The nation of China has been preparing for years to receive the world in the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. The expected infrastructure improvements have taken place, as well as less obvious measures like ad campaigns to stop citizens from constantly hocking loogies on the street. Now there's buzz that a new set of preparations may discrimate against certain people during games festivities.
According to Huffingtonpost.com, Hong Kong's English newspaper The South China Morning Post reported Friday that Chinese authorities have issued a secret ban on blacks, Mongolians and other "social undesirables" from Beijing's bars during the Olympics. The Chinese news source's online site is for subscribers only, but a blog called Bejing Boyce reposted the following from the article:
Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, "One World, One Dream".
Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises....
Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organisers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games.
The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.
The Summer games are scheduled to begin August 8.
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