[Editorial] Beijing Olympics Has Already Begun

They did well. As the women’s handball players’ fighting spirit showed, our national players did their best. Given the current level of this country’s national might, their ninth place ranking in the Olympics is admirable. This is the results of their quiet efforts amid politics, which failed its role, and the economy, which is too grim to show a way out. We all need to learn from them.

It is not time to loosen our shoelaces yet. This is because the Beijing Olympics 2008 is awaiting us. How many medals we will win is important. However, we should consider ways to respond to soaring Chinese nationalism and hegemony. We should bring up national might and posturing to beat them in sports and to remain formidable diplomatically and politically.

China has big expectations for its Olympics. Following the Olympiad, it will hold a world fair in Shanghai in 2010. t believes it will be the largest economy of the world by then with a GDP of $2 trillion. China projects that with high-speed economic growth of 8-10 percent annually in the next three decades, it will surpass the U.S. by the middle of the century. China is too ambitious to compare with Korea and Japan, which skipped several development stages by hosting the Olympics in 1988 and 1964, respectively.

The Beijing Olympics can translate into opportunity for us. When Beijing was selected as the venue for the games three years ago, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said thanks to a boom in Beijing, the nation’s economy will solidly grow by eight percent a year. However, we cannot ignore concerns that the narrowing technological gap between two countries means we will be caught up with by the Chinese before enjoying the Beijing boom. We should turn these concerns into opportunities.

It is expected that China will take a flexible posture toward issues on the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan to guarantee the success of its Olympics. This is fortunate. Their flexible posture is reportedly to counter talks of a boycott of the games over human rights issues. By taking advantage of it, we should secure advantageous ground for the dispute between the two countries over the history of the ancient kingdom Goguryeo. We cannot go to the Beijing games without defending our own national history.

With the Olympic torch extinguished, the world has returned to its daily routines. However, the Beijing Olympics has already begun.