2008 Beijing Games Human Rights News

Patriotic fervour cannot fix everything and the scale of the Olympic Games opening ceremony was such that some adjustments to reality were needed.

The Chinese public television live broadcasts that are not quite live, the gigantic firework displays that were done on a computer, the pretty girl lip-synching the Ode to the Motherland sung by a less pretty girl in the wings, the hushed-up case of a dancer left paralysed by a three-metre fall during rehearsal... Each of these little subterfuges carried out to impress the visitors had its own little story, tragedy and symbolism. The latest little adjustment, while not exceptional in major public performances, has a symbolic significance that will be appreciated. The 56 child extras representing the 56 ethnic groups that make up China turn out to have all been members of the Han ethnic majority disguised as an Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongol and so on.

This was revealed by British journalist Jane Macartney of The Times of London during the daily news conference. The only reaction she got from Chinese Organising Committee vice-president Wang Wei (the man who had failed to notice the tank parked outside the press centre at the beginning of the week) was an angry reference to the “nit-picking” foreign media.

The episode recalls the exploit of Catherine the Great’s war minister, Grigori Potemkin, who had cardboard facade villages built along the road when she visited newly-conquered provinces in order to adjust reality to his interest and reassure the uneasy empress.

Care has been taken since the start of the games to keep the “trouble-makers” away. For example, US speed-skater Joey Cheek, a gold medal-winner in the 2006 Turin winter games, found that his visa had been withdrawn by the Chinese embassy on the eve of his departure last week for Beijing. Although he was not given any explanation, it was clearly linked to the fact that he is the founder of “Team Darfur,” a coalition of 72 athletes that has been urging China to stop supporting the Sudanese regime responsible for the genocide in Darfur.

Meanwhile, as long appearances are maintained, everything is fine, Mr. Potemkin.