As Beijing Olympics Approach, Questions Abound about How China Will Handle Protests

BEIJING — If you're planning to visit China for next year's Summer Olympics, you may be wondering what to pack – or even if you'll get a visa.

Last month, the Washington-based Catholic News Agency reported that Bibles would be prohibited in housing for thousands of foreign athletes. A few days later, a group in Texas said Beijing would refuse visas to activists and other possible protesters.

Beijing officials have denied both claims, but next year's Games will be the first in a nondemocratic country since the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics and organizers admit they will limit some freedoms.

For example, a recently published list of items banned at the Games includes "Printed matters... which are harmful to the political, economic, cultural and moral interests of China."

For Chinese, such restrictions are nothing new. China's government prohibits stores from selling a long list of books and movies including almost anything critical of the ruling Communist Party or about sensitive history.

Religious texts not vetted by China's officially atheistic government, which manages all publishing houses in China, are also banned.

A September report by the U.S. State Department said China continues to repress religious freedoms. Among other things, Chinese officials have recently interrogated Christians worshiping in unofficial churches about "connections with foreigners and potential plans to disrupt the 2008 Olympic Games," the report said.

Beijing has tried to downplay the restrictions. Last month, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao called reports that Bibles would be banned in the Olympic village "sheer rumors."

Sun Weide, a spokesman for Beijing's Olympic organizing committee, said athletes and visitors will be allowed to bring religious texts into China as long as the books are not disseminated.

Officials have also denied reports that they will monitor journalists covering the Olympics. Reports that Beijing was compiling information about 28,000 journalists expected at the Games "have been confirmed to be mistaken and groundless," Sun said this week.

Beijing officials have been less clear, however, about how they will handle protests during the Games.

Some 500,000 foreigners are expected to visit China during the Olympics. Groups will highlight concerns ranging from China's repression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, a grassroots organization that Beijing has branded an "evil cult," to China's long occupation of the Himalayan nation of Tibet, which was invaded by Communist-led forces in 1951.

In a prelude to likely protests, several foreign activists last August hung a 4,800-square-foot banner from the Great Wall that read "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008."

"The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ask China for better respect of fundamental norms and principles, including human rights," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for the nonprofit Human Rights Watch.

Both Beijing and the International Olympic Committee, however, have repeated opposition to political action at the Games.

"There should be an understanding, and usually there always is, that (the Olympics) is a sports event... and it's not a platform for making statements, be they political or commercial or whatever else," said Giselle Davies, chief spokesperson for the IOC.

She pointed out that the organization's charter bans demonstrations or "political, religious or racial propaganda" at Olympic venues.

But determining what constitutes a demonstration is difficult. Asked if wearing a "Free Tibet" T-shirt would be considered a punishable offense, Beijing Olympic organizing committee spokesman Sun said it would be while Davies suggested it would not be unless "a bloc of people all want to stand up" wearing the same shirts.

For athletes, the question is also murky. For example, competitors can address politics in response to questions from the media. But they might be penalized for making independent statements, as U.S. speedskater Joey Cheek did when he spoke about the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan after winning a gold medal in 2006. (He was not punished.)

If athletes make political gestures while receiving medals – as U.S. runners Tommy Smith and John Carlos did by raising clenched fists in support of the Black Power Movement during the 1968 Summer Games – they also might be punished, Davies said.

Outside of sports venues, Beijing is likely to ban all demonstrations. Officials have said any protest would have to be approved by the government, which rarely grants such permission.

Activists also worry that China simply might refuse to give them visas.

The China Aid Association, a Midland, Texas-based group advocating for greater religious freedom in China, said last month that Beijing planned to block entry to several categories of people including "adherents of Falun Gong," and "media employees who can harm the Olympic Games."

"I do know there are some organizations that are planning to maximize the opportunity of the Olympics to push for more freedoms," said Bob Fu, the group's director. "Beijing's intention is to block people who will protest."

Olympic organizing committee spokesman Sun said he had not heard of any effort to stop protesters from entering Beijing.

"We welcome all the international visitors to come to China to watch the Olympic Games, but we hope that all international visitors will abide by the relevant Chinese laws and regulations," he said.

For foreign journalists, the situation improved in January when Beijing rescinded rules requiring reporters to apply for permission to travel and conduct interviews.

However, advocacy groups have noted that Beijing has tightened restrictions on Chinese reporters.

"It is becoming clearer and clearer that the organizers of the Beijing Olympics and the Chinese security apparatus have decided to control journalists very closely before and during the games," Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said in a September press release.

But on Thursday, a Chinese official hinted that the easing of rules limiting journalists' travel and interviews could be extended past the Games.

"If practices show that it will help the international community know better about China, and it is in the interests of China's efforts of reform and opening up, it is not at all necessary for us to change a good policy," Cai Wu, minister of the State Council Information Office, said during an end-of-the-year news conference.