be visiting the Italian region of South Tyrol while on vacation Friday -- something else China's leader will never forgive her for.

Delivering on Promises

Back in Beijing, every movement counts, every sentence, every photo. What this means is that these are the first political games of the 21st century and that their historical significance will be greater than their athletic importance. In 1980, the war in Afghanistan led many Western countries to boycott the Moscow Olympics, and when the Eastern Bloc took its revenge in Los Angeles in 1984, China broke ranks with the communist boycotters. This summer, Beijing is only continuing this series of politically charged Olympics. It might not be about East versus West anymore, but it still has something to do with ideas.

That said, does it still have anything to do with sports? If you had had a chance to eavesdrop on German athletes over the last few weeks, you might very well have your doubts. Many of them have used the past months to reflect on possible forms of protest, to give interviews -- with varying degrees of profundity -- on Tibet and Darfur, and to self-righteously criticize their American counterparts for not even addressing such debates. Such activities may have earned them a few points on the popularity scale, but actually serving any cause seemed to be of only secondary importance. When the IOC finally issued a declaration listing all the things athletes were forbidden from doing, it quickly took the wind out of their sails. As things now stand, it doesn’t look like we should expect any political activities from athletes over the next two weeks.

These Olympics are supposed to be “green,” "high-tech" games with a “human face." The opening ceremony has already kept the "high-tech" promise, at least. With floating lights, perfectly choreographed fireworks, and breathtaking moments when the laws of gravity seemed suspended, China has proven that it has mastered all these high-tech special effects. It remains to be seen, however, how “human” and readily understandable this festival of sports will be for Western observers. It already became clear during the opening ceremonies that some things which move the Chinese to tears leave Europeans unmoved -- or even slightly alarmed.

MARKUS FELDENKIRCHEN, ULLRICH FICHTNER, LOTHAR GORRIS, MAIK GROSSEKATHÖFER, DETLEF HACKE, ANDREAS LORENZ