China has repeatedly asked the outside world not to politicise the Beijing Olympic games. President Hu Jintao issued a personal plea ,on the eve of the games’ opening, for sports and politics to be kept separate. But Beijing has been quick to find ways to convert its Olympic sporting victories into political capital.
For a start, it announced that it will send most of the country’s Olympic gold medalists to Hong Kong at the end of this week. The hope is that a surge in nationalist pride stoked by the sporting achievements of Chinese athletes could swing the outcome of the legislative elections in the city on Sep. 7.
Pro-democracy politicians are struggling to hold onto their current 26 seats in the 60-member legislature. Their opponents- in the pro-Beijing camp – are vying to reshape the territory’s election laws and other legislation so as to further cement Beijing’s control. After 156 years under British rule, Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997 but enjoys autonomy under the “one country, two systems” set up agreed to between Britain and China for a 50-year the duration.
Hong Kong has not been immune to the nationalist euphoria sweeping China in the wake of its stunning victory at the Olympics. The athletes are scheduled to give sports demonstrations in diving, table tennis and badminton — sports where China had a nearly clean sweep of gold medals. The locations selected for the demonstrations also pinpoint places where the electoral battle between democrats and Beijing allies is expected to be intense.
This is not the first time that Beijing has tried to use iconic national figures to influence political mood in the former colony. In 2004 it dispatched the country’s first astronaut Yang Liwei on a good will visit to Hong Kong — just a week after his return from China’s pioneer flight into space. The visit was meant to better public perceptions of China after Hong Kong’s people power derailed the planned (and supported by Beijing) introduction of stringent internal security legislation.
