China, one of the world’s most historically rich and now, in this age of increasing

modernization and globalization, economically powerful nations will be hosting the 2008

Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Despite contemporary China’s best efforts to unite

and provide the world with a positive view of itself, due to protests against the People’s

Republic of China’s human rights record, the domestic and global environmental

pollution and water shortages caused by the ever-increasing industrialization of the

country, and the most current Tibet, Taiwan, and Darfur issues, organizations such as

western and eastern media and scholars must attend to this situation and analyze or

scrutinize just how much truth there is in, what seems like a split opinion, the accusations

said against China leading up to the events to take place this summer.

As I research these issues, my purpose in writing this essay is to argue that what

the foreign media portrays, in respect to China, is not necessarily how the Chinese people

view what is happening around them, but then the CCP (Chinese Communist Party,

China’s only ruling party), also blocks many things from the Chinese people, so that

perhaps only the part of the 1.3 billion population with internet access and foreign

contacts can really understand what the western perspective is of their own country. This

presents the idea that perhaps China is not fully globalized to the extent that other

countries are because the majority of the rural population do not have access to

television, the internet, or any other vital means of ‘outside the box’ communication. The

concept of “Uneven Geographical Development” can be applied in this situation where

East China is way more developed than its rural western counterpart. The issues being

protested against in relation to the Olympic Games are not of detrimental cause to be

exacerbated out of control. Also, as will be explained in detail later, the CCP holds the

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view that the welfare of the collective should always be put ahead of the rights of any

individual for peace and prosperity to hold tight (Adams 52). This is in direct

contradiction to how many westerners think: westerners traditionally believe that the

government should first and foremost uphold individual human rights over any other

matter (Amnesty). This is evident in modern neoliberal practices that are being spread

worldwide. With this clash of ideology between two traditionally very different yet

recently very similar power houses, most information, in my opinion, is hearsay and no

one can really know the truth behind the scenes no matter what is published or spread,

better yet, no one can believe both sides at the same time.

Like any worldwide media coverage, every good story begins somewhere, and

this story begins in 2001 when China won the Olympic Bid for the 2008 summer games.

Previously, China had applied for a bid in 1993, losing out to Sydney, Australia at the

time, and eight years later, their wait had paid off. China had the mindset to more

willingly open its mind to welcome people from all corners of the globe, and to

extensively make friends with key figures from other parts of Asia and the western world

while unswervingly advance toward the world at breakneck speed. In 2001, the

increasingly open China was thought of as fully capable of hosting the Olympic Games

successfully, and at the same time, it is the strong wishes of the Chinese people for the

games to lead farther along the pathway to allow China to become more respected and

equal in the modern world. For this ever-industrializing country from the Orient, which

contains one-fifth of the world's population, a territory of 9.6 million km, and a history of

over 5,000 years of civilization, the time when the Olympic Games’ five-ring flag flies

high in the sky will be a proud day for the Chinese people and a sign that the country has

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taken another great leap towards becoming a part of the top tier of world society

(Peerenboom 36-37).

One of the most heavily weighing and prominent issues for the international

community to criticize surrounding the Olympics taking place in China is the impact the

new construction in Beijing and existing industrialization on the Eastern Coast of China

is having on the environment and water sustainability, particularly in Beijing, as that is

the site of the focus of this paper. To be able to understand the complaints being launched

against China during this time is relevant to understanding how these problems can come

to affect the world as a whole, i.e. globalization. There are five points relating to

environmental damage to China that the Chinese and the rest of the world know to be

facts. One is that rapid industrialization is producing massive environmental devastation.

China is the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter, beaten only by the US, and

huge size portions of coal, natural gas, and oil are being used by China to hastily build

accommodations, more convenient transportation, and more luxury ‘sight-seeing’ places

for tourists coming from all around the globe to witness the games. There was a study

done in Seattle, which measured the air content blowing in from the Pacific Ocean, and to

scientists surprise, when examined, the air content contained poisonous aerosols which

were concluded to be blowing in from China. Coal is one of the most polluting, filthiest

aerosols for the environment, which is why within the past 3 years or so China has been

keeping tabs on its coal refineries and trying to resort to cleaner alternatives such as

natural gas (Deacon 292).

