Irish Examiner view: Disquiet over surveillance at Beijing Olympics

Concerns over 'Orwellian' measures and human rights violations by Chinese authorities

Security guards watch as an Olympic shuttle bus pulls into a hotel enclosed by fences at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Picture: AP Photo/Jae C Hong

As the opening of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing draws closer, concerns intensify not only about the potential treatment by the Chinese authorities of athletes who express opinions about human rights violations in the country, but also the likelihood that journalists covering the games will be subjected to unprecedented state surveillance.

When Yang Shu, the deputy director of international relations for the Beijing organising committee, asserted that “dedicated departments” would investigate athletes’ comments at the Games, it put a worryingly authoritarian slant on these games.