China’s quake calms Olympic controversies

By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - China’s deadliest earthquake in a generation has jarred Chinese who expected to be reveling in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics. In less dramatic ways, the disaster is shifting perceptions between China and the world, deflating the contentiousness building around the games.
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Newspaper front pages and all-news television around the world have filled with sympathetic coverage since the quake battered a vast, mountainous area, killing tens of thousands. The authoritarian Chinese government’s rapid, full-throttle rescue and the unprecedented flow of news it has allowed have enabled ordinary Chinese and foreigners to share in the immense tragedy.

A haze of pollution hangs over China’s National Stadium, known as the bird’s nest, the main venue for the Beijing Olympics beginning Aug. 8. (By Greg Baker - Associated Press)

More than just knocking bad press about the Beijing games out of the news, the disaster has given China and the world a chance to reassess.

Foreign audiences, especially in the West, are empathizing with the Chinese perhaps more than any at time since democracy demonstrators occupied Tiananmen Square 19 years ago. At the same time, the quake’s devastation has diminished the importance for Chinese of Olympics in August and the accolades from abroad that a spectacular Games was supposed to bring.

“This is a turning point. We’re seeing a reconciliation,” said Wenran Jiang, a Chinese politics expert at the University of Alberta.

People donate money for Sichuan earthquake victims at Shanghai Red Cross office Wednesday May 14, 2008 in Shanghai, China. The government’s high-gear response aimed to reassure Chinese while showing the world it was capable of handling the disaster and was ready for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics in Beijing. Although the government said it welcomed outside aid, officials said it would accept only money and supplies, not foreign personnel.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Foreign leaders are sending condolences and aid, instead of discussing boycotts of the Olympics.

The atmosphere is markedly less rancorous than a few weeks ago when an uprising by Tibetans against China’s rule and rowdy protests overseas against the Olympic torch relay seemed to expose vast differences in the ways Chinese and foreigners viewed the world.

For Chinese, the Olympics was supposed to be a crowning moment, signifying China’s full acceptance by the international community after decades of isolation and then decades of economic catch-up. The government gave it a grandiose buildup, running the torch to all corners of the globe and the top of Mount Everest.

For foreigners, China’s suppression of the Tibet protests brought reminders of the military’s crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, dashing hopes that awarding Beijing the Olympics had inspired tolerance and change.

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