'Post-Olympic era' off to a rocky start in China

By CNN - The World's Largest Network
September 17, 2008

The Olympic flame is out, the smog is back, and traffic again clogs the roads.

Welcome to what commentators are calling China's "post-Olympic era," in which euphoria over the Beijing Games is slowly giving way to economic worries, new safety crises and a future both brimming with confidence and tinged with uncertainty.

So far, it's off to a rocky start.

China received widespread praise for organizing the games, which formally ended Wednesday with the Paralympics' closing ceremony.

Even before then, however, reality reasserted itself with the collapse earlier this month at an illegal mine waste dump that killed at least 259 people and forced the resignation of a provincial governor. Since then, a product safety scandal has roiled the nation, with contaminated milk powder causing the death of three infants and sickening more than 6,200 others.

Both crises point to underlying systemic weaknesses that the Olympics did little to eliminate, despite a massive effort to clean up Beijing's polluted air, boost security and ensure smooth logistics. China's mines remain the world's deadliest and creaky infrastructure a constant threat, while an overhaul of the product safety system has proved only partially effective.

A further post-Olympics worry is the state of the weakening economy, raising the prospect of unemployment and higher inflation in what remains a poor nation. Chinese shares fell Wednesday to a 22-month low and the communist leadership, ever mindful of threats to its authority, is on alert for possible unrest.

"The top priority will be responding to the grievances generated by economic problems," said Joseph Cheng, chairman of the Contemporary China Research Center at City University of Hong Kong.

"The broad direction of enhanced international status remains, but most people are more concerned with immediate problems," he said.

China's leaders appear bolstered by a wave of national pride, although questions linger over the prospects for social progress and whether the games will yield hoped for international prestige and acceptance.

The games' most tangible impact was the new subways and ultramodern venues built at a cost of more than $40 billion. That legacy will continue to provide an economic driver: Developers envision a major entertainment district rising around the Olympic basketball arena in the city's underdeveloped west, with shops, restaurants and apartments sprouting where temporary sports fields stand.

Yet the games were always about far more than stadiums and parks, embodying China's craving for acceptance and international respect. Some too saw them as a potential catalyst for political and social change, as a confident regime grows more accepting of criticism.

There's little sign of that happening, though. Authorities tightly controlled dissent during the games, refusing protest permits and deporting foreign pro-Tibet activists who staged brief demonstrations. Chinese press restrictions are as tight as ever, sensitive Internet sites remain blocked, and Web editors reportedly were told to delete worrisome comments about the state of the economy.

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