Second, about 60 percent of China’s major rivers are classified as being

unsuitable for human contact. In a country consisting of 1.3 billion people, there is triple

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the amount of wastes of any other country. Nuclear wastes, everyday garbage landfills,

electronic wastes, also known as e-wastes, all of it piles up when there is no where else

for it to be disposed of, and a lot of the time is carelessly dumped or overflows into rivers

and water supplies (Ma).

Third, seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world are located in China. Air

pollution alone claims 300,000 lives prematurely per year, while acid rain falls on 1/3 of

the territory, more than 1/3 of industrial wastewater and 2/3 of municipal wastewater is

released into waterways without any treatment (Ma 56). There was an incident not too

long ago in Hong Kong where a skilled runner in a competition began to exhibit

shortness of breath symptoms and eventually died, seemingly attributed to the polluted

air and smog hovering over the city.

Fourth, over the last few decades, increased industrial agriculture and commercial

grazing has resulted in creating over 2.67 million square kilometers of desert land, adding

up to around 27.9 percent of China’s total territory (Li). More and more once habitable

areas are being converted to wastelands and deserts resulting in farmers having to

become nomads wandering from place to place trying to find suitable land to farm. The

majority of the population lies on the eastern coast of China, with the Gobi Desert lying

to the South West and ethnic minority territories in the Mid to North West including Tibet

and Xinjiang. Western China is comprised of desert and mountainous regions, with the

majority of sustainable soil in the east, but with the overworking of the soil due to

continuous industrialization, it is becoming harder and harder to rely on the country’s

own resources for sustainability.

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 Lastly, according to Deacon, “Many claim that foreign investment and the 

introduction of “green” technology will help clean up the environment in China; however, 

this has not been the case to date. One of the reasons for this is because China’s State 

Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has little authority. SEPA estimates that 

although water treatment facilities are installed in most major industrial plants under 

government mandate, around one­third are not operated at all and another one­third 

operate occasionally. Often the fines it levies are less than the expenses of using the 

“green” technology” (300­303). 

Basically, what it comes down to in the end is the fact that you can’t rise up and 

become a competing world power without economic development, but as you speed up 

economic development, as in China’s case and specifically due to the looming summer 

games, you cannot help but destroy the environment. Take automobiles for example. In a 

decade from now, there could be four times as many cars in China as there are in the US, 

and China’s fuel emission levels are out­dated by four years when compared to European 

vehicles. In order to cultivate more land you have to build roads, destroy forests and trees 

decreasing the oxygen output and increasing carbon dioxide emissions, and it is the same 

case for the building of factories and skyscrapers. As a result, with this kind of economic 

development, emissions of industrial waste and gases massively increase, as does human 

wastes, with the rise in population density and living standards. It is a sickening cycle. 

According to the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), in the beginning of economic

5
development, little weight is given to environmental concerns, raising pollution along

with industrialization. After a threshold point, when the basic physical needs are met,

interest in a clean environment rises, reversing the trend. Now society has the funds, as

well as willingness to spend to reduce pollution. However, this is only the case when it

comes down to the basic water and air pollutants (Deacon 302). There are many others

such as CO2, which is of main concern now due to global warming, which cannot be met

due to the rising energy consumption with the higher income levels.

Put together in the same corner as environmental degradation is the fact that

China is facing one of the world’s worst water shortages. This also fits in with the human

rights issue because every individual has the right to drinkable clean water. When 16,000

athletes and officials arrive in Beijing this summer, they will be able to turn on the taps

and get drinkable water, something that has been rare for most Beijing residents. But to

keep those taps flowing for the Olympics, the city is draining surrounding regions,

depriving poor farmers of water. There are two opinions concerning this issue, one that

facilitates Chinese pride for the games at no expense, and the other a warning that has

never been heeded. Ma Jun, a Chinese environmentalist, states that, ''For two years the

farmers have not been allowed to use water for rice, because it's been given to Beijing,

but the individual interests submits to the state interests” (26). Rapid urban development

has been a detriment to the underground water tables for Beijing. Some people are against

the Olympics for this reason protesting that there is not enough water for China to hold

the Olympic Games, but the government does not listen in its conquest for glory. One

could blame the neoliberal stance China has taken by using funds from the multinational

corporations coming into China and Beijing to fund the Olympic Games to build pleasing

