Jubilation on the Streets of Beijing

AN STYLE="font-size: 75%; color:#990000; font-weight:bold">Saturday, July 14, 2001. 2:22 AM HKT

TIME Beijing Bureau Chief Matt Forney joined Communist Party members, including President Jiang Zemin, at the Millennium Monument for the announcement of the 2008 Games bid. He later joined the thousands of jubilant Chinese who broke through police barriers in Tiananmen Square. He spoke to TIMEasia.com editor Nick Papadopoulos in Hong Kong. Edited excerpts:

Matt, what’s the mood like in Tiananmen Square right now?
Jubilation. People have just broken though a phalanx of police lines and they are ecstatic. You know, Chinese people feel they have been doing everything right for the past 20 years or so, and they want some recognition for it, from the international community, and also among themselves. The Chinese haven’t had much to cheer for, for the past 300 years, one could argue, and I can’t remember any other time where there has been an outpouring of public emotion in a positive way that was not directly guided by the government. The Chinese people protested against the U.S. embassy bombing in Belgrade, they came out and waved their flags two years ago for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, but nothing has happened to give people reason to stand up and cheer. Until now. Chinese celebrations are always thoroughly planned. But this time the people of China had a chance to unite in jubilation without being told by the Communist Party to do so. And this was the first time since at least the 1989 Tiananmen uprising that that’s happened. And it happened in such a peaceful and joyous way.

Did you speak to ordinary Chinese people on the street? What is their feeling?
I talked to quite a few people and their responses were almost all the same: they are terribly proud of what their country has done over the past 20 years or so. They feel that the world misunderstands China and that hosting the Olympics will give the world a chance to see what their country is really like. They feel like they’ve been accepted by the international community. Winning the Olympics is seen as a rite of passage, an acceptance, if you like, of China as a world power. I found it very interesting that Chinese police tried to close the square, and that people consistently broke through the police lines to enter. It is exactly what the Communist Party is afraid of. That when large groups of Chinese people get together, they become lawless. But as one college-aged kid next to me said, as we got through the police lines, "The Communist Party is always so afraid of the people. But we are only being patriotic."

What do you think won the bid for China?
It’s hard to say at this early stage. China will likely do a fine job of putting on the spectacle that is the Olympics. It would have been two decades since an Asian country hosted the games, and no developing country has hosted the Games since 1968. There’s also the chance that in the future when China is an established world power, people will look back and see this (the Games) as one of the seminal moments in the country’s emergence as a world power. And I’m sure the IOC will be glad to have its name connected to that.

Does the decision vindicate those who said China’s human rights had nothing to do with the Games?
Look, it is a risk to give China the Games. Nobody knows who will be running the country in 2008. The country will have a political transition next year. It will be tricky, because anything could happen between now and 2008. If China continues on the trajectory it is on now, its human rights situation will probably improve. But if they deteriorate significantly, that will be a blot on the Olympic record.

What does the decision mean for President Jiang Zemin and his Communist Party?
I think it was interesting how the Communist Party came out and linked itself to the bid. The Communist Party had carefully taken a backseat all along. Their approach was that this was a Beijing city bid, not a national bid. The people who had taken the lead were not recognized senior figures in the Communist Party. But once the announcement was made, not just Jiang Zemin but the entire 20-plus members of the Politburo appeared at the celebrations. Jiang also made a speech to the nation, addressing them as ‘comrades,’ congratulating the city, and exhorting the people to work hard to make the Games successful.

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What was the mood in China in the 24 hours before the winner was announced? Did people honestly believe that Beijing would win?
Almost everyone in China thought that Beijing would win. And almost everyone wanted China to win. Interestingly, the propaganda organs did their best not to create too great a sense of anticipation over the decision. There was also an editorial in today’s "People Daily" newspaper saying that the people should quietly wait for the decision, and accept whatever outcome.

How would the Chinese have coped if Beijing had lost the bid?
Unlike 1993 when China lost the Games bid to Sydney, there was no obvious scapegoat here. The U.S. Congress did not oppose Beijing’s bid, the U.S. government didn’t oppose the bid, and human rights advocates did but they weren’t too influential. I think they would have had to find a scapegoat, and frankly I don’t know what they would have turned up. It could have been the Communist Party.