Country Update

Practicality is the New Watchword as Beiing Olympics Projects Move Forward

Source: United States Embassy, Beijing
Date: November 2004

Nearly three and one half years since Beijing's successful bid to stage the 2008 Olympics, and three years, nine months and some days before the opening ceremonies, preparations for the massive - and image-defining - event are fast passing from the planning to the construction stage. In this message we provide a snapshot of the principal initiatives that have crowded under the "Olympic" umbrella, and relate them to Beijing's $384 million "top ten" Olympic S&T budget.

Some $2 billion dollars has been budgeted to build new Olympic stadiums and renovate other ones, but the biggest show in town is not sports facilities. It is infrastructure, roughly $20 billion in state-mobilized investments in projects to improve Beijing's air quality and improve its traffic flow.

Big public investments in quality of life for the 15 million citizens of the capital area are overdue, and would probably be moving forward, Games or no Games. But the Olympics are the hook on which the city government hung solemn promises to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and persuaded the central government to support a stronger, higher, faster attack on traffic gridlock and poisoned air.

Early publicity for the Beijing Games tended to stress cutting edge technology, gee-whiz electronics, and dramatic buildings for "the best-ever Olympic Games in history." Now there is decidedly more emphasis on achievable ends. Original plans for an energy-wasting retractable roof have been dropped, reducing the stadium's cost by one-third. Only one of the outer walls of the basketball arena will be a huge electricity-intensive video screen, not four. The transparent "teflon" membrane of the national swimming center is reportedly under review. Plans to build venues for some sports have been overtaken by decisions to stage them in existing facilities, e.g., table tennis at the Beijing University arena.

This more practical mood is traced in some reports to a thorough review of the Olympic plans and budgets by the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao leadership team. It was evident as IOC leaders visited Beijing early this month and proclaimed themselves very satisfied with China's preparations. At a public forum, Chinese speakers put heavy stress on the idea that the Beijing Olympics will be "frugal," and "put people first." Quizzed by the press, IOC President Jacques Rogge said "There will be no frugal Games, there will be only good Games," but pointedly added that in evaluating the costs and benefits, it is important not to confuse the operating budget of the Games with the city's general development budget.

ESTH Counselor attended one of the early November events, an "International High-Level Forum on Science and Technology and the Olympic Games." The forum showcased several hundred million dollars of R&D projects financed by its sponsors, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Beijing S&T Commission (BSTC), and the Technology Department of BOCOG, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. By and large, the S&T work is modelling and testing activity associated with the "Olympics" broadly defined, including the massive investments in transport infrastructure and cleaner air. It includes the "top ten" projects that have featured in previous meetings of the US-China Joint Working Group on the Beijing Green Olympics, with a broader stress on applied technology. As foreseen by Vice Director Yang Weiguang of BOCOG in the JWG dialogue with DOE a year ago, the Chinese are choosing "mature, reliable technology, not untested, cutting-edge technology". At the Forum, Olympic S&T Committee (STCOG) Chairman Lin Wenyi stressed the point. "In order to apply the most mature and reliable technologies in the Olympic Games," she said, "Beijing has focused on a number of R&D projects that meet the actual needs of the games."

By the opening of the Games, total R&D investment is expected to be over RMB 3 billion ($364 million). As of March, 2004, RMB 1.8 billion had already been allocated, according to STCOG, the eleven agency committee (including MOST and BEPB) that channels advanced technologies to the Olympic projects.

Environment and Air Quality Initiatives -"Green Olympics"

Beijing promised the IOC that it would achieve WHO standards for urban air quality by 2008. Its strategy for meeting this goal depends on major reductions in coal use, tougher fuel quality and emissions standards, and further development of the capital's protective greenbelt.

Control of Desertification. For two and one-half decades, the Chinese have been planting forests to stop the desert's encroachment on north China, and reduce the volume of silt blown into the skies of the capital. By 2008, Beijing aims to declare victory. The S&T component of work to "fundamentally control the deserts in the peripheral zone of Beijing" is budgeted at RMB 780 million; it's #4 on the top ten list.

Dethroning Coal. The keystone of Beijing's commitment to reach WHO standards for urban air by 2008 is reduction of coal consumption in the capital to 15 million metric tons (mmt) yearly, versus an unconstrained consumption forecast of 33.6 mmt. This is to be achieved by substituting natural gas, electricity and LPG for coal as a household heating and cooking fuel (minus 11 mmt), shutting down coking ovens in big industrial plants (minus 4 mmt), and substituting natural gas for coal in some electricity generation (minus 1 mmt). Remaining coal-fueled power plants will be retrofit with "mature desulfurization and denitrification technologies."

