BestOfBid.com - Why did China bid for the Olympics in the first place?

Why did China bid for the Olympics in the first place?

The Dalai Lama has said the Olympics were an opportunity for the world to remind China of its human rights record and he supported Beijing's hosting of the games. "In order to be a good host to the Olympic Games, China must improve its record in the field of human rights and religious freedom," the Tibetan leader told India's NDTV news channel in an interview to be aired on Friday. China, today, behaves like the Nazi Germany. China has blocked domestic access to YouTube after videos showing the violence in Tibet appeared on the site. The Chinese government has not officially commented on the move, but internet users in China trying to access YouTube get a blank screen. Other sites, such as the web pages for the BBC, The Guardian and Flickr, have also been blocked. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/27/wchina127.xml http://www.freetibet.org/campaigns/olympics/background.html http://www.infomaticsonline.co.uk/vnunet/news/2212177/china-blocks-youtube-tibetan http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/article3593955.ece Totally agree with 'princekeyuk' All 18 questions, answered by 'Abc' so far, are on China! An expert on China? Extremely interested in Chinese questions? Why? It is even possible this person is a Chinese government agent. The dreaded regime is hellbent on controlling the internet. This might be a way of doing it.

Public Comments

To save Manchester from getting it
The Dali Lama does not speak for China...and he can stop the violence if he chooses.. The Chinese are nothing like Nazi Germany!
Why ? Maybe because they would like the host the Olympics. I think they will present us with a great spectacle. Leave them alone. How about leaving politics out of sports too ? Besides I wouold not mess around with the Chinese. Did you know that even if each person in the UK had a Kalashnikof and 10,000 rounds of ammunition and every Chinese had only a wooden club each we would not survive an attack by them ? UK = 55 million China = 1,321,851,888 (July 2007 est.) That's more than 1.3 BILLION Well advised to leave them alone, LOL !
hmm why did Berlin get to host it in 1936???Mainly because its a great opportunity to show off China to the rest of the world as a wonderful place, and show off the "great achievements" of the Party. The Olympics gives the regime in Bejing a chance to get its message across to the world and use the occasion as a propaganda ploy- I feel for the Tibetan people who have been victims of this dictatorship for nearly 60 years, and I for one will not watch the olympics this summer. By the way the fact that the Chinese government has actively encouraged the colonization of Tibet by ethnic Chinese, forcibly discouraged the use of native language and tradition and occupied Tibet since the 50's-against the wishes of the majority- is VERY similar to Nazi Germany, unless I'm wrong and that in actual fact Hitlers Germany didn't occupy land and forcibly discourage use of native languages and traditions?? EDIT; To abc, let me answer some of your question. And just to back up some of my information (as not all of the millions of people who see the chinese government and regime as an evil rotten totalitarian regime are "brainwashed") I'll even include my sources, however bearing in mind that there is strict censorship in China, you may have difficulty in having access to these sources. First of all most western governments understand that it's a good idea to placate and celebrate diversity (hence national days such as Martin Luther King Day in the US).Countries such as the UK try to help minorities start businesses etc. What isn't on the cards is arresting minorities, screwing with their culture and executions....oh to live in wonderful China!You refer to the promotion of "Tibetan culture and national festivals" (a popular boast by the commie party), yet you fail to mention the fact that 1) Mandarin Chinese is the only language permitted in Tibetan schools. 2) Teaching Tibetan culture is officially banned until the age of 18 (both of these sources from Johnson and Chetri, Columbia University).I suppose that this helps to further the ethnic Tibetan culture, eh? 3) 13% of ethnic Tibetans have had a secondary school education- compared to over 50% of the Han Chinese immigrant population (Ezecheli, Stamford University). 