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Jeremy Walker

Hongkong, because of its affinity, because of the population, because of its geopolitical situation, must side with China.

 IT'S official - Hongkong is right behind Beijing's bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games.

 The territory's well-respected sports leader, Mr A. de O. Sales, made Hongkong's position perfectly clear during his speech at the spring dinner of the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee (ASF & OC) of Hongkong in City Hall in mid-February.

 ''We are completely in support of the Beijing bid and we hope that it will be successful,'' said Mr Sales, who is ASF & OC president.

  ''It will be good for sport in China; it will be good for sport in Asia and it will be good for the Olympic movement.

 ''Why? Because the Olympic movement belongs to the world and the Olympic Games, being a manifestation of the Olympic movement, must, and should, rotate around the world, from north to south, from east to west.

 ''Asia has had only two opportunities in nearly 100 years to stage the Olympic Games and the time has also come for Asia to be offered the host city, Beijing, for the Olympic Games.''  Mr Sales has become known as ''Mr Hongkong Sport'' during his association with the ASF & OC, which goes back more than 40 years to when the organisation was founded in 1951.

  He chose last month's spring dinner gathering to announce Hongkong's stance.

 As well as being president of the Hongkong Olympic Committee, Mr Sales is chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation - and two Commonwealth cities, Manchester and Sydney are also bidding to stage the 2000 Olympics.

 It was thought that Hongkong's sports leader may well throw his considerable clout behind either of those two bids, but he explained: ''I made the announcement as president of the ASF & OC and it is a logical position to be in.

 ''Our decision to support Beijing reflects the opinion of the Hongkong community at large.

 ''I was not speaking for the Commonwealth and I am not aware the Commonwealth had a position on this matter.

 ''A journalist from an Australian television channel asked me why Hongkong had supported Beijing and not one of the bids from the Commonwealth. I replied, 'Then who should I support - Sydney or Manchester?' - I think she saw my point.''  Mr Sales had been reluctant to divulge Hongkong's position on the rival bids - there are seven in all - until the recent gathering of all the territory's sports administrators.

  His announcement came just before the International Olympic Committee began its two-month inspection of the seven cities, starting with Sydney (from March 1 to March 5) before moving on to Beijing (March 5 to 9), Manchester (March 22 to 25), Milan (March25 to 28), Brasilia (March 29 to April 2), Berlin (April 17 to 21) and Istanbul (April 21 to 25).

 ''This evening is important for sport because the federation thinks the time has come, in fact the time is overdue, for a statement of Hongkong's position on the Olympic bids,'' Mr Sales told the gathering.

 ''Hongkong, because of its affinity, because of the population, because of its geopolitical situation, must inevitably side with China.

 ''Those of you who were there for the Asian Games in 1990 must realise how resourceful they were and what the facilities were. Since then, efforts have been made even to improve these facilities.

 ''In fact, at that time they had reserved 200 hectares of land for the Asian Games and only 140 hectares were used then. The other lot was held in reserve.

 ''The sports people going around the world for meetings and competitions would have been given the opportunity of listening to the various presentations and they would have reached their own conclusion.''  He said Hongkong had shown its support for China long before the Olympic bid.

 ''When it was not popular to be identified with the sports movement in China, the ASF & OC declared, in 1972-73, that Hongkong sport would support China in those difficult days of the Cold War,'' he said.

 ''And, I remember, in 1973, going to China and seeing the tremendous enthusiasm for sport.

 ''I also remember when I was in Christchurch in 1974 for the Commonwealth Games: the Commonwealth countries assembled in New Zealand unanimously sent a telegram to Beijing urging it to continue to apply for membership of the international federations and that its application would be supported by the Commonwealth at that time.

 ''So, over the years, the relationship between sports in China and Hongkong has grown stronger - and it has been for the benefit of Hongkong, let us make no mistake about that.''  Mr Sales added: ''There can be no doubt that over the past 20 years the sports associations in Hongkong have developed very strong connections with their counterparts in China.

 ''These connections with China have strengthened the position of sport in Hongkong and have helped raise the performance standards. This working relationship will become more and more close and there is a feeling in Hongkong sport, from the athletes to the decision-makers, that everyone should rally behind China.

 ''As for China, the government is behind it, the people are behind it and China has the economic resources to stage it because it is growing economically in leaps and bounds.'' 



Hongkong supports China's bid for Olympics