Coping with Automobile Emissions. Though the vehicle population of the capital cannot continue to double every three years indefinitely, the Beijing's projection of three million cars and trucks on the road by 2008 seems highly plausible. The city has chosen to accelerate the introduction of stricter vehicle emissions and fuel quality standards to reach the "Euro III" level by 2008 - three years ahead of the rest of China. Over 90 percent of Beijing's 18,000 city buses are to be using "clean energy" (generally understood here as natural gas, but possibly including extensive retrofit of diesel buses), and 70 percent of its taxis. Electric vehicles will be popularized by their high-profile use in the Olympic Village.

Water Quality and Waste Management. In its bid to host the Games, Beijing promised that by 2008, over 90% of sewage would be treated & 50% "recovered," while tap water quality would reach the WHO standard. Over $485 million will be invested to upgrade the waste treatment objectives, according to a recent report.

The overall budget for environment protection and pollution control work connected (however loosely) to the Olympics was put at $5.4 billion in a 2001 report. The S&T component of the clean air work falls into two "top ten" baskets. According to STCOG, RMB 230 million is spread over seven "clean energy" demonstration projects mainly involving renewables: solar, biogas, geothermal, photovoltaics, etc. Another RMB 409 million is allocated to support the deployment of electric-powered buses and cars within the Olympic Village.

Olympic-Related Transportation Initiatives

Urban Traffic Management. Beijing's vehicle population, already a road-clogging 2.2 million, is forecast to by 3.0 million by 2008. By 2007, city officials forecast, GPS, GIS and information management systems will be harnessed in a comprehensive urban Intelligent Traffic System (ITS) network that will "increase the efficiency of the existing road network by twenty percent." (As discussed by its Chinese sponsors, "ITS" seems to be any sort of advanced traffic management network technology.) ITS is #1 on the S&T Top Ten list; researchers will study, select, and implement correct technologies, "to ensure safe, high effective and reliable operation of the traffic during the period of the Olympics," at a cost of RMB 689 million ($84 million).

Urban Railways. Eight new subway/light rail lines will be built, totalling 154 km and including a link to the Airport and an Olympic Park branch line. Beijing's two existing subways (95 km) will be upgraded. The work is being financed by city grants of 30 year build and operate concessions. Tenders for four main lines have been issued, for a total projected investment of RMB 50 billion ($6 billion); the urban railway projects altogether are expected to cost RMB 68 billion.

Highways. More roads (264 km) and expressways (54 km) will be completed, costing RMB 30 billion ($3.6 billion).

Information Management Initiatives: the "Digital Olympics"

In anticipation of unprecedentedly heavy demand for telecommunications services, several billion dollars are reportedly budgeted to beef up Beijing's broadband digital & mobile phone message handling infrastructure. The centerpiece is a $600 million new headquarters building in downtown Beijing for CCTV, the state broadcasting service. Under the Digital Olympics rubric, RMB $65 million in research funds will support a "Multi-lingual Intelligent Information Network," able to acquire and convey Olympic messages "anytime, by any mode." It's #6 on the S&T top ten list. Another RMB 243 million in research funds are allocated to simulation and testing of Olympic information security systems, #8 on the top ten list, and described as the precursor to an advanced information security system for Beijing City.

Other Olympic-Related Initiatives

Green Building Technology Standards. Among the S&T top ten, this one has had significant impact. Professor Jiang Yi of Tsinghua University, the Chinese leader of several of the US-China JWG teams, reported to the High Tech Forum how application of a "Green Olympic Building Assessment System" had resulted in substantial modification to the plans for the main stadium, the basketball venue, and other buildings. (A prototype of the system was devised by JWG Team Four -- Tsinghua researchers and American counterparts at the International Center for Sustainable Development). Chinese funding of RMB 199 million was allocated to "technical specification and application demonstration of green building."

Earth Survey Mini-Satellite. China's newly demonstrated ability to launch earth satellites will be highlighted when it puts up a remote sensing satellite & "constructs a system of space information service etc. facing the Olympics." The S&T budget, according to the top ten list, is RMB 210 million.

Weather Forecasting. The Games have stimulated an upgrade of the East China meterological network. A multi-dimensional monitoring system will be in place by 2008 to provide constantly updated local weather forecasts to the Olympic authorities.

Food Safety. Research into technologies "suitable to the Chinese situation" and conforming to international standards and specifications, to "safeguard food security for athletes," has been allocated RMB 298 million in S&T funding.

Dope Testing Preparations. Finally, last on the S&T top ten list, RMB 47 million will support testing for use of banned performance enhancers.