Discouraged from visiting the Olympics, the city's inhabitants watch them on TV – or rather, they watch an edited version. To read the whole of this blog, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/15/olympics2008.china/print
Lying directly north of the Forbidden City, Beijing's Olympic Green slots symbolically into the capital's symmetry of great historical sites. In imperial times, ordinary citizens were forbidden access to the vast palace complex of the Forbidden City. Now they are similarly banned from Zhongnanhai, a palace adjoining the Forbidden City that has been adopted by the Communist party as its leadership compound.
Beijingers are used to being banned from sections of their city. So it comes as no great surprise to them that access to the Olympic Green – which dwarfs the Forbidden City – has been severely restricted with road blocks and fences cutting off access to all those without a ticket. CCTV cameras and guards reinforce the barriers to entry. At other Olympics, the Olympic Green has been a place for the general public to gather. It is an important place for sponsors, because it is where they spend money to advertise. They have complained that only about 40,000 people a day are passing through Beijing's Olympic Green, as opposed to the 200,000 they would expect….
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Yesterday I watched China Central Television highlights from the women's weightlifting. Over and again they replayed the failed attempts by weightlifters from other countries. When the foreign athletes stumbled or fell, the clip was played not once or twice, but several times. Eventually, China's gold medal winner was shown doing what no one else had managed to do. To China's leaders, it counts as a double success to have cleared the streets of security risks and to have people watching television at home. On television, error and success is not fleeting. The editing process can hone the message and send it again and again, and the message for the domestic audience is clear: China is a success, and the Olympics have shown the world that China is a success.