Published: January 09, 2008
A news program on China's state television station, CCTV, was suddenly interrupted when a woman appeared on camera to announce that her husband, the program's announcer, was having an affair. This unexpected incident occurred late last month during an announcement of CCTV's plan to rename its Sports Channel as the Olympic Channel. The husband was a well-known host of the Sports Channel, Zhang Bin, and his wife, Hu Ziwei, was also a television program host from another channel.
This interlude caused chaos for three minutes while the husband, along with several leaders and staff from CCTV, worked at persuading her to leave and pulling her off the set at the same time. The three-minute video was later spread widely on the Internet, where it attracted tremendous attention, humiliating both the station and the Chinese government.
In her tirade, Hu criticized China, saying it was far from becoming a real superpower and was neither qualified nor capable of hosting the Olympic Games.
"If the Chinese do not have … (interrupted by CCTV announcer) a sense of values, then what exact sense does all this make?" asked Hu. She accused her husband of being a hypocrite, with no sense of morality. Further, she quoted a French diplomat who reportedly said recently, "Not until China has a sense of values that can be accepted, recognized and praised will it become a great country."
Hu reportedly has been dismissed from her job and detained by the Beijing police, charged with "damaging the image of the Olympic Games." She may not be released until after the Games.
A rational examination of this incident reveals it is not just a matter of gossip, as it may superficially appear. Nor is it about a sense of values or the status of a great power. This incident is an example of growing social disorder connected with the Beijing Olympics, for which the authorities are unprepared.
This incident drew so much attention because it occurred as the news about the Olympic Channel was being announced, which is directly related to the Beijing Games, and it surprised people. People could not help but wonder if there will be more such outbreaks in the coming months, as the Games approach. If so, will they be more serious or have greater impact?
In the history of the Olympics, there have been three cases where the Games were hosted by divided nations: Munich, Seoul and Beijing this time. The horrific killing of Israeli athletes occurred at the 20th Games in Munich. A Korean airliner was blown up in midair before the 24th Games in Seoul. The later incident was directly related to political conflict due to the division of Korea.
This doesn't mean that being a divided state necessarily implies a risk of violence. However, as a divided state, China shares some similarities with the other two. How will relations across the Taiwan Strait develop? What will be the outcome of Taiwan's referendum to join the United Nations? In addition, divisive issues like Tibet, Xinjiang and China's democratic movement all pose potential risks ahead of the Games.
However, the things that truly agitate the people are those issues with "Chinese characteristics" -- rarely found in other countries but happening in China every single moment. Any one of them could lead to violent incidents or social turmoil.
Take the xinfang, or "letters and visits," system for example. This system allows ordinary people suffering from injustice to petition higher authorities for help. At least 400,000 people are currently using this system. Under the circumstances where there is no healthy legal system or disinterested judiciary, the xinfang system has became the solution with "Chinese characteristics," and the final hope for the masses at the bottom of society. As a result of this, the well-known "Xinfang Village" of petitioners sprouted in a Beijing suburb.
Beijing authorities tore down this improvised village by the end of last year, but did that solve the problem? Did the petitioners simply disappear? Certainly not. The potential for social unrest exists within this group, as every Chinese citizen will admit.
In addition, there are what the authorities call "mass incidents." Like the petitioners issue, they indicate a high risk of social breakdown. These incidents are caused mainly by laid-off workers and farmers deprived of their land in the process of urbanization and industrialization. The Hunyuan Incident was an example: Some 100,000 farmers in Hunyuan county of Sichuan province were deprived of their land and forced to move because of a hydropower project. Thousands of them protested the low compensation they received, in a "mass incident" in 2004. Other situations such as mine accidents are also counted as incidents of social disorder, which may cause trouble for the authorities.
All of these issues are unique to China and deeply rooted in the shortcomings of the current system of governance. They cannot be resolved in a single day. Can these hot potatoes be held down by iron arms? It was possible in the past but it is too difficult now.
The Olympic Games will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world to China to witness its prosperity and great power, as well as 30,000 to 40,000 journalists from abroad. Once the guests have gathered, everything will be out in the open and cannot be controlled from within a black box.
Among the many journalists, more than 10,000 reporters with press passes will have the right to freely interview anyone with no need for official approval. This is another new problem for the leadership, which is used to tightly controlling the press. The last time a great number of foreign reporters came to China was in May, 1989, while former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was visiting. At that time it was less than 2,000 foreign journalists.
Flattering the foreign and suppressing the domestic is China's political tradition. The Chinese government doesn't actually fear social unrest; it will always suppress it, whether it manifests in violent incidents or gradual movements. But the government cannot lose face by suppressing it in front of so many foreign guests.
Although the Chinese government has abundant experience in self-promotion by controlling the media, it is a greenhorn in coping with foreign media professionals who do not hesitate to criticize authorities. What is worse, the China government cannot just punish or dismiss foreign media professionals at will.
In fact, social disorder is not fearful and does not necessarily pose a risk to the state. The key to avoiding risk lies in the mindset of the authorities and their method of dealing with unrest. Take the current issues for instance: apparent inflation and superficial prosperity in the stock and housing markets. The number of people and amount of capital involved in the stock and housing markets is so huge that no one can deal with the turbulence once a serious problem finally occurs.
The Chinese government should be able to identify the real issues and rationally deal with them, and avoid actions that will spark greater social unrest. In this way they can effectively avoid incidents that might threaten the Beijing Olympics.
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(Qi Ge is the pen name of a freelance writer based in Chengdu, Sichuan province. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org. ©Copyright Qi Ge.)
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