Beijing named as host of 2008 Olympics

Despite worldwide concern at China's record on human rights, the IOC decided to award the summer Olympics to the country with…

Beijing won the 2008 Olympic Games for the world's most populous nation today in an historic vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Despite worldwide concern at China's record on human rights, the IOC decided to award the summer Olympics to the country with one-fifth of the world's population.

Beijing, which lost the 2000 Games to Sydney by just two votes, defeated Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka. Osaka was eliminated in the first round with Beijing winning outright in the second round.

Olympic Celebrations in Beijing
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing (Center),
Beijing mayor Liu Qi (right) and the Head
of Chinese Olympic Committee Yuan Weimin
after the announcement.

The decision was announced by IOC president Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch who is stepping down after 21 years at the helm of the world's leading sports organisation.

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China has been criticised for jailing religious leaders and exactly one week ago the human rights group Amnesty International released figures showing 1,781 people had been executed in the past three months.

"It is a terrible irony that as the Chinese authorities have campaigned to host the 2008 Olympics, repression and injustice have escalated in the country," said Mr Richard Bunting of Amnesty.

He also said the decision was contrary to the Olympic Charter's principles of the preservation of human dignity and respect.

Yesterday, bid organisers dealt unflinchingly with a series of questions about human rights at a news conference and promised full media freedom in 2008.

"I think we will give the media complete freedom to report when they come to China," Mr Wang Wei, secretary-general of the Beijing bid committee, told a news conference.

IOC vice-president Mr Dick Pound, a candidate to take over from outgoing Samaranch when the IOC votes on Monday, welcomed the decision.

Mr Pound said members had been a little uneasy in 1993 because of the Tiananmen Square massacre four years earlier. The Chinese have since dropped a controversial plan to hold beach volleyball in the square.

Tibetan demonstrators had staged a series of protests in Moscow this week.

Tibet's government-in-exile condemned the decision to award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing, saying the move gave an "international stamp of approval" to China's human rights violations.