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Beijing’s Post-Olympic Identity Crisis?

October 17, 2008 8:13 AM

By STEPHANIE SY, Correspondent, ABC News Beijing

Beijing-based journalists heading into work this morning might have considered the heavy smog outside their cab window a sign of things to come -- I certainly did. Today, rules introduced ahead of the Olympics allowing foreign journalists to report more freely in China were allowed to expire, leaving us to wonder whether the next time we interviewed a villager or a university professor or a restaurant owner, we’d have to get permission from the local “waiban” (foreign affairs office) or risk arrest.

The more liberalized reporting rules allowed us to interview consenting parties without first receiving government permission. But instead of outright renewing the rules, which in democratic societies would fall under the basic rights of a free press, Foreign Ministry representative Qin Gang said this week, "China will continue to follow the opening-up policy and to facilitate the work of foreign media and journalists in China.” I guess we’ll figure out whether he means it the next time we try to shoot an interview in Tiananmen Square.

The reporting rules weren’t the only things that had a post-Olympic expiry date.

The restriction banning about half of cars from Beijing’s streets expired after the Paralympics Sept. 20. On Sept. 22 – the first workday after the ban was lifted -- traffic was a nightmare. Not only was the ban lifted, but apparently all rules governing traffic. These days, it is each driver for himself and it’s a fight to the death to make a left turn at a green light. For a passenger, even one who grew up riding on Southern California freeways, it is terrifying. It’s like all the drivers who missed out on getting behind the wheel during the Games are saying, “Ha, ha! I can drive! And I can drive with complete disregard for any other driver, walker or biker on the road!”

The ban on construction, which was put in place to reduce airborne dust and particles, also expired. For the last few weeks, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night to the sounds of jackhammers, clanging metal and migrant workers yelling orders at each other. Beijing’s building boom has resumed, and it is on 24-7. 

The last holdout was the blue sky. For the last few weeks, seasonal winds have reduced pollution and produced wonderfully clear days, despite the return of 3.3 millions cars to Beijing’s streets. Today, with no pleasant autumnal breezes, the smog returned with a vengeance. Air like this during the Olympics would have raised alarms and may even have triggered a few asthma attacks. But days with this kind of choking pollution were not allowed during the Games. The government did everything in its power to make sure eye-stinging smog was kept at bay during those precious weeks when the world’s attention was focused on Beijing. It cut traffic in half and closed hundreds of polluting factories. It shot silver iodide particles into the sky to make it rain at the right times. Note: The government has complete dominion over earth and heaven in China!

Besides the smog, traffic, all-hours construction and lack of journalistic freedom, there are other signs that Beijing is returning to its old self. The 40 million flowers planted around the city before the Games are starting to wilt. You no longer hear the words “Welcome to Beijing!” It’s quite the opposite at times. … The other night, a very rude young Chinese man flung the butt of his still-burning cigarette at me and my camera crew as we filmed outside of a Starbucks. The act was made more vile by him saying “Why don’t you (bleep) foreigners go back to where you came from?!” -- so much for “One world, One dream,” huh buddy? Cabdrivers who wore nice, clean uniforms and pledged not to smoke in their cars during the Olympics have gone back to their chain-smoking, pickled-garlic breath ways. The good-manners campaign developed by the Beijing Civilization Office may have won the battle during the Games, but it is losing the war. As the smog has returned, so has the disgusting spitting, nose-picking and public flatulence that the campaign led by prim Miss Manners tried so hard to exterminate. On the smog-filled cab crawl to work today, the driver ducked his head out the window twice to loudly cough up and expel gobs of phlegm. And as we approached the well-manicured embassy district, I spied not one but two mothers lifting their babies’ bottomless pants so they could defecate right onto the sidewalk. (Yes, in China, it is quite common for un-potty-trained babies to wear split-bottom pants, instead of diapers.)

Manners are culturally relative, so I’ve always been careful not to be too critical in that regard. I’m only attempting to paint a picture about what I think is Beijing’s post-Olympic identity crisis. For two months, Beijing put on its shiniest, smiling-est, most smog-less face to host one of the greatest Games ever, but now that the party’s over, what does China have to show for itself besides a bevy of gold medals and some truly stunning architecture? For those of us who live here, post-Olympics Beijing is a rude awakening. For two months we were spoiled with less traffic, less smog and less spitting, and then –poof!--it was gone in a gray haze.

It’s true that, environmentally, further steps are being taken to limit pollution in the center of Beijing. New, complicated, license-plate-based car restrictions will limit the number of cars on the road at any one time. Still, with an average of 1,000 more cars on the capital’s streets every day, it’s a losing battle. Facing an economic slowdown, Chinese authorities are more likely to focus on maintaining growth than on programs to make growth greener.

As for fundamental human rights, China’s Foreign Ministry may pay lip service to allowing foreign reporters to report openly, but without officially renewing the rules, China could cite us for “illegal reporting activity” just for doing our jobs. Domestically, Chinese reporters still face the censorship and restrictions that they did before the Olympics. As for the jailing of political and religious activists, China continued to do that in the lead-up to the Olympics, with disregard to international criticism, and it has even less impetus to reverse its stance on the primacy of state stability over individual rights now.

My producer Beth Loyd pointed out a few plusses in post-Olympic Beijing. For example, she said brightly, we are now able to get fresh coconuts and salad at our Thai place again because import restrictions that were in place for security reasons have been lifted! But, then again, she always sees the glass as half full.

Read more blogs from Stephanie Sy

Read more blogs from the ABC News Staff

October 17, 2008 in Stephanie Sy | Permalink | User Comments (7)

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