The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has led to heightened expectations for China as a modern state and political power, said Professor Victor Cha, director of Asian studies and D. S. Song-Korea Foundation Chair in Asian studies and government in a speech last night in the Bunn Intercultural Center.

“[The use of] sports is one of the tools that a country can use to advance its diplomatic goals, and while unorthodox, it can be a very effective tool if used at the right place at the right time,” Cha said, who also served as former director for Asian Affairs in the White House’s National Security Council.

In the address, entitled “Ping Pong Diplomacy in the 21st Century: Sports Diplomacy following the Beijing Olympics” sponsored by the Georgetown International Relations Club, the Chinese Student Association and the Georgetown University Lecture Fund, Cha said the four major challenges that China needed to meet at the Olympics were producing superior athletic performance, securing adequate infrastructure for hosting the games, providing decent air quality and managing political protests.

He said the media coverage of the Olympics, in the end, centered primarily on the athletic contests themselves, though.

“Once the games started, sports would become the main story of the Olympics. All of the NGO groups that hoped to draw attention to themselves found they were up against Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh, women’s gymnastics [and] Usain Bolt, who completely took over the news cycle,” Cha said.

He said that one reason why political protests were not more publicized in the media was a result of the Russia-Georgia conflict, which coincided with the Opening Ceremonies.

“Russia invading Georgia became the hard news story. If it weren’t for that, the hard news story would have been the politics of the Olympics,” Cha said.

Despite the emphasis on sports, the Olympics heavily carried political implications, particularly for China, Cha noted.

“A trend was set off in the country and around the world that will put more and more pressure on China to change,” Cha said.

Cha further reflected on the legacy of these games, saying that raising national expectations will be their most pervasive memory.

“[The Chinese people] don’t expect you to simply host the games then go back to the same old policies. The next time that there is a crisis, the public expectation will be much higher for what the government should do,” Cha said. “Dynamics were set of by the Olympics which continue to be agents for change in the country.”

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