Chinese Official Dismisses US Lawmakers' Opposition to Beijing BidA high-ranked Beijing official dismissed some US lawmakers' opposition to the city's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games as "not representing the views of all American people".Liu Jingmin, executive vice president of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee, told reporters here on Sunday that a recent poll showed only a minority of the American public opposed Beijing's bid. " According to a recent survey by a U.S. newspaper, the Americans who opposed or supported Beijing's bid each accounted for 23%, and the remaining 54% said whether Beijing is to host the Olympic Games should be decided by the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)," said Liu. "The opinion of several Congress members does not represent the attitude of all American people, " he said. "Neither does it reflect the views of the world's sports community, whose faith in Beijing was testified by the IOC evaluation report, where our bid is rated as 'excellent'." Liu said that a few Tibetans who protested Beijing's bid in front of the IOC Headquarters early this week in no way represented the wishes of the majority of Tibetans. "We have received a giant banner where tens of thousands of local people in the Tibetan Autonomous Region have signed their names to show their support to Beijing's bid," said Liu. "Tibet has been a part of the Chinese territory since ancient times. We don't wish to see the issue of Tibet's so-called independence being linked with Beijing's Olympic bid," he said. |
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