The Economist, for it's "The World in 2008" supplement, has got round to examining the politically charged nature of the upcoming Beijing Olympics:

In the build-up to the games on August 8th [China's critics] will step up their attacks on issues ranging from China’s human-rights record to the status of Tibet and Taiwan. It will be the most politically contentious Olympics since Moscow staged the games in 1980, not long after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Foreign activists and Chinese citizens overseas with axes to grind will flock to Beijing to try to stage public protests. If mishandled by the Chinese police (who have been instructed to stop demonstrations as politely as possible), these incidents could seriously embarrass the hosts, multinational companies sponsoring the games and foreign dignitaries.

Patriotic fervour and a surging economy will help to keep a lid on unrest by domestic malcontents. But China’s security forces will be vigilant. An unexpected bout of food-price inflation in 2007, which looks likely to continue in 2008, will anger the urban poor. Some of Beijing’s political dissidents will take advantage of the spotlight on China to highlight their grievances.

***

A successful Olympics will give the party a bit more of a swagger, but success will depend on curbing its instinct to lash out at its critics.

The conclusion directly above is one that Imagethief and most PR-minded observers agree with. No amount of protests or activism will ruin the Games. Only China itself can do that, by over-reacting to the inevitable protests and criticism. We'll see how well that lesson has sunk in by opening day. The problem is that it has to sink in not just at the central government or BOCOG level, but everywhere, as August's RSF protest fiasco demonstrated.

However, it turns out it's not just the big, brand-name issues that will be using the Olympics as a platform to air their grievances. This afternoon, Imagethief stumbled upon three of his Chinese team members huddled around a computer watching a video on video sharing site Tudou. The video, shot on someone's mobile phone, was from yesterday's Friday's press conference to announce the re-branding of CCTV's sports station as "CCTV Olympic". Hu Ziwei, the wife of famous CCTV Sports anchor Zhang Bin had crashed the press conference and seized the podium from her husband and was loudly denouncing him for having an affair, right there in front of the assembled media and a lovely backdrop of the Olympic rings.

Mainstream reports, needless to say, have managed to gloss over this little episode, but the Tudou video has over 300,000 views as of this writing. A copy on nanny-proof YouTube has a further 128,000 views. Global Voices blogger John Kennedy has done a masterful job documenting the episode and providing a translation of the incendiary comments. (Update: New version on YouTube is subtitled for your convenience.)

It just goes to show what a lovely target those gleaming rings make. It also demonstrates nicely that, no matter how China tries to control Olympic related news and imagery, anyone with a cell-phone will be a journalist come August.

Scandal 

Move along. Nothing to see here except a jilted wife
airing it all out on national television in front of the
Olympic rings.

See also:

A related article from the same Economist supplement: China's Great Game.

Previously on Imagethief:

Did the "Genocide Olympics" influence China? (May, 2007)

Bang! China shoots its own Olympic PR in the foot (August, 2007)

Updates:

YouTube version of the video with English subtitles

Inevitable international coverage from uppity foreign media determined to embarrass China