Hopes for change hung on '08 Olympics

The former group used the Seoul Olympics of 1998 as an example: Even today the IOC website cheerfully affirms that "in a coup for the Olympic Movement, [South] Korea turned democratic in order to welcome the world to the summer games."

Yet the latter group used the 1936 Berlin Games as an example: Nazi Germany using the games to tout its comeback as a European power and to advocate Aryan supremacy.

Probably neither example applies to China, say Asia experts. Australians like to remind Olympic officials that preparation for the 2000 Sydney games was difficult and exhausting. Yet the three-week Olympics, once they opened, took a turn toward the fun and exhilarating that no one expected.

In Beijing today, everything is going smoothly, according to the Chinese government. "Construction of major Olympic projects including the National Stadium and National Aquatics Centre are progressing smoothly and according to schedule while also satisfying quality guarantees," according to People's Daily, a leading Beijing newspaper.

Yet the excitement surrounding the 2001 announcement – a time when the entire city stopped in its tracks, and partied in a way it has not since – has ebbed for the moment. Old neighborhoods that were guaranteed to be saved, have been torn down. On May 30 the official state–run Xinhua news service reported only 11 "blue sky days" in the month of April. Between January and April there were only 51 blue sky days, the term of art for a generally clear and unpolluted day – compared with the year before when there were more than 60. China Daily noted that at this pace, Beijing may well miss the goal of 238 blue sky days it set prior to the Olympics. The blue sky goal for 2008 is 292. Corruption charges against construction and pork–barrel spending resulted in the firing last month of Beijing's vice-mayor, Liu Zhihua – who was pilloried for conducting a "decadent lifestyle."

Other jeremiads have appeared, urging the city and its inhabitants to become less rude and to stop belching, hacking, and spitting. "If we don't change our habits before 2008, the world will look down on China,'' said Zhou Shiji, a popular thinker and commentator and author of the bestselling "Doing Instead of Knowing."

Volunteers wearing uniforms emblazoned with the Chinese character for "mucus'' will hand out "spit bags'' to encourage "civilized spitting,'' said Zhang Huiguang, director of Beijing's Capital Ethical and Cultural Development Office.

"The Greeks successfully turned the 2004 Olympics into a real festival and earned respect from the whole world. If Beijing wishes to repeat that success, it has to start learning how to serve the people better, here and now," intoned the English language China Daily in a recent editorial.

"[Chinese authorities] are super self-confident they can handle anything," says Mr. Moses of People's University. "They look upon it as an opportunity to show they can handle any interest groups with a complaint."

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