4) Since 1950, over 2000 Tibetan monasteries have been destroyed.The Dali Lama has to be "approved" by the Chinese Government- does anyone know of any western democracy where this occurs? (both these sourced from "China since 1919, Lawrence, 2003). It's good to know the ethnic Tibetans have control over their destiny and freedom of expression and religion. Still at least the ethnic Tibetans can leave Tibet and go over to Bhutan if they want to leave...actually no they can't because there is nothing that the occupying forces like better than to execute ethnic Tibetans on the border (sourced from Priesner, 2001 and also Armington, 2002). And if they want to celebrate festivals and find out more about their ethnic culture (in other words if ethnic tibetans want the freedom to celebrate their culture without attending government-sponsorsed propaganda fests), they could always look online for information....oh actually no they couldn't because not only is the internet censored but Google has agreed to filter anything Tibetan that may "upset" the Chinese. Yes abc, I agree with you the Chinese do promote the Tibetan culture...their own version of it.Guess that myself and the thousands of other academics worldwide must be "brainwashed".I must also be one of the "brainwashed" minority who has heard about the recent arrest and torture of two tibetan monks who had the audacity to wave the Tibetan flag in a public place (and got sentenced to 11 years for the privilige). Oh and to answer the other question, the UK publishes much of its official government documents in Welsh (a minority language) and promote Welsh culture widely (I know because I lived there). The Belgian government also does this through the use of French and Walloons, Spain through the use of Catalan etc.... AND FINALLY, WHEN THE HELL WERE THE TIBETANS A MINORITY IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY???ANSWER ME THAT ONE!It's nice to know that the Chinese government encourage the Han Chinese to have 3 children per family, I'm sure that the Tibetans will be a minority in no time.
China is trying to better it's image as a modernized country. The only way to show this is by hosting a world event like the Olympics. They made a bid to host the Olympics with this in mind. Hitler did the exact same thing in 1936 (although he wasn't part of the bidding process) to show the world that his country had risen up from their World War I defeat. I totally agree that China is just like any other repressed country. Although they have some capitalist aspects they still hold a grip on the Chinese population. I'm glad the Tibetans are showing what the Chinese are really about.
a poor human rights record? or maybe to show us they can make a whole city, in the time it takes to collect suitcases from terminal 5 at heathrow.....
A bit like Bush in Iraq then
I never knew the Chinese government had blocked access to You Tube.Now that I know this I will do all I can to stop the Olympics. I will never buy rice again.
Bush and his lot are worst. So the US should not be allowed to apply http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqwarpix.html
prestige, to show the world who is no 1
Because they wanted to, because they can. Stop mixing sport and politics those people training day and night and not doing it for anyone but them selves if they want to compete in the olympics they will, if it happens to be in china so be it. If you have a problem with that then accept it because there's nothing you can do about it.
This 'PRINCEKEYUK' guy is either EXTREMELY brainwashed or deliberately spreading rumour. WHAT DO YOU MEAN by 'forcibly discourage use of native languages and traditions'???? China NOT ONLY actively encourages all minority groups (including the Tibetans) to use their languages and preserve their cultures, but in fact, China is probably the only country in the world (or at least in the Western world) that: (1) respects all minority festivals AND create PUBLIC HOLIDAYS for the minority groups to celebrate their festivals (2) prints all official documents both in Han Chinese AND ALSO in the languages of the minorities in the areas where they live (3) either subsidize (or produce for them free-of-charge if they cannot produce for themselves) ALL minority costumes. AND ALSO actively encourage the minority groups to wear them. (4) Most harsh laws affecting the majority Han Chinese are NOT applied to minority groups (eg, one-child policy, etc) (PS. All of these are beside extremely generous benefits and economic help the Chinese government extends to all minority groups. Most of these benefits and financial subsidies to minorities (and recently to Africans) would put most Western countries to shame) Now answer this 'princekeyuk': 1) How many Western countries have you seen would recognise indigenous festivals AND creat public holidays for them? 2) How many Western countries have you seen would recognise indigenous languages AND print official government documents in their languages? Now please don't change the subject and just answer the questions.
many other counties do act in the same way but justify the lack of human rights with religious stories, no one gets upset about that. true they don't host the Olympics, so if China didn't host the games we wouldn't worry so much? China isn't the greatest example but at least it lacks of the hypocrisy of other countries
hey,I'm living in Beijing and I can get any video i want on Youtube right now! And on BBC or any other website.
The only reason why any country would want to host the olympics is to improve its own world reputation.