New | How to raise Shanghai's profile? City must bid to host 2028 Olympics, official says
Shanghai should consider bidding for the 2028 Summer Olympics to increase its diplomatic influence and international profile, said a municipal political adviser on Tuesday.
Representative Wang Xiaoshu, speaking at the second meeting of the 12th Shanghai Municipal People’s Political Consultative Congress – the municipality’s top political advisory body, said Shanghai would have to take “great action that will make the world notice” to increase its international influence, according to Eastday.com, the city’s main news portal.
Wang suggested that the city bid for the Olympics in 2028 as a warm-up to the 80th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China a year after.
He said the city had to actively work and communicate with foreigners and continually increase its influence and competitiveness to be a “national leader in openness”.
Wang noted that since the year 2000, major cities such as Paris, New York and London have either hosted or made a bid to host the Games.
“If Shanghai makes a bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics, the bidding process, and Shanghai’s transformation and upgrade … will help raise the quality of society, culture and ecology [in the city],” he said.
Shanghai hosted the World Expo in 2010, which drew 73 million visitors. Meanwhile, Beijing along with Zhangjiakou in Hebei province announced they would jointly bid in November to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
To host the Games, considered a herculean responsibility owing to the event’s prestige and its scope, cities must submit to a rigorous process that may take some two years to complete. A city must apply nine years ahead of time, and must be elected seven years before the targeted start of the event.
The hopeful must file detailed plans to the International Olympic Committee, along with legally binding guarantees on security, accommodations for the athletes, marketing and transport, and must submit to risk-assessment inspections by the IOC.
The committee then votes and awards hosting duties to the bidder at a news conference which is usually accompanied by confetti, flag-waving and other celebrations in the winning host's country.
