Chinese authorities are promising a cleaner, greener and a culturally vibrant Beijing.

The 2004 Athens Olympics ended with a resonant applause echoing in the closing ceremony. The next step is preparing China’s for the next Olympic games in 2008.

On July 13 of last year, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Games to Beijing, China’s capital city. Since then, organizers have vowed to transform the city from “gray” to “green” and started working on many of the city’s infrastructures, especially the public transportation system. Communist Party Secretary Jia Qinglin said the Chinese government wants to have the most outstanding Olympic Games with the highest standard of quality.

The Forbidden City — the pride and icon of Beijing — was once home to emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the late Ming dynasty, there was a peasant uprising, and it was at the Forbidden City that the head of the uprising assumed his throne as Emperor — but he was overthrown in 49 days.

The Forbidden City has also seen its fair share of love affairs and tragedies played out in its halls. With such a colorful history, the race is on to restore the landmark for the Olympic Games in 2008, when visitors are expected to flow in from all over the world.

At the Forbidden City, the facelift of the walls, stairways, and doors of the palace are undergoing heavy restoration. The work has proven to be highly challenging, given the difficulty, among other things, of finding the right type of materials. During the Ming dynasty, the palace was built using a specific type of wood known as nan wood. But from the Qing dynasty onwards, this type of wood could not be found, and pinewood had been used instead.

On the battle against air pollution, Beijing authorities have pledged to put more natural gas-driven buses on the streets. But as such buses require special fuel stations that are found only in specific parts of Beijing, they will comprise less than 20 percent of the total fleet. Other measures to tackle air pollution have been adopted, such as closing down or relocating factories guilty of polluting the environment — all to ensure that by 2008 the skies in Beijing will be cleaner and fresher.

Despite the excitement in the country, some are critical. One criticism shows that human rights are still an issue in China. The city government has been criticized for overpowering the city’s poor in order to build Olympic venues and roads. The government has been using Olympic preparations as a reason to demolish rundown buildings and improve its transportation system.

Another criticism reflects an old undesirable Chinese trait – keen on saving face. Critics question why the city government did not try hard to improve the air quality of the city, improve the water quality in its river, and rebuild sections of its old city wall until now knowing that it was elected as the host country for these international games.

To conclude, I would like to use a Chinese adage to echo this criticism, is “to embrace Buddha’s feet in one’s hour of need.”

Chen Cheng Huan is a graduate student from Taiwan.

#1.885977:1485454734.jpg:henry photo.jpg:Chen Cheng Huan:

The 2004 Taiwan presidential election ended in the worst possible way – thousands marched to the presidential office demanding a recount after President Chen Shui-Bian won in a narrow re-election on March 20.

The assassination attempt on incumbent Taiwanese President Chen Sui-bian, the day before his re-election, was only the beginning of the country’s political turmoil.

Chen, who’s rocked the boat for years with his aggressively independent stance against China, won the election by a slim 30,000 votes, a margin of just 0.2 percent.

The margin seemed even smaller when election officials revealed that 300,000 ballots were “spoiled” in voting.

Chen’s opponent, Kuomintang (KMT) Party candidate Lien Chan, called for a recount, the country’s high court sealed the ballot boxes, and thousands of KMT protestors occupied the streets outside the presidential palace.

A similar script played out in America four years ago over the vote recount in Florida, but, regardless, the two bear little resemblance.

As an overseas student from Taiwan, I have witnessed the transit of the nation from an authoritarian regime into a more liberal one.

After the abandon of Martial Law in 1987, which was a turning point for becoming a democracy, Taiwan has shifted to a democratic and multiparty country.

People now have tremendous freedom and the power to choose their ideal government and political leader under an electoral system similar to the one in the United States.

However, to expect Taiwan’s democracy to be like the one in the United States is unrealistic.

For one thing, the age of Taiwan’s democracy is short compared to the United States, which has struggled through more than two hundred years to learn the meaning of the word.

For another, even many in the United States fail to recognize that it is the faith of God, not the political system, that has held people together during the tumultuous election and has served as the stable force of the country’s peace and democracy.

In Taiwan, group identification remains a problem. It can be easily observed during elections.

Negative campaign propaganda and slanderous attacks between party members and supporters indicate Taiwan is still far from transforming into a full-fledged member of the world’s democracies.

Some people in Taiwan claim to be native Taiwanese just because their ancestors had moved to the island earlier than those who moved after the 1949 defeat of the National Party in mainland China. They do not like to be called Chinese and they hate to see any possible reunion between Taiwan and mainland China.

Undoubtedly, they have the right to prefer that Taiwan remains an independent country apart from China, to voice what they want and how they feel about the status quo of the country.

The sad thing is, because of their lack of education and open-mindedness they tend to allow their emotions to overcome their logic.

Thus, they easily fall into the hands of the deceitful politicians who will do anything, even create an ethnic schism among people, to gain and secure power.

Three days after the disputed presidential election, the capital city was all but paralyzed by supporters of the losing side protesting alleged irregularities in voting and demanding a recount.

Both KMT and DPP parties, while agreeing in principle on a recount, were wrangling over how to organize it, how long it would take and who would do it.

The law is silent. There has never been a national recount.

The crisis has put Taiwan’s democracy in question.

Before the election, KMT candidate Lien Chan was seen as a favorite, mainly because his party seemed to offer the hope of stability and less contentious relations with the mainland.

President Chen, on the other hand, appeared to have lost ground. His DPP had won some support for its nationalist policies and insistence on distancing itself from Beijing.

International observers, however, had questioned the wisdom of provoking the mainland.

For years China’s official position has been that it will go to war rather than permit what it considers a rebellious province to declare independence. It would be na