Aug. 8, 2008
China Cracks Down For "Feel Good" Show
Dissidents Warned To Lay Low During Games
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Play CBS Video Video China's Olympic Crackdown The Chinese government has tightened security of political dissidents in China to keep them out of sight during the Olympics. Barry Petersen reports from Beijing.
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Video Beijingers Hate Smog Too Beijing Doctors report seeing more patients with breathing difficulties as air quality decreases. Some see government efforts to appease Olympic athletes as a slap in the face. Celia Hatton reports.
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Video Diplomatic Dance At Olympics China and the U.S. put their differences behind them as President Bush attends the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Dissidents fear security forces will use Olympics protection as an excuse for more roundups, but officials say the 100,000 soldiers are just keeping the games safe. (CBS)
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Blog Beijing Daily Dispatch CBS News staffers file insider impressions and share their experiences throughout the day.
They imprisoned his 78-year-old mother, and Hua says that last month police smashed into his apartment and warned him: Behave properly during the Olympics, the swarm of police told him, or we might make you disappear.
His friend, Qi Zhiyong, has disappeared.
Dissidents fear security forces will use Olympics protection as an excuse for more roundups. But officials say the 100,000 soldiers are just keeping the games safe. They've even installed anti-aircraft guns around major venues.
As for protests, especially on Tiananmen Square, police stop them in seconds because each echoes the 1989 pro-democracy demonstration put down by gunfire.
China didn't promise an open Olympics, just a secure one. And, if they are successful, it might just backfire. Human rights campaigners say it could prompt the average Chinese to ask some very uncomfortable questions.
Activist John Kamm thinks he knows what those questions are.
"We can create the fastest growing economy in the world, we can have a successful Olympic Games, why can't we elect our own leaders?" Kamm says.
And in the name of security, the Chinese seem intent on taking the fun out of games. Outdoor cafes are banned, music festivals cancelled, and forget about celebrating all night. Bars will close at 2 a.m. sharp.
And forgot that promise the Chinese made about freedom of the press. Video footage shows reporters roughed up while covering a crowd buying tickets for the games.
At the fancy new media center, Internet sites the Chinese don't like are blocked. Just getting permission to come here, was an ordeal, say Americans.
"You never knew what they were going to reject you for," says American tourist Tony Ramondo. "They always came back with extra questions."
And if that isn't enough, a $17 billion battle against air pollution bought a few blue-sky days.
Yet the soup over the city keeps coming back, so these could be the Olympics of one world, one dream, but lots of coughing.
©MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Add a Comment See all 26 Comments
- CHINA STINKS,,,
ALWAYS HAS,,, ALWAYS WILL,,,
the U.S. government has warned Americans against muggings, beatings and even carjackings, especially in the nightlife and shopping districts of large cities. - Reply to this comment
- Sorry historically retarded fellow, but most wars, if researched deeply, are about money and power, not religion.
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- Ignorance and religion (redundant?) cause so much trouble. Wish we could root out this source of nearly all war.
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- This is a country George Bush should NEVER have given free trade to. George and his plantation owner friends couldn''t resist the free labor temptation though.
All this "engaging China will produce fruits of freedom" is a bunch of garbage. Engaging China has and will produce even an uglier more financially supreme communist state that will spread it''s ugly wings of dominating the least of of brother around the world.We should have left them in the stone age, but as always, the love of money is the root of all evil.
Instead of just being poor peasants who farmed for a way of life with their family, now the one child, mom, and dad can all go to work in a hot American factory 20 hours a day so board of director members of American companies and bribed public officials can build castles.
I''d rather be homeless during my life in this world than be these greedmongers when they have to stand before the Lord. Eternity is longer than we can imagine. - Reply to this comment
- I posted the following comment in another CBS article about China, but since the article "disappeared" from the main page. Here it is again. The following is my opinion: "So far I haven''''t seen any of the Olympic Games. Although watching the Olympic Games is a tribute to the athletes of the world and the very Chinese citizens. I am NOT planning on watching them because their Government (and police) doesn''''t want us to "watch" their other side of China, the one of civil rights, the one of Tibet, the one of poverty. Why should I see what the government of China has created for the world to see if it''''s just an illusion? When China is totally a democracy, I''''ll watch the games, the recorded ones, many years from now. Go people of China! Go athletes! Go away their "phony" government who tells our miserable president GWB to "not to interfere in their country issues". Oh boy! When are we going to have a world where every body has liberties (without hurt)". Chinese government: so far we are NOT "feeling good", should we take medication to "feel good" with your lies of a NON democratic country?
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- "ws correspondent Barry Petersen reports, since Hua Huigi''s dream is religious freedom for Christians who meet outside of government-run churches,"
Fine thing *HE* wants religious FREEDOM when these christian right wing crusading terrorists have subverted everyone ELES'' religions, non-beliefs and believes for centuries with death , burning at the stake, jail, hangings and torture.
I say GOOD for China cracking down on them and giving them a taste of their own medicine! - Reply to this comment
- Government-run churches are predictably preaching government propaganda. It is only the house churches that are really churches (studying the Bible). Lack of control is why the Chinese government wants to make them disappear. There is nothing to fear from the house churches, but the paranoid government thinks people must be plotting. Their repression is brutal, and a big reason that China is not free yet.
