Beijing Olympics and Governance: Eyes partially open?

The Russian invasion of Georgia, the leadership and human rights crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur, the coup in Mauritania, and even corruption in sports were some of the disparate problems touched in my last blog entry -- challenges which did not get any better over the past few days while medals continue to accumulate in Beijing. 

 

And I was not even trying to be exhaustive, so I did not mention other troubled spots right now, such as the hundreds killed in the ongoing and growing Pakistan-Taliban conflict in the Afghan border. Given how dire these current conflicts are, I was making a case for keeping our eyes wide open around the world, rejecting the notion that good governance can take a holiday at the time of the Olympics.

 

I also gave accolades to the opening ceremony of the Games, attesting to the Chinese authorities’ organizational capabilities. As we also know from countless reports, this has been engineered under a tightly controlled system. Such controls may be a metaphor for the broader and more complex country reality. One which is incredibly rich in history, tradition, accomplishments, and also in contrasts: take the impressive achievements in economic management over the past 30 years, on the one hand, contrasting the pending governance challenges ahead, in areas such as freedom of expression, political contestability and control of corruption, on the other. 

 

Of course, only the Chinese can and will determine what the reform priorities and model will be, and how to go about them, tailored to their own reality. Yet to this analyst it is evident that to have sustained and shared growth in the longer term will require addressing these pending governance challenges. Traditional trade policies and sound macro-economic management will not suffice.

 

Such contrast is evident when we look at the various components of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI), for instance. Among over 150 emerging economies, China now rates among the top 35 in Government (and Bureaucratic) Effectiveness. Related to it, its macro-economic management has been stellar, which, together with its long heralded economic and trade opening up in recent decades, have propelled an impressive growth engine. By sharp contrast, China does not rate well on Control of Corruption, with roughly 90 emerging economies rating above China, and 63 others rating below. And China rates very low on ‘Voice & Accountability’ -- the governance indicator capturing civil and political liberties and freedom of expression (including of the media).     

 But there may be room for hope on governance improvements. With the advent of the Beijing Olympics, there was the expectation that the media may be able to operate in China in a less constrained fashion than usual, but some observers point out that such increased media openness applies in particular to foreign outlets, and may not be long-lived (see here and here).  And, as committed bloggers, we also want to know what the current status of official interference and censorship of the web and blogs really is.  Just before the start of the Games, reporters decried the blocking of sites such as Amnesty International. Now it appears that there is access to this website and some others at the Games’ media center (as well as other areas of Beijing), yet other sites remain blocked.

 

And the IOC and the Chinese government had stated that there would be unrestricted internet access during the Games. But then Reuters quoted the IOC’s press chief: “I regret that it now appears [that the Chinese authorities] have announced that there will be limitations on website access during Games time….[I] understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related.” 

 

Clearly, this is all is still being played out; it is not clear cut but rather complicated. More to follow in a future blog entry.