by Wang Zhicheng

One month before the Games in Beijing, the people are increasingly disillusioned over the Olympics. In a survey conducted by AsiaNews in China, many criticize the authorities for waste, corruption, surveillance. Instead of an image campaign, the 20 billion euros could have been used to overcome poverty and illiteracy, truly realizing the slogan of Hu Jintao: put the people first.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - One month before the Olympics, the sentiment of the Chinese is changing (or has it always been like this?), and many are describing the Olympics in Beijing as a "tragedy", as a "misfortune" that has caused serious problems for China.  Above all, there is the realization that the cost of hosting the Games is too high for a simple image campaign, and that the money (at least 80 billion yuan - about 8 billion euros - for construction; 200 billion yuan in total, equal to 20 billion euros) could have  been used to improve conditions for the poor and for students.  This is the result of a survey conducted by AsiaNews in China, in a number of different cities.

Thanks to the clever control of information by of the Beijing government, the West has seen nothing but the triumphal images of the journey of the Olympic torch, greeted by millions of radiantly patriotic Chinese, or the images of when Beijing won its bid to host the Games on July 13, 2001, with the fireworks and the throngs of cars circling Tiananmen Square.

But a completely different image emerges from the survey by AsiaNews, with responses gathered from big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, and from different regions, like Hebei, Guangdong,  Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, Ningxia, Hubei.

Here is one response, from Shanghai:

"The night on which Beijing won its bid to host the Olympic Games, I wept.  I wept for my nation and my people. China's poor are unable even to feed themselves, and they must host the Olympics.  The government thought it was being intelligent, but in reality it was stupid.  The only country that has profited from the Olympics is America (editor's note: the United States).  Many other countries couldn't even pay back the debt for twenty or thirty years.  With the last Olympics, Greece lost 1 billion dollars. The Chinese are already suffering greatly from poverty.  Now, with the Olympics, this situation will get worse.  I can't understand how people can want to celebrate.  How can they ignore the fact that it's merely boasting? It is reported that Beijing plans to spend 80 billion yuan on Olympic construction projects alone.  Imagine: with this amount of money, hundreds of thousands of children could go to school, many people would no longer be poor, and unemployed laborers could find work.  The Olympic Games will last only a little more than ten days.  Was it really necessary to waste so much money? What will we do with those stadiums in the future? How much more money will we have to waste just to maintain them? It's just another opportunity for corrupt officials to be even more corrupt.  These extra sporting facilities will not do us any good.  It's just another way to waste our tax money".

More in general, in the 72 responses obtained by AsiaNews, the Olympics are seen above all as a burden, because many people have been deprived of their homes, shops, or jobs (through appropriation) in order to build the Olympic facilities.  Many others complain that on account of the few days of competitions, their lives have changed: they cannot use their cars; they are subjected to security controls; they are unable to go shopping in their neighbourhoods (too close to the Olympic village).  Others complain that there are tight controls in internet cafes, and even in the hotels: every client must be registered, and his identity card scanned.  If the hotel forgets to do so, its license is revoked.

Still others, like some in Tangshan (Hebei) complain that some of their friends have lost their jobs.  In order to improve air quality, the plants of a steel company have been closed for three months, and transferred from Beijing to Tangshan.  But it is unknown whether the company will be reopened, or whether the workers will be paid.  Moreover, the transfer of the company has led to increased polluting of the ocean.

Everyone is terrified that there will be an economic crisis after the Games, and that the poor will be the ones to pay the price.  In the responses to the survey, one of the most frequently occurring words is "waste".

In various responses obtained by AsiaNews, the communist party is accused of delusion, of wanting only to carry out an image campaign, and of betraying the slogan of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao: "put the people first".

The saddest response comes from Sichuan, from the area of the earthquake: "This is just a gesture to show off our power. There are disasters everywhere in our country. People are suffering. The money wasted on the Olympic Games could have been better used for our people".

• china
• economy
• olympics
• beijing
• religious
• freedom