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- ...er...ah...never mind I thought the article read: "China Downs Crack to Feel Good."
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- NBC blacksout Olympic ceremony in America - American fans angered
Aug 8, 4:32 pm EDT
Buzz Up Print
NEW YORK (AFP) - The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but angry US viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle on Friday were made to wait after a media blackout.
US network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.
A spokesman for NBC, which paid nearly 900 million dollars for Olympic broadcast rights, said the decision was taken to maximize viewing figures.
"It''''s a business decision," the spokesman told AFP. "It protects our affiliates, our advertisers, and shows it to the largest number of viewers possible," he added.
Bizarrely, the co-hosts of NBC''''s breakfast television show barely mentioned the ongoing ceremony during their broadcast, which was reportedly pre-taped. - Reply to this comment
- HEAD IN THE SAND! HIDE AND IT WILL GO AWAY!
IDIOT! We are waging a war supposedly due to a repressive regime, to bring freedom to IRAQ but it is wrong to speak out against human rights violations? You really are an idiot! Our dumb as dirt "SHRUB" says "BAD CHINESE, BAD CHINESE, NOW ON WITH THE GAMES!
BOYCOTT THE OLYMPICS. DO NOT WATCH THEM ON TV! SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE TO CORPORATE AMERICA AND THE CHINESE THAT HUMAN RIGHTS ARE REALLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN GAMES AND THE "MONEY"!
MONEY IS WHAT IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO ANYWAY! - Reply to this comment
- Posted by terrorislamv at 08:45 AM : Aug 09, 2008
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This article is about the Olympics in China, how did you get Islam into this discussion. You are a bigger nut case than the group you are so insanely obsessed about. Take your meds please. - Reply to this comment
- You Americans always blame Chinese that they did bad in human right! Have you ever looked into the mirrors how did you break and destroied the human rights in the world! Do you dare to say that FBI have never kidnapped anyone because he has different opinion in politics? Americans kidnapped and prisoned people in Europ. Americans invade Iraq and killed so many harmless Iraq citizens.
Yes, we admit that we have lots of to do to improve the human rights in China. But you should give us enought time. Nothing can be completely solved in a second. In USA, the blacks fighted tens of years to getting their civilian rights. And there are still racial discrimination existing in America. Can you Americans say that you have done perfect in human right?
At last, Olympic games is a whole world sports game. You shouldn''t bring any politic into in to interrupt it. - Reply to this comment
- NBC blacksout Olympic ceremony in America - American fans angered
Aug 8, 4:32 pm EDT
Buzz Up Print
NEW YORK (AFP) - The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but angry US viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle on Friday were made to wait after a media blackout.
US network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.
A spokesman for NBC, which paid nearly 900 million dollars for Olympic broadcast rights, said the decision was taken to maximize viewing figures.
"It''s a business decision," the spokesman told AFP. "It protects our affiliates, our advertisers, and shows it to the largest number of viewers possible," he added.
Bizarrely, the co-hosts of NBC''s breakfast television show barely mentioned the ongoing ceremony during their broadcast, which was reportedly pre-taped. - Reply to this comment
- American fans angered by Olympic ceremony TV blackout by NBC
Aug 8, 4:32 pm EDT
Buzz Up Print
NEW YORK (AFP) - The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but angry US viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle on Friday were made to wait after a media blackout.
US network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.
A spokesman for NBC, which paid nearly 900 million dollars for Olympic broadcast rights, said the decision was taken to maximize viewing figures.
"It''s a business decision," the spokesman told AFP. "It protects our affiliates, our advertisers, and shows it to the largest number of viewers possible," he added.
Bizarrely, the co-hosts of NBC''s breakfast television show barely mentioned the ongoing ceremony during their broadcast, which was reportedly pre-taped. - Reply to this comment
- KowTow to the Mao!!
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- The problems in todays world is caused by AMERICA and the ignorant people, who does not even know where Spain is
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- I don''t know why the image of China in your eyes is evil! There are 1.3 billion people in China. In every country, there are all kinds of persons who have different opinions. But the person you reported is really a small part of Chinese! Why don''t you try to get the result how the majority of Chinese think?! To the common Chinese, we just want a better life. And now we have a bright future. Most of us are satisfied with our life! If you just jugde China by a small part of Chinese! We can say that Americans are all devils because they have killed hundreds of thousands children and women in Iraq!
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- All this hate over China? The Cold War is over. We un-targeted our missles pointed at Russia. Russia untargeted their missles pointed at us. Then China, hey, wait a minute...
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- to those who are giving their words unresponsibly here,i wanna ask:have you ever been to China?if haven''t,please come and see then say it!
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- I think it is a sick joke to have one of the schoolchildren from Sichuan paraded in support of the very government whose corruption and greed is responsible for the death of most of the students who were in school that day. The great tragedy is not the earthquake - by China''s own building code, no student who was in school would have died, since China''s public building standard (as standards all over the world in earthquake prone areas) is to withstand a 10.5 earthquake - but the greed of the gang bosses (political leaders) to fill their coffers with bribe money instead of requiring schools to be built by the standards required by Chinese law.
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