A specially assembled crowd of teachers, government workers and children attended a “Mobilization Meeting” for Beijing’s 2008 Olympic bid. Several Beijing Communist Party officials told the crowd that environmental protection targets will be moved up from 2010 to 2007, green belts will be completed within five years instead of 10, and nearly half of Beijing will be planted within seven years.
Also shanties and illegal billboards will be demolished, filthy water bodies made pristine, and a tree-flanked boulevard named Shen’ao, or Olympic Bid, will be carved from demolished neighbourhoods.
Beijing Mayor Liu Qi, president of the bid committee said “we all need to recognize the significance of the Olympics in welding our country and city’s development to the holding of the Games. We’re going to use the Olympic bid to push along the whole city’s development”.
The government officials said that the grassroots units of the Communist Party and mass party members are expected to play the leading role in the bid, and neighbourhoods and townships’ administration are expected to develop better community service.
Also college students should regard the bid as an opportunity of honing their skills and opening their horizon; police departments are responsible for securing a safe environment for living and working, and public service departments should work for the image of the city.
Officials have also promised mass support from ordinary citizens, but said they will not be forced to pay for the bid.
According to the bid committee, surveys show 94.6 per cent of Beijing residents support the bid.
