Daily press briefing canceled, at least for a day

BEIJING (AP) After four straight days of contentious daily briefings filled with questions about Tibet, Falun Gong, air quality and the decision to award the games to China, IOC and Beijing organizers called off Saturday's scheduled news conference.

The next briefing is set for Sunday.

"The Olympic Games have been running very smoothly, so we are planning to make some changes in scheduling our press briefing," Beijing organizing official Sun Weide said.

Chinese and International Olympic Committee officials have been on the defensive since Tuesday, with reporters pressing for clear answers, often holding on to the microphone for follow-ups. Reporters have taken the floor without being called on, seeking answers about Beijing's air quality, ticket scalping, pro-Tibet protests and details on human rights and free-press issues.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said the decision to cancel Saturday's briefing was made jointly by Chinese organizers and the IOC.

"It's not that we don't want to come and talk to you guys; it's just that on the operations front everything is going fine," she said. "We'll see how things are going to decide on briefings."

Chinese and IOC officials have been taken aback by the aggressive questions, most centering on non-sports issues. China's communist government and the IOC have always argued the games are about sports - not politics. Critics argue the games can't be separated from politics and that China's expenditure of US$40 billion for infrastructure and venues is a statement about its booming economy and rising political power.

On Thursday, a British TV reporter asked IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies five times if the IOC was "embarrassed" by awarding the games to China and its authoritarian government.

On Friday, that same reporter asked Davies if she had any criticism of the games, which by all accounts are running smoothly on the organizational and administrative side.

"We don't have criticism right now," Davies said. "I think if you are asking us to appraise areas outside sport, that's not our remit to do so. We're not qualified to do that. The world is invited here to make its own appraisal, and that is clearly what you will do. The world will look back after these games are finished and take their perspectives."

Davies' counterpart with the organizing committee, executive vice president Wang Wei, was pressed Friday about the outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong and about Chinese policies in Tibet. A fluent English speaker, Wang chose to answer primarily in Chinese when addressing those topics.

"On the issue of Tibetan independence, this is a very unwelcome and unacceptable kind of activity in China," Wang said, speaking through an interpreter.

A day earlier, Wang addressed the media with a passionate, 3-minute defense of Beijing, arguing the games are allowing foreigners to see China's three decades of rapid change.

"During the bid I was the secretary general of the bidding committee," said Wang, who attended Rutgers University in the United States. "I was confronted with many questions about the opening up and reform of China. And I did say that the Olympic Games coming to China will help China to open up further and to reform.

"I did not say that China will promise to do whatever with the games coming to China. I did not say that. But I say the games will open up the horizon about China. People will see better for themselves what China is like."

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