Test Run: Shanghai Prepping To Host '07 World Special Olympics

Shanghai will host the World Special Olympics beginning Oct. 2, making it "one of the largest international events ever hosted in China," according to Chao & Areddy of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. This year's games, being held less than a year before the start '08 Beijing Olympics, marks just the second time the event will be held outside the U.S.  China Central TV is planning to broadcast the games domestically to 500 million HHs, and ESPN will broadcast some events internationally. Volunteer students from the Univ. of North Carolina and Fudan Univ. in Shanghai will "videotape each individual athlete and upload the performances" to a Web site. The event "attracts big-name sponsors" including Coca-Cola, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, adidas, Mattel and Bank of America, and in addition to cash, sponsors "often contribute their employees as volunteers, or pro-bono services."  Shanghai "is undergoing little of the extreme makeover and construction Beijing is seeing. ...Spending won't exceed $60[M], less than 1% of Beijing's expected outlay" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/17).

HUMAN RIGHTS: President Bush has accepted his invitation to attend the '08 Beijing Games, and a N.Y. TIMES editorial reads, "Mr. Bush was right to agree, although we wish he had played a lot harder to get" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/15). . . . In San Diego, an editorial is written under the header, "Repression Would Mar 2008 Olympic Games."  The editorial states, "This is not an argument for countries or athletes to boycott Beijing. We count ourselves as admirers of the Olympic movement. ... But we do think that China's failure to respect basic international norms on human rights is an issue legitimately connected to its role as host of the Summer Games" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 9/17).