World is expecting August gala in Beijing

Source: People's Daily | 05-06-2008 09:13

Beijing Olympic Games is approaching, near at hand. We have heard the exciting chorus of China: We are ready. Welcome to Beijing. Let's share the sports gala.

It is unprecedented that hosting the Games fills the Chinese people with so much hope, yeast and enthusiasm, and so much cherished by the whole nation. The reason may lie in the country's history: The Chinese is a nation who suffered far too much, who was humiliated and disgraced repeatedly, and who have paid so high a price for its dim past full of pains and grief. Now it is on the right track for development, and the remarkable achievements it has scored attract the worldwide attention. The Chinese people are finally convinced that their painstaking efforts begin to pay off: they have won the bidding to host the Olympic Games.

That can help explain why the success of the Games carries weight to the Chinese people. Their shared dream is not only about gold medals, but more about the honor to be a good host having the chance to showcase a progressing, hopeful and flourishing China, a developing giant, to the whole world, to showcase China's efforts to build a harmonious society and its 5000-year-old civilization as well as its new look following the 30 years of reform and opening up to the outside world.

That also explains why the Chinese people are so sensitive to the insulting words some people used to denigrate and vilify their motherland. To the Chinese, nothing can concern them and excite their attention more than such issues as sovereignty and territory, country and nation. The recent din from the anti-Chinese forces can do nothing but to remind them of their humiliating modern history dating back to one or two centuries, when the then Chinese authorities had to surrender the country's sovereignty, cede territory and pay indemnities under humiliating terms. The anti-China noise irritated the Chinese so much that the torrents of patriotism forged ahead promptly, which has definitely aroused the worldwide attention. There are also calls for those who twisted facts and demonized the Chinese to respect and understand the Chinese people.

Episodes, however, cannot hinder the progress of China's peaceful development, if the melody as a whole remains pleasant. China now marks a golden period in history in terms of its foreign relationships, in particular, the relations with Western super powers are better than ever before. China has been pressing ahead with its goals gearing for the world, the modernization and the future. With the improvement in communications with others, china could and would host a successful Olympics. Disruptions on the Olympic Games and its torch relay around the world will by no means mar the Olympic spirit, and the brutal and domineering plots will be doomed to fail.

The Chinese people will continue to be bent on their life and work, concentrating on the preparations for Olympics at this moment. The disturbance and din can be redefined as a drive to unify them and prompt them to move on and to be a good host for the Games.

When the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping met with the former British PM Margaret Thatcher in the talks on Hong Kong issue years ago, he said that China is no longer 'the sick man in the East' suffering national betrayal and humiliation and having no way out as it was in the late Qing Dynasty, and that we are now concentrating our attention on construction and development.

In 2008, we are focusing our attention on hosting the Beijing Olympic Games, and thus nothing can distract us, as 'one world, one dream' is the shared aspiration of the Chinese people as well as all the people around the world, and it will sound a melody of friendship and peace in the run-up to the Olympic Games. With best wishes, Beijing is counting down to the big day.

Editor:Du Xiaodan