China "safe" despite quake, say Olympics officials

Enlarge Photo A giant flag of the 2008 Beijing Olympics logo displayed in Beijing in this August...

Tue, May 13 02:37 PM

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing Olympic officials on Tuesday assured foreigners planning to visit China for this August's Games that the country is safe despite an earthquake that killed some 10,000 people and possibly many more.

The Chinese capital is expected to welcome more than half a million foreign visitors for the Aug. 8-24 Games and Zhang Jian of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) said they should not be concerned about natural disasters.

"What I want to say to foreign visitors is that the Olympic Games are safe, Beijing is safe, China is safe," Zhang, director of the project management department, told reporters on Tuesday.

Li Zhanjun, director of the BOCOG media centre, said that earthquakes had been taken into account when building the 31 venues in Beijing and the manpower required for the clean-up operation in Sichuan would not impact on the Games' security.

"When constructing any building in Beijing, you have to ensure it is able to resist earthquakes of up to eight on the Richter scale so the Olympic venues will not be in danger from earthquakes," he said.

The magnitude of Monday's earthquake in the southwestern province of Sichuan was 7.9.

"The epicentre is near Chengdu," he added, which is about 1,600 km southwest of Beijing. "The police and army from Beijing are not being used, so it won't affect Olympic security at all."

Beijing has only suffered minor earthquakes in recent years but the 7.8 magnitude quake that destroyed the city of Tangshan in 1976 also wrecked tens of thousands of buildings in the capital 150 km away.

The relay of the Beijing Olympic flame, already disrupted by anti-Chinese protests over Tibet on its journey around the world, is scheduled to visit Sichuan province on June 15-18.

The city of Mianyang, which is close to the epicentre of the quake, is a planned stop for the torch on June 15.

Li said the route would not be altered but Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang later said BOCOG was assessing the disaster before making a decision on the torch relay in the area.

"As far as I know, relevant plans have been not adjusted for the moment," Qin told a news conference.

Qin said the earthquake had "further stimulated" the Chinese people to stage a successful Olympics.

"We have the confidence and ability to push forward all kinds of preparatory work for the Games smoothly and as scheduled."

The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday expressing the Olympic movement's solidarity with the Chinese people.

"We send our deepest felt condolences for the victims. The Olympic Movement is at your side, especially during these difficult moments. Our thoughts are with you," Rogge wrote.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng)

(Take a look at the Countdown to Beijing blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)

Inside News

Editor's picks