China under Fire from all Sides a Year Ahead of Games

Free Tibet activists on the Great Wall, a barrage of critical rights reports, a shroud of smog hanging over Beijing -- China's government must surely have imagined a more auspicious one-year countdown for the Olympics.

On top of that, the flood of food safety scandals shows no sign of abating and a group of dissidents has written an open letter to President Hu Jintao calling for the Games' slogan to be changed to "One World, One Dream, Same Human Rights."

The weather is also refusing to cooperate in the run-up to the eighth day of the eighth month on Wednesday, which will start the one-year countdown to the opening ceremony.

Torrential rain has brought Beijing traffic to a standstill several times, and it seems so long since the sun last broke through the pollution that some are dubbing Beijing "Greyjing".

And few are convinced by government pledges to ensure media freedom.

On Monday, police prevented several journalists from leaving a Reporters Without Borders conference calling for greater media freedom. They were let go two hours later, without explanation.

"The ongoing harassment and detention of journalists make Beijing's Olympic pledge on media freedoms seem more like a public relations ploy than a sincere policy initiative," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said China was holding at least 29 reporters and editors behind bars because of their work.

"A decade ago we saw a tendency towards the liberalisation of the media in China and under the Hu government we've seen a backing away from that. ...We don't see a liberalisation," committee Asia programme coordinator Bob Dietz told reporters.




"LET EXILES COME HOME"

Celebrations to kick off the one-year countdown start on Wednesday with a series of colourful events across the city, including in central Tiananmen Square, where soldiers bloodily put down pro-democracy protests in 1989.

Ding Zilin, whose son was killed in the protests and leads a campaign to seek redress for the events of 1989, was one of 40 people who signed an open letter to the government calling for more freedoms ahead of the Olympics.

"Let Chinese citizens who have been forced into exile for reasons of politics, religion or belief, come home, so they can enjoy the Olympics in their motherland and not some strange country," the letter said.

As if the government needed reminding about the potential for protests at the Games, the Free Tibet Campaign said six demonstrators had been detained for unfurling a banner on the Great Wall demanding independence for the Himalayan region.

"The Chinese government is exploiting the Olympics to gain acceptance as a world leader," said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of Students for a Free Tibet.

"By protesting at the Great Wall, the most recognisable symbol of Chinese nationhood, we're sending a clear message that China's dream of international leadership cannot be realised as long as it continues its brutal occupation of Tibet."

Health in the country that spawned SARS and whose tainted pet food, toothpaste and cough medicine has caused worldwide alarm, is another concern which won't go away.

Olympic organisers have promised to use satellite tracking to monitor food supplies for the Games and have stressed on numerous occasions that hygiene is one of their top priorities.

But still the bad news comes. The government is now trying to crack down on diseased pork entering the market, a phenomenon which has increased as prices have risen on the back of an epidemic which has killed one million hogs in the last year.

And if the food doesn't kill you, the smog might.

Chinese city traffic police have an average life expectancy of just 43 years because of the dire working conditions and pollution, state media said on Tuesday.