We, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at BYU, representing the voices of over 200 Chinese students and scholars across the BYU campus, solemnly write in response to the editorial "Beijing Olympics: The Bigger Problem" that appeared in the May 1 issue of the Daily Universe. This article severely insulted and damaged the dignity of our country and our local Chinese community. As President Bush commented that the Olympics are about athletics not politics, we strongly believe that it is not appropriate to use political issues against Beijing's credibility to host the games. Talking about political issues alone, we can not agree with several key points in the article. In order to disabuse the public mind and make the truth known about China, we present facts in this article in hope to repair the injuries placed upon us.
The author of the aforementioned article criticized our country as being a country that doesn't allow the freedom to travel and speech by saying, "Why honor the nation whose citizens aren't free to travel without restrictions or speak freely without fear of imprisonment or death?" This radical view was simply misleading and wrong. According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Chapter II, section 35, "Citizens of the People's Republic of China have the freedom of speech, press, assembly, organization, parade, and demonstration." In section 37, it clearly states that "The freedom of movement of the citizens of the People's Republic of China shall not be abridged" (A complete version is published on the official news.xinhuanet.com). Chinese citizens are legally and practically free to travel within the country. Chinese citizens are also free to travel abroad when they obtain visas from the destination country. To be short, that is how we come to study in this country and that's how the 3.6 million Chinese people come to this country.
Chinese citizens have the freedom to express their opinions and even against the government decisions. The recent peaceful demonstration by the people in Xia Men in June 2007 is a perfect example of this. The government's intention to construct a xylene (PX, a toxic chemical) production complex brought thousands of Chinese citizens onto the street to parade, demonstrate and protest. As a result of this protest, the government decided to abandon the construction plan of the PX factory on December 19 in that year.
The author of the previous article attacked our government on its Relocation Program, saying that "1.5 million Chinese citizens will be displaced to hold the games. Approximately 300,000 will be evicted..." We investigated and never found such reports. If these reports did exist, they distorted the truth. The Beijing's Relocation Program involves the relocation of 6,037 households, according to the official news release by the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games Committee. Construction-related relocations complied with the local laws and regulations. Relocated families and individuals gave their consent to relocate and they were provided with compensated housings.
We admit that Beijing faces pollution problems. However, Beijing is aware of this problem and has spent nearly $17 billion to improve its air quality. We all know that the process of environmental improvement is a gradual process that cannot be accomplished within days. But evidently, Beijing is trying and has been trying very hard.
The author also criticized the Chinese animal meats that contain excessive steroids. To such a discussion, we have a simple question: if this problem was so serious, why are Chinese athletes tested steroid negative in all world-wide sport events?
The author asked again and again in the article, why pick Beijing? We want to ask the author, why not Beijing? Why not give Beijing a chance and give Chinese people a chance? We, as a society, support Beijing's honor to host the 2008 Olympics. Why pick Beijing to host the games? To simply put it, the world chose it.
This viewpoint submitted by Weichun Yang, Hao Bo Dong, Liang Sun, Bing Ma, Changna Wang, Dianliang Geng, Fei Zhao, Jie Xuan, Yun Li, Lori Qian, Miao Wang, Miaotian Xie, Shenglou Deng, Xiangtian Long, Xin Chen, Xingang Zhang, Xiuhua Sun, Xueyuan Zhou, Yan Fang, Yan Shi, Yang Liu, Yanli Geng, Yanshu Feng, Yin Zhang, Ying Peng, Yong Wang, Yubo Li, Yuanyuan Li, Zhaoyi Wei, Zhiming (William) Qian, and Zhuo Zang.
Editor's note:The estimate in the previous article of 300,000 citizens being evicted or displaced in Beijing was drawn from a report by the TimesOnline and the Reuters Foundation.
