China expected to win Olympic bid on Friday(SCMP)
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expected to hand the 2008 Games to China for the first time on July 13 during Juan Antonio Samaranch's last IOC session as president. A man is pictured passing an advert for China's Olympic bid in Beijing. REUTERS/Guang Niu
After a campaign which will be remembered for human rights demonstrations and a few ill-chosen words about cannibalism, Olympic chiefs will decide the venue of the 2008 Summer Games this week at what is expected to be an historic meeting.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expected to hand the Games to China for the first time in Friday's vote during Juan Antonio Samaranch's last IOC session as president.
Beijing faces strong opposition from Toronto and Paris but the attraction of staging the Games in a country which boasts the world's biggest population, as well as huge economic potential, is likely to win the day.
Istanbul and Japan's Osaka, the other two candidates in the five-city battle, are regarded as outsiders with little chance of winning.
The battle for the most prestigious sports event on the planet has been eventful with anti-China protests on the IOC's own doorstep and Toronto's mayor having to apologise for saying he feared being put in a vat of boiling water on a trip to Kenya.
Gone are the days when the massive costs required to stage the Olympics provided an intimidating prospect. In the modern sports world of billion-dollar deals for Olympic television rights and sponsorship, the host city for the Games can anticipate huge economic advantages as well as political and sporting prestige.
As a result, the battle for the Summer Games has become highly competitive.
Many of the world's stock markets will be watching Friday's decision with special interest since a Beijing victory could have a major influence on China's economic development over the next seven years, and also on the global blue chip companies that are working hard to tap its attractive market.
But China's bid has been controversial because of the country's record on human rights.
TIANANMEN SQUARE
The ghost of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre helped to derail the Chinese capital's bid for the 2000 Games which were awarded to Sydney.
This time, though, Beijing has faced opposition from U.S. lawmakers and also from groups supporting Tibet, which China has ruled with an iron fist since the 1950s.
In March, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers asked the IOC to reject the Beijing bid because of human rights concerns. When the IOC published its report on the technical aspects of the five cities in May, Tibetan groups shouted slogans outside the organisation's headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
They attached a huge banner to the trees outside the IOC portraying a picture of a Tibetan monk with his hands cuffed behind his back by the five Olympic rings. It has been one of the most striking images of the campaign.
IOC members have also received personal threats warning them of attacks if they vote for Beijing.
After visiting the cities, the IOC put Beijing, Paris and Toronto as joint leaders in the report, despite the fact that the Chinese have yet to build many of their sports facilities.
The French capital, by contrast, has its main stadium in place and Toronto has a large number of its facilities completed.
Olympics sources believe, however, that the majority of IOC members will vote for Beijing in the hope that giving the Games to China would have more influence on the country's future behaviour than a second Olympic rebuff in a decade.
CLEVER TACTICS
Beijing has run a canny tactical campaign, refusing to get involved in a slanging match with its opponents. It recently persuaded Cathy Freeman, the face of last year's successful Sydney Olympics, to back its bid -- a shrewd move given Freeman's Aboriginal origins and Australia's past record with its indigenous people. The Olympic 400 metres champion also has Chinese ancestry.
Paris and Toronto are, however, waiting to pounce if the Chinese trip up at the final hurdle. The cities make presentations to the IOC on the day of the vote.
Toronto has an edge over Paris because the next Summer Games, in 2004, will be held in Europe in Athens and the IOC is unlikely to want a return to the continent as soon as 2008.
But Toronto has had its own diplomatic troubles in recent weeks.
Last month the city was cringing in embarrassment after its outspoken mayor Mel Lastman joked before a trip to Africa that he feared being put in a vat of boiling water while natives danced around him. The Canadians went to Kenya in a bid to attract votes from African Olympic chiefs.
Paris was also hit last month by news that its bid chief Claude Bebear, the founder of insurance giant AXA, was being investigated by French police in a probe into money laundering.
It will therefore be a huge surprise if Beijing fail to win the Olympic bid this time.
Octogenerian Samaranch has always been a leader who likes symbolism. The Spaniard has brought the session to Moscow where he was first elected president before the 1980 Olympics in the Russian capital, when the Soviet Union was a Cold War power and boycotts dominated the Games.
Many believe Samaranch wants to create another piece of history by giving the Games to China on Friday before he stands down and his successor is elected at the meeting's end on July 16. |
