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Making an impression

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Why you can trust SCMP
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What a difference four years make in the life cycle of the Olympics.

In May 2007, with just over a year to go until the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Spiritual Civilisation Steering Committee, the official etiquette watchdog, dispatched patrols around the capital to stamp out spitting, swearing and smoking ahead of New China's debutante ball.

That same month, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was under mounting pressure to censure the Chinese government over its human rights abuses following a damming report from Amnesty International.

And this journalist was putting in yet another futile request to interview the elusive president of the Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games ( Bocog), Liu Qi, and/or his executive vice-president and secretary general, Wang Wei.

Here in London, a year out from the 2012 Olympics, the contrast could not be sharper. Say what you like about cash-strapped liberal democracies, you can at least speak to the Olympic Big Wig direct.

And, oh what joy - you do not have to fax questions in advance.

'How would Thursday morning, 11am, do?' came the reply from Locog (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) on the first time of asking for a meeting with the chief executive of the London Olympics, Paul Deighton.

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