Beijing’s Olympic bid tests whether IOC is serious about reform

李星玥

BEIJING — Ni Yulan vividly remembers how proud she was when China was awarded the 2008 Olympics — until her house was demolished ostensibly to make way for the Games, police beatings left her permanently disabled, and she spent four years behind bars.

Today she’s not so thrilled about Beijing’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

The Chinese capital suffers from appalling smog, has barely any snow on its surrounding mountains and no tradition of winter sports, but it is nevertheless the favorite to be awarded the 2022 Games ahead of its lone rival, Almaty, in Kazakhstan. If successful, it would be the first city to stage both versions of the Olympics.

“China is stable politically, has a prosperous economy and a harmonious society, which is the most important guarantee to host the Winter Olympics,” Beijing’s Mayor Wang Anshun said at a news conference last month after an International Olympics Committee inspection team visited the city. “We enjoy a good social environment and public support.”

But it is Beijing's human rights record that has many people objecting to its bid and wondering how a country that repressed its people in its preparations for the 2008 Olympics could even be in the running for a second Games so soon afterward.

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