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The makers of this week's map want to remind visitors to Beijing of the violent history lurking behind the glitz and glamor of the Olympic Games. Freedom House's Ellen Bork along with the Weekly Standard's design director Philip Chalk and Tiananmen survivor Tian Jian have created this map for Beijing tourists interested in visiting the sites of the June 4, 1989 massacre of the Tiananmen Square protestors. Each number shows the place where where one of the 176 victims were killed or the hospitals to which their bodies were taken.

You can find information on the victims here and read Bork's explanation of the map at the New York Sun's site.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Baseball may be on the way out as an Olympic sport, but observers anticipating the eventual clash of civilizations between the United States and China may have seen a sneak preview on the diamond Monday:

The U.S. beat China 9-1 in the Olympics Monday night, and it was awful. China’s pitchers hit five U.S. batters, sending one to the hospital. U.S. baserunners plowed over two China catchers, likely knocking one out of the Games.

While some reporters at the scene think "Our relations with China were nearly broken at the plate," I wouldn't go that far. After all, the manager of the Chinese team -- who was ejected from Monday's game -- is an American who has been helping establish the national pastime in China since 2003. Personally, I'm still more outraged about the Chinese gymnasts.

Remember way back when people were asking whether we should "politicize" the Olympics? Isn't it just supposed to be about sports and itty bitty gymnasts doing their best? I have to say, in China, that question is bizarre. The Olympics is politics: that is the point.

Take the case of Owen, a torch-bearer living in the youth camp of the Olympic village. He is not a star athlete, but he's certainly well-spoken and smart as a whip. When you ask him what it was like to run those 30 meters he ran with the torch, he begins his story this way:

There is a garden next to the youth camp. In 1860, warriors broke into it and killed everybody. And that was the start of a terrible part of Chinese history, but now, within 140 years, I, as a representative of the youth, stand on the same ground and hold the torch showing that China is ready to be one of the strongest countries in the world. It's completely new and it's completely meaningful. And all of this is seen by the grass and by the land, by the earth, so I kissed it."

After telling us more about the Olympic compound, which is a heavily fortified, expansive prep school surrounded by green walls with the slogan "the youth are the future" scribbled across them, Owen went on. (By the way, at the Olympic youth camp, the youth are provided with soccer fields, basketball courts, swimming pools, a variety of stores and post offices. It is not dissimilar to Oberlin, Ohio, where I went to college, except you can't get in and out of the Village without a pass or the Olympic torch.)

We have dreamed about having the Olympic games for about 100 years. And we've tried so many times, but we failed so many times. If you give the holding rights to a city, it means you have to say that the city is good. We want to hear that you are respecting our behavior, our hard work. Whenever you hold the Olympic games it is a chance for a country or for a city to improve. And that will eventually benefit each and every Chinese.

Years later, when you look at history, you will see, we have made great progress. After we've had so hard time, we've survived. All of the Chinese are strong. We can never be defeated! You can kill us with your gun. But we will never be defeated. We survive. That's what the Olympics can tell the world."

Olympics 2008: It's not just sports; it's not just politics. What it's about is China.

Editor's note: Zoe Chace is an independent public radio producer who is in China for the Olympics. She'll be filing periodic dispatches for Passport about what it's like to be in the middle of the world's biggest spectacle, the 2008 Olympic Games. Got any questions or thoughts on what she should report on? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Previous posts:

• Olympic Diary, Day 5: Hating the Olympics
• Olympic Diary, Day 2: China's lonely chairman
• Olympic Diary, Day 1: Where is everyone?

NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images

The Telegraph's indefatigable Richard Spencer reports on yet another bit of fakery at the opening ceremonies in Beijing:

[T]he children supposedly representing the country's 56 ethnic groups were in fact all from the same one, the majority Han Chinese race. [...]

They were dressed in costumes associated with the country's ethnic minorities, including those from troubled areas such as Tibet and the muslim province of Xinjiang. Such displays of "national unity" are a compulsory part of any major state occasion.

