The World Political Games Continue in China

I have excerpted some interesting questions and illustrative answers from the most recent Beijing Olympic press conference. This isn’t a political rant or anything, just interesting to me. I hope it is to others. I didn’t write this but I did edit it slightly to take out parts that were of less interest to me.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Welcome again to today's BOCOG/IOC joint press conference. With us today, Mr. Wang Wei, the executive vice president and secretary general of BOCOG; and also Giselle Davies, IOC director of Communications. This morning we are also very glad to have Professor Arne Ljungqvist. First of all I would like to give the floor to Wang Wei.

SportsBusiness Journal, USA

Before the Games started, it was announced that tickets of all of the events were sold out. I've been to many events over the last 5 or 6 days and there are many empty seats. Are the tickets of the Games actually sold out? Why are there so many available seats and if there are so many available seats, why can't people buy tickets anywhere?

Wang Wei

I think for this question I have explained many times. The demand for the tickets for Beijing Games is very high. Tickets to international and all the NOCs are exceeding the previous Games. For the previous Games, there were only 100 NOCs booking tickets. But for Beijing Games, there are 160 NOCs booking tickets. For Beijing and China, you know, we have a very big population. Why are there a lot of empty seats? I think there a lot of reasons behind it.

This is the traditional of the Olympic Games we have reserved seats for the Olympic family and different client groups. That is understandable. For those clients, they may also send tickets to their friends. They will come for one time and may not at the other time. But that is not mainly the reason. For Chinese audience, they all want to buy tickets. Some people buy tickets for themselves and some people buy ticket for their friends. Again, people who received tickets may come at one time and may not come on the other time. The schedule according to the Olympic tradition, for beach volleyball and basketball they have one ticket, and you can watch the whole evening for two matches, first match and second match, volleyball as well. The tickets are out and that's for sure except for emergency plans. Thank you.

A masterful non-answer typical of all politicians.

BBC

There are plenty of scalpers operating around the venues, including those people from abroad, Britain and America.

Wang Wei

I think they are being dealt with at the moment. That's all information I can give you.

Scalping tickets in Beijing takes guts, who are you Bruce Wayne?

AP

You promised us now and a couple of days updates on the protests park. When will you tell us how many people applied and how many people have been granted permission to protest. Can you give us the details today and if not can you tell us when will you give us those details? Thank you.

Wang Wei

First of all, I did not promise to give you all the details today. I want to reiterate that BOCOG is not responsible for the protested parks. I did forward your requests to the relevant authorities. So far, I have not been informed about those statistics how many have applied and how many are approved. Still, I will convey the message to the relevant authorities. If you are willing, you can also contact them yourselves.

Translation? F.U.

Wang Wei

I already took note of this from a BBC report on the issue of Tibetan independence. This is a very unwelcome and unacceptable activity in China. People from abroad don't really understand the whole Tibetan issue. Everybody in China knows that Tibet is an inalienable part of the territory of China. A small number of people wanted to split the territory and it's not going to work at all. For those who don't really understand the situation as well, I see that most of the people in the demonstrations are non Chinese and I would conclude that they really don't know very much about this situation. I don't think the media should encourage these kinds of behaviors. A very good Olympic ambience is a place where people come to make friends and to understand each other. It's only through mutual understanding that we can have peace in the world and have a better chance of solving some issues and not to stir up trouble. Thank you.

Translation? Foreigners are idiots, especially the Tibet supporters. We would imprison them if we could.

Foreign reporter

Are you under restrictions yourself, Giselle, you are being very careful in all question, so that you don't upset your Chinese hosts?

Giselle Davies

Not at all. We don't expect perfect games. We expect games that are good for the athletes, good for the spectators, good for the media. And in terms of what we see operationally, that is what we are seeing, athletes have come back to us with really positive perspective of that they have seen on the field of play, the sports competition and venues and wide variety of stake holders also.

The sports competition and venues, yes there are some issues with regards to incidents with some non-accredited media. We certainly encourage more information to come back as much as possible. As I said yesterday, we wouldn't see that happening again. I think that is fully understood by our hosts. From the perspective from what we feel about this Games, we feel an excellent job is being done by the organizers operationally and organizationally and any wider questions on other aspects, I am happy to take them as they are straight, no problem.

Great question for after the games are over and Giselle is not in China.

Kyodo News

Today some of the athletes of Japanvisited Yasukuni Shrine. Today there will be a football match between Japan and China. How will the Chinese spectators respond to the Shrine visit? Yesterday the men's volleyball, whenever the Japanese team served, the audiences won't cheer Japanese athletes. Why so?

Wang Wei

It is an IOC/BOCOG press conference. we should focus on sports and the events in the competition. We shall refrain from political discussion. The Olympic Games is not a forum to have political issue discussed. That is my first point. From my view in the course of the competition, sometimes there are hissing from the spectators. It's normal and expected. BOCOG will encourage the spectators to cheer both teams. We are hosting it here in Beijing but we have also organized some events and activities including cheerleaders cheering both teams. Therefore, in general, I think the Japanese teams are very much welcome at the host venues. The Chinese spectators are very positive towards the Japanese athletes. I think the Japanese athletes can feel that themselves.

Are the Japanese athletes and spectators (if any could get tickets) actually worried for their physical safety in Beijing?

ABC

You are well aware that there was a protest at the CCTV building this morning. What is your view on that? Do you think it's going to be a matter of time before there going to be protests inside the venues?

Japanese newspaper

Thank you very much. I would like to know about today's soccer game, which is to be held in Qinhuangdao. Today, you know, Japan and China, both teams are going to have games. I am asking about today is a day the anniversary of the end of the war. The last war. I want to talk, ask about the security. The security, is it the same or different from other games? Also, some reports say some explosive has been found the day before yesterday. Is it the explosion or just an accident? Do you have some information about this? Thank you.

Wang Wei

I don't think there is a need for another special securities for the football game to be held in Qinhuangdao between China and Japan I am sure the spectators will be friendly to both teams. So we can wait and see. With regards to the explosion in Qinhuangdao, I re-confirmed it was an accident in the operation in the manufacture. So there won't be any problems for the games. Thank you.

Apparently Japanese fans and athletes do not feel very secure at all. Chinese authorities however are not very interested.

9 Network in Australia

Mr. Wang, can you give us any details of the protesters at the CCTV building this morning. It has been reported. Is there an Australian involved?

Wang Wei

I don't know if there is an Australian involved or not. And I don't know the details about it. As I told you before that Tibet is part of China, not only the whole Chinese know it but the whole world recognize it. Any free Tibet movement is not welcome here. It is not correct, legally speaking. I hope all the media will respect that and to provide friendship and peace in the world. Thank you

He is certain there are no Tibetans involved however.

Financial Times

Would you tell me that is it true that 8,000 practitioners of Falungong were rounded up prior to the Games and detained. Further, is it also true that no practitioner of Falungong is allowed to attend or participate in the Games, in violation of Rule 6 of the Olympic Charter? Thank you.

Wang Wei

Falungong is illegal organization in China. So when you say 8,000 practitioners, I don't know anything about this. The Beijing Olympic has welcomed athletes from all over the world to come and participate and enjoy the joy of the Olympics. Beijing and the Chinese people are friends of all athletes. I believe that all the athletes will abide by the Chinese law just as when they go to other hosting country. Thank you.

Or Falungong. Of course he knows nothing about this.