The Economist.com article "A sporting gesture: China relaxes media controls for the Olympics" reports:
As part of its preparations for hosting the Olympic games in 2008, China has been proclaiming a new era of openness. Last week departments of the Communist Party which had previously kept themselves secret published contact details for their spokesmen. This week the central government lifted long-standing curbs on the activities of foreign journalists. Even the ministry of defence, usually taciturn, is said to be preparing to hold news conferences.
China wants to show that its relations with the foreign media are in line with those of other countries that have hosted the games in the past 20 years. It does not want its Olympics marred by the sort of boycotts and tensions that spoilt the 1980 games in Moscow―the only other communist capital to have hosted the event.
The games are of enormous political importance to China. They are designed to show off the country’s economic achievements and to demonstrate its growing pride and confidence. China wants the event to strengthen its ties with the West. It worries that restrictions on foreign media might complicate that task.
Daniel Drezner points out in his post "How will the Olympic Affect China?" the Russians did not come out of the 1980 Olympics well.
When historians debate what caused the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, there is occasionally a mention of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. As the narrative goes, the Soviets invested enormous sums to turn Moscow into a showcase for the international media -- and bankrupted themselves in the process.
great work......really impressive
Posted by: enock | July 02, 2017 at 12:05 AM