International Press  Clippings 

By Vicki Michaelis, USA TODAY

	By Guang Niu, Reuters
	Young Chinese celebrate in Tiananmen Square.

MOSCOW — Beijing's victory in getting the 2008 Summer Olympics on Friday immediately was hailed as an opportunity for political and social change in China, whose human rights record long has dogged (跟追,尾随) the Beijing bid. "I think it will have a very big impact," said former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger, an honorary, nonvoting member of the International Olympic Committee who attended the proceedings. "I think it is a very important step in the evolution of China's relationship with the world."

Eight years ago, in the bidding for the 2000 Summer Olympics, Beijing lost to Sydney by just two votes. On Friday, Beijing won resoundingly, getting 56 of 105 votes in the second round of elimination voting. The result gives the Olympics to the world's most populous country for the first time.

"The message was clear: We wanted to see the Olympic Games in China. We think this will open up China," IOC member Gerhard Heiberg of Norway said.

While speaking of what the Olympics could do for China, Chinese sports minister Weimen Yuan listed social, economic and sport benefits "and, not least, progress in the human rights cause."

"Like all countries, China has certain areas where something is still left there to be further desired. In the next stage of our national development, we will continue to open ourselves wider to the outside world and carry out more reforms," Yuan said.

For months, IOC members have said they must separate politics from sport in making their decision. After their vote Friday, though, they freely linked the two in talking about what effect bringing the world's largest sports spectacle might have on China's closed and repressive society.

"Sport, the Olympic Games and the IOC can play a positive role in helping the world's changes," said IOC member Jacques Rogge of Belgium.

IOC members voted after watching presentations Friday by all five candidate cities. Istanbul, Paris, Toronto, and Osaka, Japan, were the other candidates. Beijing had been labeled the front-runner for many months, and China's human rights record had been considered the only thing that could derail its chances.

"It seemed to turn into a Beijing or anti-Beijing vote," U.S. IOC member Bob Ctvrtlik said.

The only surprise Friday was that in the first round Istanbul garnered (收集) more votes than Paris (17 to 15). An IOC evaluation report released in May left Istanbul and Osaka all but out of the running while rating the bids of Paris, Toronto and Beijing as "excellent."

Toronto, touting a risk-free, by-athletes, for-athletes bid, was seen as Beijing's closest competitor. The voting bore that out. In the first round, Toronto got 20 votes to Paris' 15. In the second round, the differential was 22 to 18.

Toronto's loss is a boon (恩惠, 实惠, 福利) to the U.S. cities (New York, Cincinnati, Dallas, Tampa, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington-Baltimore) hoping to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. If Toronto had won the 2008 Games, it's highly unlikely that the IOC would have turned again to North America in 2012.

"It's a very big positive for the United States' chances in 2012. That was one of the things in the back of my mind," Ctvrtlik said.

The IOC members would not reveal how they each voted.

Toronto's chances may have been hurt more than the bid team cared to admit by Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman's remarks last month before visiting Mombasa, Kenya, to promote Toronto's Olympic bid. Lastman reportedly said, "I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."

Lastman apologized repeatedly, even sending apologies as recently as Friday morning to select IOC members. But African IOC member Alpha Ibrahim Diallo of Guinea asked about the comment during Toronto's presentation Friday, mentioning it as a human rights concern.

"There should be no concern at all about fundamental respect for human rights in Canada," IOC member Dick Pound of Canada told Diallo.

During Beijing's presentation, IOC members asked no questions about human rights.

"Maybe they feel they've heard all the answers," said IOC member Charmaine Crooks of Canada, who was working with Toronto's bid team.

IOC member Roland Baar of Germany did ask about Beijing's one-time plan to stage beach volleyball in Tiananmen Square, site of a 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. Beijing already has decided to hold beach volleyball elsewhere but may have other sports, such as triathlon(三项全能运动), in the square, where thousands of people turned out Friday to celebrate Beijing getting the Games.

"I think it is really inappropriate," Baar said of staging any sports in the square. "It is not the right place to do it."

After its close loss for the 2000 Games, Beijing in recent months did seem to have all the answers, addressing such things as the IOC concerns about Beijing's pollution problem with a plan to spend $12 billion on environmental initiatives. Beijing also had in its corner the widespread belief among Olympic insiders that outgoing president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who counts universality as one of the hallmarks of his tenure(任期), wanted Beijing to get the Games.

"This will be very beneficial for China and for the rest of the world," Samaranch said after the vote. "Possibly today opens up a new era for China."