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architectural marvels for the international guests. In an attempt to make equal what has

had to have been done, China has begun digging up the countryside south of Beijing for a

canal that will bring water from China's longest river, the Yangtze, and its tributaries to

the arid north by 2010 (Ma 86).

To give a bit of background, the country is divided into two regions: the “dry

North,” referring to all areas north of Yangtze basin, and the “humid South,” which

includes the Yangtze River basin and everything south of it. Due to the deteriorating

ability of local vegetation to conserve water, there has been a tremendous over-pumping

of ground water, which has shrunk northern China’s river’s water supply in the last

several decades. Because of these water shortages and wide spread pollution of surface

water, more cities and villages are increasingly tapping into underground aquifers. Under

the North China Plain, a region that produces 40 percent of China’s grain, the water table

is dropping by an average of 1.5 meters per year. In 1999, the water table under Beijing

dropped by 2.5 meters. Since 1965, the water table under the city has fallen by some 59

meters. Manufacturers treat the environment like workers, as an expendable commodity

that should not stand in the way of profits. Pollution is exacerbating the water scarcity

problem as well. Contamination is also spreading to underground aquifers. It is estimated

that 25 percent of the aquifers are being polluted (Ma 55-59). If things continue in this

manner, the pride and glory China receives from the success of the Olympics may only

have short-lived momentum.

The second and most current issue surrounding the 2008 Beijing Olympics is the

protesting of China’s human rights record. China is one of the most powerful developing

countries at the moment, and its human rights record affects all of us in some way or

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another. Almost everything it seems consumers buy is ‘Made in China’. Products

assembled in China span the globe, and some people see the view as the more money we

put into China, we are legitimizing China’s human rights record. If they had their way,

then no one would buy anything from China and possibly live a very uncomfortable life.

We have to interact with China for globalization to succeed. But as mentioned earlier, the

CCP views human rights as a collective entity, not an individualistic one. However many

individuals within China and abroad disagree with this, which causes problems within

China’s own boundaries. In order for the CCP to prove their conviction, they point a

finger towards the rapid social deterioration, increasing geographic, religious and racial

segregation, the alarmingly rising crime rates, domestic violence, and political extremism

in Western societies, which they believe to be a direct result of an excess of individual

freedom (Bowles 172-173). According to the Chinese government, these issues are all

violations of human rights and should be taken into account when assessing a country's

human right record. Furthermore, the government criticizes the United States, which

publishes human rights reports annually, by insisting that the United States has also

caused human rights abuses such as the invasion of Iraq by American troops. In addition,

yet on a contradictory note, the PRC government also argues that the notion of human

rights should include economic standards of living and measures of health and economic

prosperity, which right now, according to sources, China’s inequality gap is one of the

largest, with a huge population of some of the poorest people in the world (such as those

working for almost nothing in sweatshops) and the AIDS epidemic in Henan province

that is either being ignored by or passing over the top government officials would not

want to be noted on the human rights record (Khan). For the record, I won’t state for

8
myself that the majority of women working in sweatshops for those companies who

outsource to China are demeaning themselves in any way. I am aware that most of these

women know what is going on around them and that they are receiving unfair pay.

Sometimes they do go on strike about this, but for others they cannot risk the chance of

the company picking up and moving somewhere else because then they will be left

without a job. The women work in these factories because they need what money they

can earn with the little education they have received or maybe none at all. They do not

want us to feel pity for them, because all they are doing is trying to survive just like the

rest of us.

