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Gathering of world leaders shows positive view of China

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-07 21:59

"After 30 years of reform and opening-up, China, with a population of 1.3 billion, has really become a part of the world and the biggest stakeholder," said Hu Angang.

He said if entering the World Trade Organization meant China had been fully connected to the world, hosting the Olympics would allow China to learn about "international practice" to a deeper and wider extent.

Overseas journalists were guaranteed access to anyone they would like to interview, as long as they got the interviewees' consent. Foreign TV journalists could do their broadcasts live from Tian'anmen Square, the heart of Beijing.

China has promised to the world that China would remain open to foreign media even after the Olympics.

The Honorary Chairman of the China Olympic Committee, He Zhenliang, recalled the "Table Tennis Diplomacy" between China and the United States in 1971, which provided a good example of how sports could promote the diplomatic relationship.

He said the Beijing Olympics would again show sports' amazing strength in promoting the relationship between China and the world.

"Sports was one of the earliest globalized areas. Through globalization, we shall be more tightly connected to the world," he said.

He told Xinhua reporters that without reform and opening-up, China would never be able to hold the Olympic Games. He said China even had to give up hosting the Asian Games in 1978, because the country could not offer enough facilities for the games after the Cultural Revolution.

Today, the global audience will be able to see the "Bird's Nest", or the National Stadium and the "Water Cube", or the National Aquatics Center on TV. People who came to Beijing for the Olympics could also experience its modernity at the new Terminal-3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport, new subway lines and the new China Central Television Station building.

However, the country still faces serious challenges. The three most pressing are the shortage of resources, especially energy; the deteriorating environment, and the need to achieve a balanced development between the economy and the society of such a big country, said Li Junru, a renowned scholar at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.

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