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected.

Asked about this, a Beijing Olympics spokesman was nonplussed, telling reporters, "I think you are being very meticulous... I would argue it is normal for dancers, performers, to be dressed in other races' clothes."

Picking up on Katie's post: What happens when you give in to a massive lobbying effort, somehow believe bogus promises of improvement, wallow in corruption, and ultimately give the Olympics to a country that never deserved them? Just ask the International Olympic Committee:

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said journalists should not be prevented from doing their jobs, a day after John Ray of London-based ITV News said he was wrestled to the ground and briefly held by police who apparently mistook him for a protester.

Asked repeatedly if IOC officials are embarrassed that China was not living up to its promises, Davies would only say they are happy with the way China is running the sporting events."

And, of course, the opening ceremony was lovely.

FILE; Feng Li/Getty Images

Protesters just can't win in China these days. Now, even those who have requested official permission to protest in Beijing are being arrested, including a handful of citizens upset about having their homes destroyed in preparation for the big games. One would-be demonstrator, Zhang Wei, was even given a sentence of 30 days after repeatedly applying to protest about her forced home eviction.

Given the nature of the protest application process, it's not surprising that the three city parks "designated" as protest zones (and patrolled daily by police) have remained pretty quiet. Two, in fact -- Shije "World" Park (shown above in June) and Ritan Park -- have reportedly remained 100 percent protest-free since the opening ceremonies.

It all makes the words of Wang Wei, the Beijing Olympic Committee's executive vice president, sound pretty empty. Here are his comments from today's press conference in Beijing on press freedom:

[T]he Olympic Games coming to China will help China to open up further and to reform."

Tell it to Zhang Wei.

World Toilet Expo 2007; Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

This spring, Beijing Olympic organizers went to extraordinary lengths to ensure athletes had the most comfortable sanitation facilities. When foreign athletes at test events complained about the squat-style toilets at key venues, such as the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, officials initiated "toilet alteration projects" (as an organizer described it to Reuters) to replace as many as possible with sit-down commodes.

If only others around the world were so lucky -- to have hygienic toilet facilities of any type.

In this International Year of Sanitation, some 2.5 billion people don't have access to improved sanitation, according to a recent progress report (big pdf). So, in this week's FP List, "The Hardest Places in the World to Find a Bathroom," we highlight five countries, by geographic region, where safe sanitation is in short supply. Yes, there's a "yuck" factor, but sanitation is crucial for public health and is likely one of the most important health advances ever.

Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Top Story

Beijing's opening ceremonies lifted off without a hitch Friday, bringing awe to spectators in China and around the world -- or so it seemed. The squeaky-clean ceremonies, however, were too good to be true in some respects, as reports emerged of lip-syncing and computer-generated fake fireworks.

Violence, too, interrupted the first few days of competition. Attacks continued in the western region of Xinjiang, while a Chinese man attacked an American couple with a knife at a popular tourist destination on Saturday, killing the man and wounding his wife before killing himself. The couple was related to an American Olympic volleyball coach.

More Olympics

China’s strategy for focusing on events that award more medals appears to paying off. As of 3:30 pm Wednesday afternoon, China led the gold medal count with 17, while the United States had the most medals overall at 29. Check out Google's nifty map for updates.

Seats at the Olympics are surprisingly empty.

Less surprisingly, so are the "protest pens."

A British journalist was detained Wednesday, covering a protest led by eight U.S. pro-Tibet activists.

The first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil, President Bush used his presidential-record fourth visit to prod China on religious freedom, inaugurate a new U.S. embassy in Beijing, and cheer on America's athletes.

Politics

Religous leaders describe a government crackdown. One religious dissident, detained on his way to visit a service with President Bush, has escaped, however.

The Dalai Lama is in France, but will not meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Economy

Thanks to a rapidly weakening U.S. economy, China is set to become the world's largest manufacturer, four years earlier than predicted.

