Air Quality Concerns Beijing Olympics

Remember this report? Well this air quality problem will get worst before it gets better! And Wang must be dreaming when he says that HR are improving in China -- which they equate to the rich are getting richer. HR IS the real concern!

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - China will pass the United States as the world's biggest source of greenhouse gasses this year, an official with the International Energy Agency was quoted as saying.

USA Today Excerpt: A Chinese official helping Beijing host its first Olympics said Wednesday one of his biggest concerns was air quality in a city notorious for brown skies....

Critics of China's authoritarian government hope to swing the Olympic spotlight to human rights, environmental blight and other areas where Beijing promised reforms before it won these Games in 2001. Wang told reporters at that time he thought the Games could "promote" human rights.

"I think that human rights conditions keep improving in China," Wang told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "And I think this is going to be a good thing for the general social progress including human rights, that's no problem."

A report last month from Amnesty International echoed the refrain that China is limiting freedom of political dissidents, human rights activists and adherents of the Falun Gong faith. The Olympics, Amnesty concluded, are actually prompting a crackdown, including sweeps of petty criminals and vagrants considered a potential blemish on the Games' happy face. (more)