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By Alyssa Misner
 |
An honour guard holds a
red flag as paramilitary officers walk on Tiananmen Square as training
in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics games.
©APGraphicsBank |
China's frenzied efforts to prepare its capital for the 2008 Olympics have led to one broken promise after another on human rights. Chinese authorities have tightened their grip on the media and shrugged off international norms on housing, work and mental health rights in a massive urban "cleanup," according to a September 2006 Amnesty International report submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Yet the IOC, the Olympics oversight body, has looked the other way.
In Beijing, a city of 15 million now as famous for its pollution and traffic as for its architectural treasures, Communist party officials are working with private developers to illegally seize valuable land and evict residents with little warning or compensation. They have spent billions of dollars on construction projects that have wiped out historic neighborhoods and led to the evictions of 400,000 people, according to the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. City authorities can now cite begging, informal business and unauthorized advertising as grounds for imprisonment without trial. Beijing officials have even discussed hospitalizing mentally ill people and forcing out migrant workers, many of whom are building the Olympic facilities.
"Amnesty International has always been prejudiced against China," said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in response to AI's report. "Its report is usually politically motivated and untruthful."
Dozens of Chinese citizens who are outraged at such measures-including lawyers, journalists and activists- have been subjected to detentions, unfair trials and severe punishments, according to AI. Another international rights group, Reporters Without Borders, fears that Chinese authorities will use the U.S., French and Israeli surveillance equipment it purchased for Olympic security to spy on its citizens once the games are over.
In-depth media coverage of these abuses may be scarce: While China insists
Beijing will be a media-friendly environment for the 20,000 foreign journalists
expected to cover the Olympics, IOC Press Commissioner Richard Kevan has already
warned reporters to "respect the conditions and rules" of China's state apparatus
during the games. 
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