There are many side stories related to the main picture that find their way through

the cracks of the CCP’s crackdown on making public what they don’t want the people to

know in fear of an uprising against the party. Such cases become public through the

media or internet, or some people who have foreign connections henceforth other

countries broadcast the news. Most of these side stories only a few native Chinese have

heard about or vehemently deny because of the danger they could put themselves in if the

story has something to do with hearsay against the CCP. One example is of the AIDS

epidemic in Southeast China’s, Henan Province. To make the story short as it is rather

complicated, poor farmers or field workers give blood in exchange for payment, while in

the process of doing so unknowingly acquire AIDS due to contaminated needles and

uncared for and untreated facilities. The local municipality does nothing to aid these

victims, while in the process altogether denying what is going on. In recent years, partly

due to the outbreak of SARS in 2002, the government is beginning to acknowledge the

sad state of rural health care. Though no one has been brought to trial or held accountable

9
yet, what happened in Henan is widely acknowledged to be a national scandal. Selling

blood is now illegal and steps have been taken to improve blood donation services (China

Trials New Rural).

Another major issue surrounding human rights in China that is heavily covered up

by the CCP’s control over media concerns capital punishment and political freedoms. The

Chinese government recognizes that there are problems with the current legal system,

such as a lack of laws in general, not just ones to protect civil rights. A follow up to that is

a lack of due process and conflicts of law. About 80% of cases are legitimate, but right

now because of the corruption in judicial power, many cases are not even seen or ignored.

As judges are appointed by the State and the judiciary as a whole does not have its own

budget, this is why corruption and the abuse of administrative power have become so

common (Espy 110-113). China had the highest number of executions in 2007, but

Amnesty International claims those official figures are much smaller than the real

number, stating that in China the statistics are considered State secrets. Amnesty stated

that according to various reports, in 2005 3,400 people were executed (4-6). In March of

that year, a senior member of the National People's Congress announced that China

executes around 10,000 people per year. The inconsistent and sometimes corrupt nature

of the legal system in mainland China bring into question the fair application of capital

punishment there. In January 2007, China's state media announced that all death penalty

cases will be reviewed by the Supreme People's Court, so it seems that the PRC is trying

to make reforms to its legal system despite foreigners debatable arguments whether that is

in fact the truth or not.

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 The PRC is known for its intolerance of organized dissent towards the

government. Dissident groups are routinely arrested and imprisoned, often for long

periods of time and without trial. Incidents of torture, forced confessions, and forced

labor are widely reported. Such dissident groups include members of the Falun Gong

religious sect of China. Amnesty International states that the persecution is politically

motivated and a restriction of fundamental freedoms. Particular concerns have been

raised over reports of torture, illegal imprisonment including forced labor, psychiatric

abuses, and since early 2006, allegations of systematic organ harvesting from living

Falun Gong practitioners (13). These charges are vehemently denied by the PRC, but in

my opinion, I think we will never really know what goes on regarding criminal

punishment anywhere in the world. There are too many sides to know the real truth, and

even if there is some truth to the accusations, every country in the world is guilty of

horrendous offenses to political prisoners. Freedom of assembly and association is

extremely limited. The most recent mass movement for political freedom was crushed in

the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, the estimated death toll of which ranges from

about 200 to 10,000 depending on sources. Political reforms towards better information

disclosure and people empowerment is under way. The Chinese government began direct

village elections in 1988 to help maintain social and political order in the context of rapid

economic reforms. Today, village elections occur in about 650,000 villages across China,

reaching 75 percent of the nation's 1.3 billion people (Khan 24).

The One-Child policy has received international media attention and criticism for

its implementation which was originally put into place to reduce China’s ever-expanding

population crisis. However, many people see it as ineffective or morally objectionable.

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Such critics argue that it contributes to forced abortions, human rights violations, female

infanticide, abandonment and sex selective abortions. These are believed to be relatively

commonplace in some areas of the country, despite being illegal and punishable by fines

and jail time. This is thought to have been a significant contribution to the gender

imbalance in mainland China, where there is a 118 to 100 ratio of male to female children

reported (Li). What most people may not know is that in 2002, the laws related to the

One-Child Policy were amended to allow ethnic minorities and Chinese living in rural

areas to have more than one child. The policy was generally not enforced in those areas

of the country even before this. And even more recently, the policy has been relaxed in

urban areas to allow people who were single children to have two children. I can

understand how some people might view this as a human rights issue because the

government is not controlling, but putting in place safeguards to prevent couples from

having more than one child. In America, we are free to have as many children as we

want, but for China’s situation, that is not what is best for the nation and country as a

whole. The policy has been in effect for so long, the Chinese people are in favor of it and

agree that it has significantly altered the population from skyrocketing as it

was before the policy was put into place.

