HONG KONG last night came alive with festivities in support of Beijing's bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games. Several buildings began displaying pro-Beijing messages and around the city hotels staged special events to highlight the bid. The overwhelming sentiment in Hong Kong is one of enthusiasm for Beijing, which is as it should be: Hong Kong is a Chinese city and by 2000 will again be part of China.
Hong Kong people would want to be part of this exciting spectacle, share the benefits of a surge of tourism and watch proudly the full entry into the world of a nation whose long history has been one of isolation.
But support for Beijing is not total. Many oppose Beijing's bid and in the main they do so because of China's human rights record. That record is hardly improved by the calculated release from jail of several prominent dissidents in the run-up to next week's International Olympics Committee decision on the Games. China's harsh approach to human rights is a problem for Beijing supporters, for to award the Games to China's capital would be to reward an intolerant, authoritarian regime. To deny Beijing the Games would serve to punish the regime.
This is the intent behind the opposition of the British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. In an unnecessarily provocative statement, which further inflames relations between China and Britain, he said Beijing did not deserve the Games. He supported Manchester but if that city did not win, he hoped Sydney would. Mr Hurd's statement was matched for imprudence by one from Zhang Baifa, the Beijing bid's chief executive. He has threatened to boycott the 1996 Games in Atlanta, if Beijing loses the bid, to take revenge for the interference of the United States Congress.
In an ideal world, we might be able to say sport and politics do not mix but in the real world they do. Sport is one of the ways by which competing countries try to demonstrate their superiority, or that of their system of government. If Beijing were to win its bid, China would try to use the Games to cloak a ruthless regime with a mantle of acceptability.
However, while punishing China would make Beijing's opponents feel morally superior, it is by no means obvious that this is the only, or even the best, way to help liberalise China. The Beijing bid's slogan is ''A more open China awaits you'' and giving Beijing the right to stage the Olympics would give the process of opening China to the world a dramatic surge. The more China is open to the world, the more contact it has, the more likely it is to understand, and move towards, international standards.