China's trade surplus grew in July to $25.3 billion, its highest level in eight months and a 4 percent increase from July 2007.

Wholesale prices, however, rose even more, up 10 percent from July 2007.

Overall, inflation is down and growth is "set to stabilize."

Environment

Is China's Olympic cleanup actually bad for global warming?

Taiwan

Taiwan plans to seek "participation," but not a "return" or membership, in the United Nations this fall.

Taiwan's coast guard is holding a former Chinese soldier who swam eight hours across the Taiwan Strait to defect.

Adam Pretty/Getty Images

While Americans have been enthralled with the performances of God-King Michael Phelps, their neighbors to the north are starting to get a bit worried. The reason? Canada hasn't won a medal yet.

The team, which won 12 overall medals in Athens, does expect some wins in the coming days. And the hapless Canucks are nowhere close to some of the worst Olympians of all time, thanks largely to their prowess in winter sports. Still, as Mark Spector laments in the Toronto-based National Post, folks in Canada are starting to get a bit worried:

Togo has a medal. Michael Phelps has five. Azerbaijan has three. Kyrgyzstan has two.

We'll pass them all by the end, barring an absolute disaster, but still, as the calls from editors begin to roll into the press centres here - all looking for the "What's going wrong?" angle that usually doesn't arrive for a few more days at these things - it is clear that Canadians are getting edgy."

Spector's piece also speaks to the incredibly high cost of churning out top-tier Olympic athletes, comparing powerhouses like China and the United States to the New York Yankees, who pay obscene amounts of money and are highly successful (although he should have used a team that actually wins these days, such as, ahem, my own Boston Red Sox).

It's tough to argue with his point. The deck is obviously stacked for the likes of China and the United States, where no matter the price for Olympic glory, people are willing to pay for it. Of course, it also helps when you hand-pick your gymnasts at age three or four, cut them off from their families, and then have them compete in the Olympics when they're 13.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Beach volleyball isn't the only event giving Russia fits in Beijing.

More than a few Russian Olympians have faltered in competition and come up well short of national medal expectations. In fact, it wasn't until today that Russia captured its first gold medals of these games, with both Nazyr Mankiev and Islam-Beka Albiev taking top honors in Greco-Roman wrestling. Adding those two golds, Russia's medal count now totals 12, which still leaves it far behind China (27) and the United States (29) -- and pretty unlikely to reach its goal of 80 medals by the games' end.

One Russian who failed to medal was 20-year-old weightlifter Svetlana Tsarukaeva (left), who added insult to injury by banging her head on the door frame as she exited the competition. Anastasia Zueva, favored for the silver in the 100m backstroke, came in a distant fifth.

Most surprising, though, are the number of setbacks in sports that are typically Russia's strengths, including gymnastics (the men's team finished a dismal sixth) and tennis (Maria Sharapova dropped out, and third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova lost in an early round).

So what gives, Russia? It could be that the team is still shaken after five of its members -- including a discus champ and former world-record holding hammer thrower -- were suspended for reportedly trying to cheat on their drug tests. A lack of trainers could also be to blame.

Of course, some might attribute the lackluster showing to bad karma from the Georgia conflict. At least the Russian and Georgian (er, Brazilian?) beach volleyball players put the affair aside, embracing before their match.

In any case, it looks like luck is currently on Georgia's side. As of about 30 minutes ago, the country just won its first gold of the Beijing Games, thanks to Greco-Roman wrestler Manuchar Kvirkelia.

THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

This is what makes the Olympics great: With their two countries embroiled in conflict, Russia and Georgia took to the sand Wednesday to settle the score in beach volleyball. And Georgia, also the underdog in sport, won the match in three sets.

But the Russians were not about to concede defeat, pointing out that the two Georgians are, in fact, Brazilian:

Cristine Santanna and Andrezza Chagas go by the nicknames of Saka and Rtvelo, which put together spell the Georgian word for Georgia. Cute, perhaps, but not if you've just lost to them at the Olympic Games.

