Entering 2008, Chinese President Hu Jintao faced one hurdle and one dilemma. The challenge was to stage a successful Olympic Games. The dilemma was how to accomplish this while placating party members who have sought harsher policies against dissidents and protesters seen to be promoting a “color revolution”—policies sure to be unpopular abroad. An engineer by training, Hu approached the tasks in a linear fashion, first savoring his modest victories from the party congress held last October. His loyalists were poised to take over most key positions in the party and state apparatus, though Hu failed to shrink the size of the Politburo’s Standing Committee, and the candidate he had favored as his successor wound up as number two in line.

     Hu and other officials turned their sights on preparing for the Olympics, which has proven to be a very bumpy ride. Just before the torch run kickoff in Europe—meant to be a worldwide display of China’s Olympic glory—protests in Tibetan communities (and the government response to them) badly tarnished China’s image. The torch run was met with feverish demonstrations that led to employing traditional (even ancient) tactics to protect the torch and, by association, the image of the Chinese government. Cities hosting the torch were relegated to building walls and diverting routes to block out unwelcome “invaders” of the run. Through its media, China presented its own version of all these events, complete with national heroes and heroines from the torch runs, further stoking the nationalism of Chinese people who felt victimized and assaulted.

     Amid these events, a startling reality is how quickly China’s image declined, and a key question is what its leaders can do to perk up their country in the eyes of the world. The Olympics can still showcase a “peacefully rising” China, but perhaps only if China’s leaders can rise to the occasion with a unique demonstration of goodwill to its own people and the international community, such as extending an “Olympic pardon” to long-serving prisoners. This would truly be a winning performance for Hu and other Chinese leaders if they can pull it off.  

Buffing China’s Image

     From last year, Hu had already observed China’s image taking a steady hit, and in a meeting in January, he exhorted party propagandists to promote a positive international image for China. It was announced the man tapped to succeed Hu, Xi Jinping, would personally take charge of ensuring the Olympics would be a success. Shortly afterward, Hu ordered the release of the Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, a gesture of “generosity” conducted in such haste that China’s regulations on parole were disregarded.

     In a significant step that signaled a desire to improve its standing in the world and especially in the United States, Beijing agreed to resume the long-suspended human rights dialogue with Washington, a decision announced at the end of US Secretary of State Rice’s visit to Beijing in late February. Only back in October, Chinese officials had stated the human rights dialogue would be suspended indefinitely in furious reaction to the granting of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama. With this sudden reversal of policy, the dialogue was set to resume as early as May 2008. 

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