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Olympics: Depends who you listen to

The West seems determined to point up any negatives relating to the Olympics. Sure, China is open to criticism in relation to a number of its actions - notably Tibet - and limitations on freedoms for its citizenry, but how do the Chinese see the Olympiad?

Muhammad Cohen, writing in "Why China loves the Olympics" in The Guardian explains:

"In China's Olympic moment, foreign critics are focusing on all the country has failed to achieve, from its abundant air pollution to scant human rights. China's citizens, on the other hand, see all that the country has accomplished after emerging from foreign domination and internal turmoil. They are proud of those achievements and resentful of foreigners pointing out China's shortcomings, especially when those failings don't bother the alleged victims.

Bringing the Olympics to Beijing is the latest instalment in a rather straightforward bargain between Chinese government and its citizens that Deng Xiaoping put in place nearly 30 years ago. The regime would maintain its monopoly on political power, but Chinese citizens would get the opportunity to improve their standards of living."

Over at the ABC in its Unleashed section, Antony Loewenstein in a piece "Let the patriot games begin" counsels that the West ought to consider a view about it all from a non-Western perspective:

"Conveniently forgotten in the rush to celebrate Australian medal-winners are the other voices in the global media mix (such as this fascinating article by the Chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, worried that Beijing may be mimicking the 1936 Nazi Games.) We ignore non-Caucasian perspectives at our peril.

It should never be forgotten that many studies find Chinese people overwhelmingly satisfied with their lives, though the rise of the internet and satellite television has certainly increased the knowledge of social rights. McCommunism, as Noami Klein calls it, appears to be a popular ideology."

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