Beijing Olympics: What Impact Will They Have on China’s Internet Access?

The issue of the “Great Firewall of China” is nothing new, but it becomes an issue when you have legions of foreign journalists and tourists arriving for the Summer Olympics this summer in Beijing. The Olympic organizing committee expects 20,000 foreign press members alone to arrive in a country where the Internet is locked down, stripped of most foreign news sites, links to human rights groups, and anything the government deems “subversive.”

Wang Hui, head of media relations for the organizing committee, said that discussions are currently underway to determine what restrictions might be lifted, and for whom they would be lifted. China gave wider reporting freedoms to foreign journalists in 2007, but didn't extend those same freedom to any of their domestic reporters.

China's performance on the world stage for the Olympics will be viewed by the entire world to see how things are handled, from media to tourists to the athletes themselves. The government is best known for demanding user data for dissidents, and foreign companies operating in the Internet space in China have been notorious for rolling over when the government gives the command. Human rights groups like Human Rights Watch haven't called for a boycott of the Olympics, but rather, for the Olympics to provide the impetus for the Chinese government to end oppression, and report that the government's provision of additional freedoms to foreign journalists were in name only.

The Olympics have been used as a platform for change in the past, most noticeably for South Korea in 1988, and with any luck, not only will they help free the flow of online information, but might extend elsewhere in the region, such as Myanmar.

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