"We were not playing against the Georgian team today," sniffed Natalia Uryadova after losing 12-15 in the third and deciding set. "We were playing against the Brazilian team. If they are Georgian, they would have been influenced [by the war], but certainly they are not."

To be fair, the "Georgian" pair have passports from both Brazil and Georgia, and had trained for two years after receiving personal invitations from Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, whose wife also happens to play beach volleyball. But the two admitted they had only visited the country twice before representing it in the Olympics -- an increasingly common phenomenon, it seems, but one counter to the Olympic spirit.

Georgian Volleyball Federation President Levan Akhvlediani, however, would have none of it, calling the Russians "bad losers" and hailing the victory as "wonderful for the Georgian people."

It's better to make a war... on the sporting fields," Akhvlediani said.

It surely doesn't hurt that on the sporting fields, for this match at least, Georgia won.

When you have been watching too much CCTV -- "The opening ceremony was a success! We truly are one world, one dream!" -- and running into too many volunteers -- "Welcome to Beijing!" -- and smacking into enormous banners where whole neighborhoods used to be -- "Together we will build a new Beijing!" -- it is hard not to just. Hate. The. Olympics. Straight up.

If every taxi driver in New York had to get a makeover* because of a few weeks of athletic competion, and people were constantly dissing my city's air that I had been breathing for decades, I would seriously be over it.

I did find one treat to sweeten the sour, though.

At Jing Shan school, which is a model school founded for Deng Xiaoping, every kid in the school is roped into the Olympic games. While the adolescents stand outside and scratch their backs with Olympics flags, the little girls inside are performing this dance:

Is it over the top or is it... awesome?

The girls were really excited, but ask the parents what the kids are rehearsing for, and they don't know. "The Olympics," they said, shrugging.

It turns out they were performing with the actual singer of "Beijing Beijing, Wo Ai Beijing," Wang Zheng Zheng, who has taken Chris Brown's place in my life!

Censorship note: I cannot get access to the China Digital Times -- a fantastic blog to get your China on. Maybe this is why:

Olympic Secret: Most Firework-footprints Faked in Broadcast

Translated by CDT from the Beijing Times, via qq.com: In yesterday's Opening Ceremony, a step-by-step series of fireworks-sequenced footprints that "walked" from Yongdingmen along the central axis to the Bird's Nest pushed the whole night into its climax. Many viewers, via live TV broadcast, were amazed by the spectacular Beijing nightscape. ...

*: The cabbies dress really well in Beijing. Every taxi driver I have met, which is a lot at this point, is wearing a pressed linen shirt.

Editor's note: Zoe Chace is an independent public radio producer who is in Beijing for the Olympics. She is traveling with her friend and advisor Lizzy Berryman, who is fluent in Mandarin and lived in China four years ago. She'll be filing periodic dispatches for Passport about what it's like to be in the middle of the world's biggest spectacle, the 2008 Olympic Games. Got any questions or thoughts on what she should report on? Post your thoughts in the comments below.

Previous posts:

• Olympic Diary, Day 2: China's lonely chairman
• Olympic Diary, Day 1: Where is everyone?

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

While Kim Jong Il tries to throw his weight around on the world stage, one North Korean has actually done it. Today, Pak Hyon Suk won her country's first Olympic gold medal in Beijing, beating out the favorites in the 63 kg women's weightlifting category. This is the first time a North Korean has won a gold in women's weightlifting since the event started in 2000 (China, by contrast, has swept all five of the weightlifting categories it has entered in these games).

Pak was nearly eliminated after failing at her first two attempts. But, with a little help from "Dear Leader" (who declined an invitation to attend the games), she made it through. Says Pak:

[W]hen I was about to do my third attempt, I kept in my head the thought that my dear general's eyes will be upon me ...And that thought by itself was great encouragement, and that's how I managed to lift the last weight."

Pak may be the first North Korean on the medal stand this year but her country has picked up eight golds over the years, putting it well ahead of the chronic Olympic underperformers on FP's recent list. At least India finally broke its gold medal curse with a win in 10-meter air rifle on Monday.

Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Bush just wrapped up a four-day stay in Beijing, where he caught plenty of action from the sidelines (and on the volleyball courts). Avid sports fan that he is, Bush clearly enjoyed himself, spending his final day in China cheering on the U.S. men's swimming team as they clenched victory in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

I guess Bush's decision to opt for an extended Olympic vacation in the midst of Georgia's crisis shouldn't come as a shock. After all, he does have a history of notoriously slow reactions to catastrophic events (Hurricane Katrina, anyone?). Still, you'd think the prez would have wanted to at least appear to be in crisis mode by returning to his home office ASAP. Georgians certainly must feel that way.

Bush hasn't completely ignored the conflict: He reportedly got round-the-clock coverage from aides in Beijing. And he did make a few increasingly tough statements briefly before returning to Washington and speaking on it this evening, saying, "The Russian government must reverse the course it appears to be on."

But the fact that he devoted much of his past few days to Kobe Bryant's jump shot, Misty May-Treanor's fanny, and Michael Phelps's medal hopes rather than Georgia's plight makes his words ring a little hollow this evening.

NOGI KAZUHIRO/AFP/Getty Images

Bela Karolyi, the NBC sports analyst who was coach of some of the world's greatest gymnasts, including Mary Lou Retton and Nadia Comaneci, is incensed. He is convinced that China has included underage girls -- the age requirement is 16 -- on its women's gymnastics team by forging the girls' birth dates on official documents.

Yesterday, in reference to the Chinese gymnasts' childish body sizes (the team average is 4 feet, 9 inches, and 77 pounds), he unleased some verbal venom to the Associated Press:

They are using half-people. One of the biggest frustrations is, what arrogance. These people think we are stupid.

Gymnastics is famous for its small women -- or rather, girls -- but the Chinese gymnasts look awfully tiny and juvenile. In comparison, Japan's team average is 4 feet, 10 inches, and 83 pounds, while the Americans are an average of 5 feet and 107 pounds. Granted, size isn't always an indicator of age, but the New York Times recently pointed to other evidence of age falsification -- inconsistent reporting of some gymnasts' ages in official documents, media reports, and government Web sites.

The Chinese gymnasts certainly aren't half-people, but it sounds like the Chinese government might be telling some half-truths.

ESPN has the reactions from the French squad after last night's race:

A fingertip did the victory," said Amaury Leveaux, one of the French swimmers. "It is nothing."

Apparently they didn't learn their lesson.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Unbelievable race:

Michael Phelps won his second gold medal of the 2008 Games on Monday, with a victory by the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay. The U.S. finished first in 3 minutes 8.24 seconds, smashing the world record by nearly 4 seconds, with France taking silver and Australia getting bronze.

... Bush cheers:

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. President George W. Bush (L) plays beach volleyball with U.S. beach volleyball player Misty May Treanor in Beijing on August 9, 2008.

Clive Rose/Getty Images

Opening ceremony update:

Taiwan, classed as a breakaway province by China's rulers, were given a rapturous welcome when their 24 competitors filed through with softball player Lai Sheng-Jung at the head. [...]

Iraq's five-strong delegation received a huge roar after their 11th-hour inclusion at the Games. Their participation had been in doubt up over political interference in the running of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee.

It doesn't sound like Sudanese-American runner Lopez Lomong, the U.S. flag bearer, drew loud applause. [UPDATE: Actually, the U.S. delegation did get big applause.]

(Hat tip: Drudge)

China Vitae

Many of us in the media have spilled a lot of ink about the Beijing Olympics, and a great deal of it has been critical. But what is the Chinese view?

I spoke Thursday morning with Amb. Wu Jianmin, a longtime Chinese diplomat who served as China's ambassador to the United Nations until 1998. Since 2003, he has been president of China Foreign Affairs University, where his mission is training the next generation of Chinese diplomats. Check it out.