Foreign Correspondence: Beijing Olympics

(I’m writing this one week later, safely from my so-not-police-state home of Toronto. A 3-part series on my Olympic security pitfalls.)

Foreign Correspondence: Beijing Olympics

There seemed to have been some debate over the listserv about if the Chinese government is using the Games as a way to strengthen its control over its subjects and is brainwashing them into ultra-patriotism, or if they’re making slow but good progress towards a more open society due to IOC demands, and if ordinary Beijing people are just out to have a good time. My personal first-hand opinion: a lot from column A, a lot from column B.

PART ONE: Border Detention Begins

I’d crossed the Chinese-Mongolian desert border 5 times previously over the last several years, always crammed into a jeep trying to get through the checkpoints and run over all the other jeeps as quickly as possible – always fun. The last time was just 2 months ago on my way to my internship. The worst scenario until now had been the power going out at the Chinese checkpoint a couple of years ago and being stuck in no-man’s-land between the two borders for 8.5 hours – we found ways of making that fun too.

Well, last week, I got out of Mongolia all right, but as soon as my foreign self set foot in the Chinese border building, I was immediately taken to a “special checking” room, where a very courteous border guard asked me to take EVERYTHING out of all of my bags (“don’t worry, the floor is clean!”) He flipped through every one of my books, checked every piece of underwear, and took a special liking to all the DVDs I had. Of course then came the expected questions about why I was going to Beijing, can I show them my Olympics ticket, my address at my friend’s house, my flight ticket home, etc. He flipped through my camera, but probably got bored of photos of Mongolian tree species and my director’s grandchildren. He didn’t check my laptop too much, just to see that it’s a real one and not a sneaky bomb. All the while, he was very nice and sweet and apologetic about how it’s Olympic time, and they have to do all this, and he hopes I can understand, and so on. Very weird combination of authoritarianism and considerate kindness.

But in the meantime, the dedicated DVD-inspector guard was hard at work at his computer checking all my files and videos. Suddenly, I get called over to see a BBC story about anti-American terrorism. “What’s this?” they ask. “I dunno.” I had honestly never seen this video before and was very confused. Then I clued in that it had been included as part of an anti-boredom-in-the-countryside video package generously given to me by a certain Mongolian classmate of ours :) I’d seen the excerpts from Ewan McGregor’s round the world motorcycle trip, the Discovery Channel version of Chinggis Khan’s conquest, the love story behind the Taj Mahal… But I hadn’t gotten around to this particular gem about Mr. bin Laden, et al.

Well, then the fun questions started: 1) What country was this made in? (Well, they speak with British accents, so I guess Britain), 2) Do you know this guy?, pointing to Osama. (Of course I know him, everybody does!) 3) Where did you get this? (From a friend of mine in Toronto), 4) What is your friend’s profession? (shrug, I dunno), 5) How do you know her? (We went to school together), 6) What did you study? (International development), 7) What’s that? (sigh...), 8) What was your friend’s profession before this school? (shrug, I dunno. Wasn’t about to mention the UNDP). Well, this guy was getting nowhere with me, so they decided to turn the investigation up a notch.

NEXT TIME:
The Chinese border officials have to call in a special agent to deal with me and my video, and with IPMP!