Chinese dissident tipped to win Nobel peace prize

From Guardian Unlimited

This year’s Nobel peace prize could be awarded to a Chinese dissident to highlight China’s human rights record in the wake of the Olympic Games, according to experts who closely follow the workings of the award.

A likely candidate to receive the prize, the winner of which will be announced on October 10 in Oslo, is Hu Jia, a Chinese activist who has campaigned on democracy, the environment and the rights of HIV/Aids patients. Hu is serving three-and-a-half years in jail for “inciting to subvert state power”.

Mixed legacy likely as China’s Olympics conclude

From The Associated Press
By David Crary

With help from British star power, China concluded its debut as Olympic host Sunday after 16 days of near-flawless logistics and superlative athletic achievement – coexisting awkwardly with the government’s wariness of dissent and free speech.

A spectacular closing ceremony opened with torrents of fireworks and included a pulsating show-within-a-show by London, host of the 2012 Games. From a stage formed from a red double-decker bus, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page played classic rock hit “Whole Lotta Love” and soccer icon David Beckham booted a ball into the surrounding throng of athletes on the stadium floor.

Olympic Sponsors & China Nervous as Protester Returns to US

Updated video news about 1 of 5 protesters who unfurled a Free Tibet banner in Beijing.

Age of Chinese gymnasts investigated

From CNN

The International Olympic Committee has asked gymnastics officials to look into whether China’s women’s gymnastics team used underaged competitors, an IOC spokeswoman said Friday.
China’s He Kexin kisses her gold medal last week after winning the Olympic women’s uneven bars.

The committee asked the International Gymnastics Federation to clarify the situation, said spokeswoman Giselle Davis. She said she wouldn’t call it a formal investigation.

Chewing the Buddha: Bush at the Olympics

Thanks to Kevin for bring this article to my attention!

From Tricycle.com
By Greg Palast

The detective, dressed in her business suit and pumps appropriate to urban Lhasa, did not expect to be trailing my wife and me up the steep hillside to a monastery 15,000 feet up an ice-crusted ridge. Even at 200 yards behind us, I could see her shivering in the thin, frozen air, trying, absurdly, to look like just another hiker on the barren slope.

But then, she really wasn’t trying to hide. Her presence was meant to send a message of fear and intimidation.

iTunes blocked in China after protest stunt

From The Age
by Stephen Hutcheon

Access to Apple’s online iTunes Store has been blocked in China after it emerged that Olympic athletes have been downloading and possibly listening to a pro-Tibetan music album in a subtle act of protest against China’s rule over the province.

The album, called Songs for Tibet, was produced by an a group called The Art of Peace Foundation, and features 20 tracks from well-known singers and songwriters including Sting, Moby, Suzanne Vega and Alanis Morissette.

Five US activists detained after lighting up “Free Tibet” LED Throwies banner near Olympics site

Found this article via The Worst Horse from Boing Boing

An update on the pro-Tibet tech-art protests happening in Beijing: Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) tells Boing Boing that a group of five pro-Tibet activists displayed an LED Throwie Banner near the Olympics site in Beijing. The protesters, all of whom are US nationals, were promptly detained by Chinese authorities.

From SFT, via email to BB:

This was inspired by GRL’s “Throwies” project, and the building and implementation of this was done by a complete separate group of Tibet activitists. They combined a traditional protest banner with over five hundred throwie lights and batteries sewn and taped onto the banner.

China nixes all Olympic protest requests

From The Associated Press
By Audra Ang

Chinese authorities have not approved any of the 77 applications they received from people who wanted to hold protests during the Beijing Olympics, state media reported Monday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said all the applications were withdrawn, suspended or rejected. Rights groups and relatives have said some applicants were immediately taken away by security agents after applying to hold a rally, prompting critics to accuse officials of using the plan as a trap to draw potential protesters to their attention.

More fakery at Olympic opening

From AFP

Children from China’s dominant Han population represented Tibetan and other ethnic groups in a key part of the Olympics opening ceremony, an official said in comments published today.

If confirmed, it would be the third faking incident of the ceremony, after it was revealed a girl was substituted as a singer because she was deemed too ugly, and supposedly live fireworks on the TV broadcast were pre-recorded.