(The author is a council member of the China Foundation of International Studies)
The Chinese people have made meticulous preparations with utmost sincerity and commitment for the Olympic Games in Beijing. As China prepared for and now hosts the 29th Olympiad, the Olympic spirit has been spreading throughout the country, leaving a trace of splendor over all facets and layers of the Chinese society. It is safe to say the Beijing Olympics, while treating the rest of the world to a spectacular sports extravaganza, will leave the nation itself a rich spiritual legacy as well.
Fair and just competition is the core ethos of the Olympic movement and one of the core elements of the Olympic spirit. It maintains that competition must be based on equality and absolutely adheres to the principle of "no discrimination". And it strives to create the perfect arena for competitors to do their best.
Just competition, meanwhile, stands for following the Olympic goal and rules in conducting contests of physique, skill and intelligence with utmost honesty. Without principles and values such as "just competition" sporting activities will most likely turn into a stage for all kinds of dirty tricks and bad behavior, or a pitch for gang fights.
The Beijing Olympic Games helps the spirit of fair and just competition win broad recognition and spread across the country. I like to play the game of chess online but used to find my opponents resorting to "dirty tricks" when their games were doomed. Maybe someone wrote a program for such "rogue" players. Recently, however, I have noticed a marked improvement in the way the game is played. People are now playing fair and honest, win or lose, and no more dirty tricks.
The unique charm of a game lives on only when it is played the right way. That's why the Olympics is so great, because it convinces people to do the right thing, quite like a purifier cleaning up the air.
The spirit of fair and just competition is of special importance to China today. The nation is working hard to advance socialism with Chinese characteristics and develop a socialist market economy. In this process China needs to improve and standardize market order and rules while fine-tune the relationship between efficiency and fairness.
This process somewhat resembles the one in sports to realize "fair and just competition". It aims to ensure the society is full of vitality and competitiveness on the one hand and maintain a fair and just environment of competition on the other. The spread of and emersion in the Olympic spirit can help bring people to take part in various forms of social life and this promises to be an enormous boost to China's future development.
The Olympic goal of "peace, friendship and progress" is being spread nationwide and enthusiastically practiced as the Olympic Games proceeds in Beijing.
The situation in the South Ossetia region of Georgia suddenly turned worse as the Beijing Olympiad got underway. Fierce fighting broke out between Georgian and Russian peacekeeping forces, while athletes from the two countries exchanged "Olympic kisses" in Beijing. The Chinese media widely reported the heat-warming moment, which conveyed the athletes' yearning for peace loud and clear, and expressed the hope that the two sides call a sacred Olympic ceasefire immediately. The Olympic Games has reinforced the Chinese people's awareness of peace and sublimated it .
About 500,000 people, including athletes, journalists and tourists, have arrived in Beijing since the Olympic Games began. Many foreigners have come to get "up close and personal" with China as it really is. And they have been touched by the Chinese people's warmth and kindness.
An article published in Malaysia's Star newspaper says: "Some people may believe China is smiling only for the Olympic Games, but I think this is a people showing their warm, endearing and hospitable nature instinctively, because the confidence with which they face the world is getting stronger by the day."
Other foreign media's coverage of the Beijing Olympics so far has been relatively objective, rounded, positive and well-meaning. Smiles for smiles and goodwill for goodwill. It is called desirable interaction. Knowledge, understanding and goodwill form the foundation of friendship. And during the Beijing Olympic Games the friendship between China and other countries of the world has been reinforced.
In addition to that, the Beijing Olympiad aims to be a "green Olympics, people's Olympics and high-tech Olympics", a concept that has added a new platform for China's civil development and will serve as a beacon for the nation's future development and social progress.
The Beijing Olympic Games has won accolades from around the world and one of the important reasons is that China has really achieved marked social progress. At the same time, worldwide praise will also boost the Chinese people's confidence to "achieve greater progress". The Beijing Games will further prove that China's development and progress will benefit world peace and progress.
All in all, as China presents to the world a high-caliber Olympic Games with hard-to-miss Chinese characteristics, the Chinese people are also becoming more magnanimous and confident.