Rights groups still critical of China

CHINA milked the global plaudits for staging a successful Olympics, but rights groups remained critical while Japan expressed hope the event would propel the communist-ruled country towards democracy.

After the Games ended on Sunday with a spectacular closing ceremony, the state-run Chinese press hailed the event as a fitting climax to three decades of phenomenal development and a showcase of modern China.

The response to the Games from Japan, China’s neighbour with which it has a history of uneasy relations, was one of cautious optimism, reflecting views elsewhere around the world.

“Holding the Olympics was good in terms of China taking a more democratic path. We believe this is an irreversible path,” Japanese government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

“While the reformist, open-door policy is said to be making progress in China, it is not always leaping forward.”

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke positively about the Olympics, saying the Games represented China’s “public opening act” at the dawn of an Asia-Pacific century.

He played down the controversies over human rights, such as the military crackdown in Tibet, that swirled around China before and during the Games.

“I don’t know of a single Olympics in recent history which has not generated controversy of one sort or another,” he said.

As the host country of the next Olympics, Britain chose its words carefully, with officials staying silent on the issue of Tibet and the intimidation of dissidents.

London 2012 organising committee chief Sebastian Coe said before the closing ceremony “there wasn’t a good deal wrong” with the Beijing Games.

“The city has opened up and people are mixing like they did in Moscow when I was there in 1980,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, China’s state press gushed over Beijing’s hosting of the Games, calling it a watershed event that should make the world look on China with newfound respect.

“Through the Beijing Games’ flawless organisation, brilliant sporting performances and friendly atmosphere, an image of an entirely new great country appeared before the world,” the popular Beijing Youth Daily said.