每日电讯报 北京奥运感受到热度

中国人对明年奥运门票的需求是压倒性的，这是对拿下全世界最盛大的体育盛事的无比自豪的最新表现。

　　北京2008年之于中国相当于东京1964之于日本，首尔1988之于韩国，这是惊人成功的东亚经济体展示它已经到来的机会。

　　在2000年，北京差点就拿到这个机会（以两票之差败给悉尼），那时候龙的影响力已经是全球性的了，它在发展中国家寻求原材料，它削弱先进经济体的商业。

　　在开支和赢得的金牌方面，中国人将比日韩两位东亚先行者更大手笔。中国对西方列强和日本势力在十九和二十世纪给它造成的耻辱仍然敏感，对这样一个国家来说，那（奥运）是一个可理解的自豪感来源。

　　然而，正如伦敦所发现的，通往奥运光荣的道路充满了障碍。首先是庞大的开支。在2001年赢得奥运举办权的时候，北京就承诺在运动设施和基础设施上支出200亿美元。这个数字已经翻了一番。

　　然后是环境污染的问题。北京承诺在奥运期间关闭（污染的）罪魁，但他们对这种减少收入的方式并不积极。

　　最后，可能在世界媒体目光下遭遇尴尬的抗议示威。

　　在公开场合，政治局委员将继续宣扬2008年奥运是一个展示中国的全球卓越性的迟来的机会。私底下，他们很可能祈祷他们可以成功地举办从前一套领导班子那里继承过来的盛事，而不会遭遇重大的尴尬。

Beijing Olympics feels the heat

The overwhelming Chinese demand for tickets for next year's Olympic Games is but the latest manifestation of immense pride at capturing the world's greatest sporting event.

Beijing 2008 will be to China what Tokyo 1964 was to Japan and Seoul 1988 to South Korea, the chance for a phenomenally successful East Asian economy to show that it has arrived.

In Beijing's case, that nearly became possible in 2000 (it lost to Sydney by only two votes), since when the dragon's impact has become global, whether through its scouring of developing countries for raw materials or through its undercutting of businesses in the advanced economies.

In terms of expenditure and medals won, the Chinese are set to make a much bigger splash than their two East Asian forerunners. For a country still sensitive to its humiliation by Western powers and Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries, that is an understandable source of pride.

However, as London is finding, the path to Olympic glory is strewn with obstacles. First, there is the huge cost. When it won the bid in 2001, Beijing promised to spend $20 billion on sporting complexes and infrastructure. That figure has since doubled.

Then there is the problem of environmental pollution. The city has promised to shut down the culprits for the duration but they are showing no enthusiasm for such curtailing of their income.

Finally, there is the danger of awkward protests, under the eyes of the world's press, against Han colonisation of Tibet and Xinjiang; thus the courting of the Prince of Wales, one of China's highest-profile critics, by Beijing's new ambassador in London.

Publicly, Politburo members will continue to trumpet the 2008 Olympics as an overdue opportunity to demonstrate China's global pre-eminence.

Privately, they are probably keeping their fingers crossed that they can carry off an event inherited from a previous set of leaders without major embarrassment.