Olympic Greed
How crooked Chinese officials have cashed in on the 2008 games
Wired. A few blocks away, another construction worker, Wang Lanqing, leans his bike against a lamppost. "The whole area is lit by solar-powered lamps," he observes. "That's what they say. But our boss told us to hook the lamps up to the city [electric] grid instead."
The nonsolar lamps are a potential embarrassment. Other construction flaws, however, could have more serious repercussions. The collapse of a subway tunnel or even a sports arena during the games would undermine confidence among foreign visitors and consumers. With China already embroiled in a scandal over tainted food exports, its booming economy has become vulnerable.
An Olympic disaster would have political consequences, too. The question of who is responsible for shoddy construction work is not one the government wants examined too closely. Top officials have made a show of cracking down on corruption, though this may be too little, too late. Among those convicted for taking money are the head of the highway construction agency building roads to Olympic sites; the head of the port of Qingdao, site of Olympic sailing competition; a senior executive at a state construction group building stadiums; and the deputy head of a state-run lottery raising money for Olympic facilities. These four have been exposed in recent months. But experts believe there are many more.
Like a cancer, graft is eating away at Beijing's newly built infrastructure and, by extension, at China's senior leaders. It would be hard to exaggerate the importance they attach to the 2008 games. Having been vilified as violators of human rights for decades, they are hoping for a show of approval from the international community next summer. Seeing that approval under threat from corruption now, they are, belatedly, taking action. China's first supposedly independent anticorruption agency will be set up later this year, and an Olympic anticorruption commissioner has been appointed, the first in the games' history.
Yet, these efforts likewise could be too late to make a difference. Corruption is a national problem. Surveys have found that 90 percent of the country's richest 3,000 people come from the families of Communist Party officials. Sweetheart deals and kickbacks are a way of life here. Any serious attempt by senior leaders to change that would devastate their power base.
Thus, the biggest winners at the games will not be standing on numbered podiums with medals hanging around their necks. Instead, they will be sitting high above the athletes in plush VIP sections reserved for officials.
Oliver August, former Beijing bureau chief for the Times of London, is the author of Inside the Red Mansion: On the Trail of China's Most Wanted Man (Houghton Mifflin).
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