02/13/2001

Associated Press

BEIJING – Chinese government officials used to snub environmental campaigner Liao Xiaoyi. Now, in their efforts to win the 2008 Olympics, they seek her advice.

Beijing officials are turning to China's fledgling green movement for help in tackling a big obstacle to the capital's Olympic quest: pollution.

The government's bid committee has appointed Liao, another independent environmentalist and a retired government environmental official-turned-campaigner as advisers, consulting them on city clean-up plans.

The courtship is a notable turnaround for a communist government deeply suspicious of citizens' attempts to organize and could be a nascent sign of greater tolerance. It raises the question of whether an Olympics in Beijing could speed the development of civil society in China.

"Possibly for other countries, an Olympic bid is just an Olympic bid, just one more good thing, but for China it boosts the progress of society," said Liao, head of the green group Global Village of Beijing. "This is very important."

Beijing's desire for the games is obvious. Officials are mobilizing citizens and state media in shows of support. An Olympics would confer international approval on China's communist government and bring global sports' biggest event to a sports-crazy nation.

A pivotal moment comes Feb. 21-24, when International Olympic Committee inspectors visit Beijing. Their findings could sway IOC members who will select the 2008 host from five bidding cities in July.

To impress the decision-makers, Chinese officials cite Beijing's anti-pollution efforts, its growing economy and ancient heritage, along with China's sporting prowess and the market potential of nearly 1.3 billion people. Politics are studiously skirted.

But as in 1993, when Sydney beat Beijing by two votes for the 2000 Games, China's rights record is again becoming an issue.

Two decades of market reforms have raised living standards and eroded government control. But political challenges are dealt with ruthlessly. Prisons hold scores of campaigners for labor unions and political parties and perhaps thousands of followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement – outlawed partly because communist leaders feared the sect's disciplined organization threatened their rule.

U.S. and British lawmakers, rights groups and some Chinese dissidents have said that China's suppression of dissent makes Beijing an unsuitable host. In January, 119 dissidents and jailed activists' relatives petitioned the government to boost Beijing's chances by releasing all political prisoners.

But Liao says the games could promote social progress and the small but growing non-governmental green movement, and encourage citizens' participation in environmentalism. Liao described her developing cooperation with officials as unprecedented and fears that losing the bid could place that at risk.

To win, Beijing knows it must tackle its air pollution, ranked in the 1990s as among the world's worst but now showing signs of improvement. Among other measures, the city is ordering polluting factories to shut down, move out or clean up, switching heating boilers from coal to cleaner natural gas and planting trees. Officials say that by 2008, Beijing will have lavished $12 billion over 10 years on its environment and that its air will be comparable to major developed cities.

Beijing officials drafting a "Green Olympics Action Plan" of anti-pollution measures approached environmentalists last summer for help. A Beijing vice mayor met at least four times with green campaigners, among them independent activists such as Liao, and others from government-backed groups. Liao also went with Beijing's mayor and other officials to IOC headquarters in Lausanne – the first time a representative from a non-governmental organization has accompanied a Chinese official delegation overseas.

It's a contrast with the past. Liao recalled that as recently as last April, a Beijing vice mayor who oversees environment issues all but ignored her when she chanced across him at a meeting. Proposals she sent to officials elicited no response.

The government "didn't pay attention to us. We each did our own thing. ... But now, we can work together. The benefits of that are that NGOs have a channel to influence policy-makers," she said. "This is purely due to the Olympic bid.

"There has been a great improvement in the way the government works."

IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch is among those who say an Olympics can accelerate change. He and others have argued that the 1988 Seoul Olympics helped spur South Korea's transition from dictatorship to democracy.

But Liang Congjie, another environmental adviser to the bid committee who heads the independent group Friends of Nature, said it was too early to judge whether officials genuinely value NGOs or whether they are using them to portray an image of tolerance to the outside world.

"Does inviting us to a few meetings mean that they will respect our opinions? I still can't say," said Liang. "To a certain extent, foreign pressure and influence has made the bid committee realize that without the participation of NGOs their chances of winning are smaller."

He said environmentalists who tried establishing green groups in two provinces outside Beijing were refused government permission to register, although campaigners in northern Tianjin city successfully registered in January.