China Law Blog

Thanks, Dan

On a related note, China cannot escape the fact that people will use the Olympics to further their own agendas.

The success or failure of the 2008 Olympics will *not* be determined by how many groups protest or try to hijack the Olympics to their own ends.

It will be determined by how China responds to those inevitable provocations. The outcome is entirely in China's own hands. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

Will --

I agree.

"It will be determined by how China responds to those inevitable provocations"

I would not limit to provocations alone, but would put a focus on the "freedom of press" -- there will be a swarm of reporters and journalists covering every niche and corner. Including underwear. If one journalist is refused, censored etc. that's going to be a story in itself. There will also be the masses of foreigners with their tiny digital eyes.

Beware the power of self-censorship. Rupert Murdoch is likely to be handing orders down the lines of command not to piss off officials to the point of being refused market access. Will editors have more to gain from running stories about censorship than from covering the games themselves, with all the advertisement revenue it brings in? I hate to be a pessimist, but I doubt it.

Speaking from a U.S. expat's perspective here, journalism these days is more business-oriented than it has ever been, and I doubt that very many journo's are willing to sacrifice their career prospects by refusing to tow the line of 'cooperation' with local laws on free speech. Not to mention the fact that it's hard enough to get access to information showing the government in a negative light without painting yourself as friendly to their interests and preferences as to what you report. And if you can't read, write or speak Chinese, you're up shit creek to begin with.

That said, how many AP reporters do you think will be breaking stories on behind-closed-doors discussions on what to do about Darfur? I'm afraid the most significant discussions of these issues will involve:

-Interpretations of official press statements
-Speculations as to how the Chinese government actually works, and why it does what it does
-Maybe a smattering of guarded opinions from University professors in China
-The usual think-tank banter we always see in the Op-Ed sections, with the words 'Olympics' thrown in for good measure
-A handful of anecdotal interviews with gung-ho patriotic Beijingers (and who can resist saying good things about your country and its people when for the first and only time in your life you get to be on international TV?)
-The odd statement from a human rights group about Tienanmen or Falun Gong, effectively countered by government-allowed protests from equally-impassioned Daiyu islands activists.

I do hope that world networks do more than this and actually attempt to raise the very important issues that the world needs to engage China on, but looking at the uncritical coverage given to previous conflicts (Our invasion of Iraq, for example), I don't think the media will direct near enough effort towards informing the public on these issues as they ought to.

But, I mean China still working on the writing thing. They come up with rules on the spot. Now be a good little kid and kiss Uncle Hu and Auntie Yi's asses and you can go.

Michael --

I agree.

Brandon --

I fear you are dead on. But, I hope that just 5% of the reporters there break the mold. That would be enough.

Raj --

Generally true, but I think this will be far less true during the Olympics.