Beijing celebrates Olympic vote

Streams of Beijing's 13 million residents poured into the city center to join the celebrations

July 13, 2001
Web posted at: 4:46 PM EDT (2046 GMT)

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By Nic Hopkins
CNN Hong Kong Bureau

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Fireworks exploded overhead, firecrackers underfoot and thousands of red flags waved as Beijing celebrated the International Olympic Committee's decision to award it the 2008 Olympic Games.

Revelers crammed into Beijing's Tiananmen Square to await the announcement by outgoing IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in Moscow on Friday.

"I want to express the gratitude of the International Olympic Committee to all five candidate cities for their excellent work," Samaranch said.

Then, as people huddled around radios and mobile phones, Samaranch said the words China had been waiting to hear: "The games of the 29th Olympiad in 2008 are awarded to the city of Beijing".

VIDEO Watch the announcement and celebration in the streets of China (July 13) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Instantly, Tiananmen Square was awash with red flags and the din of thousands of cheers.

"Comrades! We express our deep thanks to all our friends around the world and to the IOC for helping to make Beijing successful in its Olympic bid," President Jiang Zemin shouted to the crowd after he and other members of the cabinet and Communist Party politburo appeared briefly on stage in Beijing.

"I hope the whole nation works hard along with residents of the capital city to stage successful 2008 Olympic Games. I also welcome our friends around the world to visit Beijing in 2008."

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Within moments, traditional lion and dragon dancers were weaving their way through police and revelers, and endless streams of Beijing's 13 million residents were pouring towards the city center from every direction on foot, in cars and on bicycles.

Beijing won the race for the 2008 Games at the second round of a secret IOC ballot, receiving 56 votes.

It defeated Toronto (22), Paris (18) and Istanbul (nine). Osaka was eliminated in the first round of voting, with six votes.

In 1993, Beijing lost its bid for the 2000 Games to Sydney, Australia, by two votes.

The 2008 Games will be the first to be held in China, the world's most populous nation with 1.3 billion people, and the first held in an Asian city since Seoul staged the 1988 Games.

Human rights were a clear factor in Beijing's loss in the race for the 2000 games, coming so soon after the massacre of students at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

This time, IOC delegates decided that awarding the 2008 games to Beijing would be a catalyst for faster reform in China.

Early international reaction to the decision was mixed, with some U.S. lawmakers expressing anger at the decision.

Democrat representative Tom Lantos, who introduced a bill in Congress opposing China's bid, denounced the selection of Beijing.

"It is an absolute outrage that the IOC has decided to reward China's deteriorating human rights record by giving Beijing the honor of hosting the Olympics," he said

U.S. President George W. Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the selection was purely "an IOC decision".

"What we do know is that American athletes are going to go there and they're going to compete and hopefully compete very well and bring home lots of gold medals," Rice said.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International, refusing to either welcome or condemn the decision, urged China to improve its human rights policies.

"Considering the escalation in serious and widespread human rights violations over the past three years, the Chinese authorities have a long way to go to demonstrate a healthy and basic respect for human rights," Amnesty said in a press statement.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily said the decision should both help promote democracy in China. "I believe that Beijing is a good choice with regards to sport and also politics," he said.

Beijing has committed nearly $22 billion for improvements to its infrastructure and environment in the lead-up to 2008.

The city's bid committee said more than 95 percent of Beijingers approved of the push to host the 2008 Games, giving it the highest support rating of all five bidding cities.

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