...I don't think the Olympic Committee should be encouraging their economy by flinging billions of tourism dollars at it.
Interesting thought: My mother's brother and his wife and kids are just now coming back from a year of living in (I think) Shanghai. A frequent topic of discussion among the other displaced Westerners in his office was what the audiences at the Olympics will look like to international TV cameras. Apparently, the Chinese government is being incredibly tight-fisted and restrictive about issuing guest visas to would-be spectators.
My uncle suspects that they don't want to let any non-essential international guests because when they need to handle any kind of civil unrest or unruly crowd, they use the special beat-the-hell-out-of-them method. China doesn't want anyone to see how they handle themselves when they know the world isn't watching. It seems like any influx of tourism dollars is being politely turned down by China, for fear of the West getting an undeniable view of How Bad Things Are.
Fascinating. And at one both heartening and disheartening all at once. Yay for them not getting tourist dollars. Boo for them clinging to the "beat the snot outta you!" method.
I guess they stick with the old adage... you can get more with a kind word and a 2x4 than with just a kind word.
The bitch with China is they're really stuck. They can't really join the economic world without letting other ideas and viewers in, but they can't keep control if they do. Yet on the same, they can't afford to piss us and the rest of the world of because they need us for trade. Lose-Lose, no way out. For that reason Im surprised they wanted this... it's a risk I didn't think they'd take.
I don't want to sound contradictory, as I have no other information other than a little blip of an article in the WaPo a little while ago, but I read that China's having trouble enticing people to come, rather than trying to keep them out. It was something like 44% vacancy rate in the 4- and 5-star hotels in Beijing and official were freaking out because they wanted to draw in the money from Olympic visitors. They'd launched a more aggressive ad campaign and were running specials and stuff. But maybe that just shows the disconnect between the businesses (eg, hotels in Beijing) who want the foreign tourists and the government who won't issue them visas?
It doesn't strike me as terribly surprising that the CCP would be so strict with issuing visas, so who knows.
i think the more global attention paid to china, the more humane their practices will have to become and the more responsible to the environment their practices will have to become
I'm really torn on whether or not China should have been awarded the Olympics. On one hand, yes, their human rights record is atrocious and the Olympics are a big incentive for a change in behavior; on the other hand, hosting the Olympics denotes a modern, advanced nation, one capable of hosting a major international event and one that's important. More than anything, China wants to be a major world player - all of their policies are aimed at shoring up power and influence on the global stage. Particularly, they want to edge out US influence in Asia and be the big player in that region, but they also expand their sphere of influence, as it were, to other regions: China is the largest foreign investor in Africa, a major trade partner of Middle Eastern nations (notably Iran), a strategic ally of Russia, a huge exporter to everywhere, and a very attractive place for foreign investment from neighbors (Japan) as well as those far away (US.) Hosting the Olympics necessarily forces them open to some degree, and the IOC hoped, I think,
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Interesting thought: My mother's brother and his wife and kids are just now coming back from a year of living in (I think) Shanghai. A frequent topic of discussion among the other displaced Westerners in his office was what the audiences at the Olympics will look like to international TV cameras. Apparently, the Chinese government is being incredibly tight-fisted and restrictive about issuing guest visas to would-be spectators.
My uncle suspects that they don't want to let any non-essential international guests because when they need to handle any kind of civil unrest or unruly crowd, they use the special beat-the-hell-out-of-them method. China doesn't want anyone to see how they handle themselves when they know the world isn't watching. It seems like any influx of tourism dollars is being politely turned down by China, for fear of the West getting an undeniable view of How Bad Things Are.
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The bitch with China is they're really stuck. They can't really join the economic world without letting other ideas and viewers in, but they can't keep control if they do. Yet on the same, they can't afford to piss us and the rest of the world of because they need us for trade. Lose-Lose, no way out. For that reason Im surprised they wanted this... it's a risk I didn't think they'd take.
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It doesn't strike me as terribly surprising that the CCP would be so strict with issuing visas, so who knows.
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