Although the amended Chinese constitution guarantees freedom

of speech, there is very heavy government involvement in the media,

with most of the largest media organizations being run directly by the

government. Chinese law forbids groups to advocate for independence

or self-determination for territories Beijing considers under its

jurisdiction, as well as public challenge to the CCP's monopoly in ruling

12
China. Thus references to democracy, the Free Tibet movement, Taiwan

as an independent state, certain religious organizations and anything

remotely questioning the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China

are banned from use in publications and blocked on the Internet (China

from the Inside). So, how is it, you may wonder, can the Chinese

people have any counterargument to the Tibet, Taiwan, and Darfur

issues if they do not know about them? Well to begin with, the CCP

bans Tibetan Buddhism to be practiced by students and CCP members.

The CCP is by nature atheist, so any religious affiliation is forbidden if

you submit your loyalty to the party. Students demonstrated their

protests during the Tiananmen Square incident. The government

knows students are the most likely to have radical ideologies and

revolt, so if they were to be on Tibet’s side and follow the Dalai Lama,

that is a major threat to the security of the CCP, hence why it is forbidden

to be practiced. If it is forbidden, the people have to know there is a

reason behind it. I don’t know if the protests in Paris, London, and San

Francisco make it to air in China, but the government cannot block

everything on the internet. Things are bound to get out, and once a

student casually surfing the internet one night happens upon

something from foreign presses, word will spread and get out no

matter what blocks the government has put in place. Information

spreads like fire, and the CCP cannot control everything. Since Tibet’s

rebellion against China in 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled into exile,

13
religious buildings have been razed to the ground, monks and nuns

imprisoned, and thousands of Tibet’s monasteries were devastated in

the 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. It is because faith is so

central to the lives of Tibetans, and so closely entwined with their

national identity that it worries the Chinese state, of which Tibet is a

part (China from the Inside). The atheist Communist Party exercises

religious tolerance as a function of political control. In China, if a

person uses their religion as a cover to try to split China, or harm

national security then they are breaking the law. Buddhism has been

feared as a rallying point and cover for Tibetan independence. The CCP

believes that the Dalai Lama uses the Tibetan religion as a cover to

split China and let Tibet be independent but as we see or hear almost

everyday on the news recently, “Tibet has always been a part of China,

and always will be”. The intolerable acts we hear against Tibetans have

no legitimate proof for the protesters to rely upon. And, again, even if

the acts are true, it is not just China who commits these acts, but the

US against Iraqi soldiers and terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

I believe it is the same issue with Taiwan and Darfur. An article in

The New York Times clearly states what is going on between China and the Darfur

‘genocide’ in the Sudan, Africa. China and the US are the two biggest competitors for oil

right now, and the Sudan in Africa is a major oil producer. China has a good business

relationship with the Sudanese government by providing them funds for their oil without

concern as to where the funds travel thereafter. In Darfur, thousands of innocent people

14
are being slaughtered by the Sudanese government rebels, and people see China aiding

them because of the money they give them for oil (Cooper). Because of the attention this

has raised, a Chinese representative went to Darfur and asked for them to agree to the UN

peacekeeping agreement. This was a very brave move on their part and helped China’s

image a little bit better concerning Darfur. Many of the protesters who are against China

because of the Darfur incident may not keep up on their information concerning what

China is doing to better the situation in Darfur. Because it is not related domestically to

the Chinese people, I am sure the media does not headline news concerning Darfur either.

