Sina.com.cn online poll: French president “not wanted” at Olympics

President Sarkozy had considered pulling out of the opening ceremony of the Games. His deliberations were connected to the way the talks between China’s government and the Dalai Lama would work. If an online poll by Sina.com.cn has it right (there is some likelihood that it has), the French president is “not welcome” at the opening ceremony.

Terrible blow. The Chinese nation doesn’t like him. That said, who cares?

Imagine Sarkozy would choose to attend the ceremony. Would the Chinese leadership draw his attention to the poll and tell him to stay away? And if so, how would the IOC and the global public react?

If Sarkozy was barred, this would mean that the CCP actually gives more than a damn on how “ordinary people” feel. It would take real big riots to keep the French president out of Beijing.

The tourism boycott that is said to be in operation against France does cause losses (and should be replied to with economic sanctions by the EU, if it turns out to be real). But the opinion poll is just a nice piece of propaganda (with the voting netizens playing the rule role of useful idiots). And it probably only works inside China. Internationally, it is just another piece of weird news.

Blog Identity Crisis

Neglecting Haimhaia

justrecently.wordpress.com has some readers. Haimhaia, its Chinese-language sister, has none. I may still use it to post some of my Chinese exercises there, and to experiment, but not to write posts both in Chinese and English. Apart from the fact that it takes me much longer to write (even inaccurately) in Chinese than in English, I can’t use Chinese characters from wherever I’m blogging. I often use internet cafes along the way when travelling, and most of them don’t offer Chinese writing software.

Olympics as a Topic

It’s a boring topic. If there are Chinese officials and people like you and – no, not me – who think of the Olympic Games as some kind of national penis enlargement, that’s their problem, not mine. There may be side effects like new visa rules, but they don’t affect me directly, and besides, only time will show if the new rules are olympics-related, or long-term measures. Also, what should become of this cool blog after the Olympics? Please consider it China-related, but not Olympics-related. That said, I might still lose a word or another about the Olympics.

OK. Blog identity crisis solved. Don’t be afraid. Justrecently’s Little Press Review, Hermit’s Children’s programme etc. will always be with you. Yongyuan bu likai nimen.