Chinese `deeply shocked' by scandal

China, which lost the 2000 Olympic Games to Sydney by two votes in 1993, stopped short yesterday of saying "we were robbed," in the wake of this week's revelations of inducements offered to International Olympic Committee members before the vote.

Anger in Beijing has been simmering since it was revealed that Australia's Olympic Committee president John Coates promised two International Olympic Committee members $35,000 each for their national Olympic committees the night before the vote which gave the games to Sydney by 45 votes to 43.

The Chinese Olympic Committee said yesterday in a statement that it was "deeply shocked" at the corruption scandals in Salt Lake City and Sydney. It called for an investigation and prosecutions.

A report in the Beijing Daily pointedly reported Manchester's threat to seek compensation from the IOC for the cost of the failed English bid to host the 2000 Games in light of the bribery allegations, and demands for Sydney to be penalised for interfering with the bidding process.

But the Beijing Olympic committee accepted yesterday that nothing could or should be done now to try to reverse the decisions which gave victories to Sydney and Salt Lake City.

"They have already devoted considerable manpower and financial resources to the Games and the two cities shouldn't suffer losses and be hurt by the behaviour of a few people," it said.

China is lobbying for the right to hold the games in Beijing in 2008 and may have decided that it is a wise tactic to avoid recriminations, given the controversy which surrounded its own bid for the 2000 Games, and the likely opposition from human rights groups to its campaign for 2008.

Winning the right to stage the 2000 Olympics was given top priority by the Chinese Communist Party leadership, partly to restore the nation's international prestige after the bloody crackdown on student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square four years earlier. When the International Olympic Committee, headed by Juan Antonio Samaranch, toured Olympic facilities in Beijing on March 7th, 1993, factories were shut down and householders ordered to put out coal-burning stoves so the inspectors would not experience typical Beijing pollution.

Electricity was cut to outlying parts of the city to ensure there were no blackouts, according to foreign news reports, and homeless people and beggars were banned from the streets - a common practice on important occasions - in a heavy-handed operation.

China also released top dissident Wei Jingsheng in an apparent effort to mollify human rights critics before the vote; he was arrested and jailed again less than a year after the bid failed. The narrow defeat was a major national humiliation for China and is still felt today.

"Millions of ordinary people are deeply shocked in their hearts at the actions of mean people who resort to petty tricks under the name of justice and fairness," said one newspaper report yesterday.

Another carried outraged comments received from citizens over the Internet. One said: "If China has done nothing to be ashamed of in bidding for the 2000 Olympics, it should seek compensation."

Another suggested boycotting the Australian Games. A third fulminated that there was a precedent for cancelling the Games when regulations were violated and ended with the words "Chinese people, lets demand our rights." This month the Chinese Olympic Committee approved an application by Beijing to bid for the 2008 Summer Games.

The Chinese capital will face tough competition from Buenos Aires, Paris, Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, Osaka and Seville. The winner will be announced in June 2001.