The CCP’s stance on Taiwan can be summarized in the Prime Minister, Wen

Jiabao’s, quote at a press conference early in 2006, “Our country has never sent a single

soldier abroad… to occupy an inch of foreign soil. Taiwan is a domestic issue for China

alone. We brook no interference from any foreign country” (Bowles 182). Take heed US,

China does not want interference from any foreign country according to the Taiwan issue.

I agree, and I do not think the US should interfere with matters between foreign bodies.

But, other people have their opinions and that is part of what continues on with the

protesters.

Everything that I have previously mentioned in this essay is cause for protest

against China and it’s holding of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. But these issues are

nothing new by international standards relative to other countries. In 1936, Germany’s

Berlin Olympic Games received criticism for its racial prejudice against anyone who was

not of the ‘Aryan’ race, specifically African American runners (Bramwell 53). The media

coverage of Olympic Games’ politics in the past has always been biased depending on a

country’s relationship with the other (Roche 14). There have always been controversies

15
regarding human rights for many countries. This is my own personal opinion and many

others, but I think that the Olympic Games are not the proper stage to voice such

discontent against a nation. That setting is reserved for a political stage, although I agree

the world does not have control over how the CCP runs its country and the Chinese

people cannot, overnight, elect a new government. Those types of changes must be made

slowly and efficiently, like raindrops, not a rainstorm, which will flood everything in

sight. Although the media may be controlled by the Chinese government, the word is still

out there and the educated people of society hold that information secretly while quietly

stirring the winds of change in China. Globalization is like water in this modern world we

need it to survive. It flows everywhere in the world the more and more we integrate

ourselves with each other. Eventually, word spreads to those on the brink of globalization

and change does happen. The Olympic Games are a success story for China and the

Chinese people, and these protests have not destroyed any sense of pride in the nation.

Yes, it may be embarrassing to some extent for this to happen, but the people promoting

this cannot change anything by protesting a sports event. The world will just have to wait

to see how it all plays out in the end and what economic and global miracles China can

present to us in the ever-modernizing future of globalization. The economic miracle that

is China, has come a long way and will not succumb to international pressures and

protesters, for only the Chinese have a say in which path they will take into the future.

16
 Works Cited

Adams, F. Gerard. East Asia, Globalization, and the New Economy. London; New York:
Routledge, 2006.

Amnesty International (2007) People’s Republic of China: The Olympics Countdown –
Repression of Activists Overshadows Death Penalty and Media Reforms. London: 
Amnesty International, available at: 
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/015/2007
http://www.uygur.org/wunn07/OlympicsCountdown2007­04.pdf
(Accessed March 2008). 

Bowles, Paul, ed. Regional Perspectives on Globalization. Basingstoke, England; New

York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 169-204.

Bramwell, S. “China and Olympism”. In J. Bale and M. K. Christensen (eds) Post­
Olympism? Questioning Sport in the Twenty­first Century. Oxford: BERG, 2004. 
pp. 51­64.

China from the Inside. Dir. Jonathan Lewis. DVD. PBS Home Video, c2006.

“China Trials New Rural Health Care Network.” China Daily. November 21, 2003.
Available from:

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 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-11/21/content_283670.htm

Cooper, Helene. “Darfur Collides With Olympics and China Yields”. The New York
Times, April 13, 2007.

Deacon, R.T. and C.S. Norman "Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Describe How
Individual Countries Behave?". Land Economics. Vol. 82. 2006. pp. 291 - 315.

Espy, Richard. The Politics of the Olympic Games. Los Angeles, California. University of
California Press. 1981.

Khan, Azizur Rahman and Carl Riskin. Inequality and Poverty in China in the Age of
Globalization. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Li, Minqi, ed. Andong, Zhu. “China’s Public Services Privatization and Poverty 
Reduction: Health Care and Education Reform (Privatization) in China and the 
Impact on Poverty.” UNDP Policy Brief, Beijing, 2004.

Ma, Jun. China’s Water Crisis. Berkeley: International Rivers Network, 2004.

Miller, David, Olympic Revolution. London, England. Pavilion Books Limited, 1992.

Peerenboom, R P. China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest?. Oxford,
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Roche, Maurice. Mega-Events and Modernity Olympics and Expos in the Growth of
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