For China it is mission accomplished

AS the curtain fell on the Beijing Olympics on the evening of August 24 the joy written on the faces of the Chinese was palpable, and so too was the relief at the end of an event that marked their coming-out party as a sporting world power.
The Chinese confirmed it emphatically in the Olympics, grabbing 51 gold medals, eclipsing the 36 won by the world's sole superpower, which finished second. With its gold medals won deservingly, China emerged as the first Asian nation, since the modern Olympics began in 1896, to win the unofficial crown as the world's greatest Olympic power.
Three cheers for winning the "truy exceptional games of 29th Summer Olympiads," in the words of IOC President Jacques Rogge at the closing ceremony.
For China, the Games, that set 45 world records and the host's achievements therein, will firmly entrench here newly acquired stature after a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers.
Not surprisingly, one of the most discussed topics in the past few days was " the realisation of a century old dream." In 1908, the youth magazine Tianjin raised three questions with regards to its dreams about Olympic participation. When can China send an athlete to the Olympics? When can it send a team of athletes to the Olympics? When can it host the Olympics?
These questions could have been crazy at that time, but we know the answers now. In 1932, China sent a sprinter to the 10th Olympics games in Los Angeles. Four years later, a Chinese team took part in the 1936 Berlin Games. But neither won a medal.
Hence, the "sick man of East Asia" label was stuck to her Olympic credential. It wasn't until 1984 in Los Angeles that China bagged its first Olympic gold media. After that China didn't look back, and moved faster.
Yet, it took 100 years for the Chinese to host the games and to surpass the US at a major international sporting event. For the Chinese, the symbolic value of both the achievements is indeed enormous, and was aptly described by Orville Schell when he wrote in the Newsweek that "it is impossible to understand what the Games mean to the Chinese without understanding their history of humiliation."
American sports historian, Susan Brownell, saw the Chinese hosting of the games as the Chinese people's "collective redemption for the national suffering of the past century."
This partly explains why China was prepared to mount the most grandiose and expensive games in Olympic history, and did not tolerate any attempt from any quarter to spoil its party. At work also was the bruised inner psyche of a nation in the face of manifest disgrace.
Now China, winning the most gold medals, will unavoidably become a metaphor for the manner of its ascent as a sporting power. The world will have to adjust to its obsessional sense of competition, not only to its search for wealth-producing resources.
There are, however, aspects of their sports talent program that are not a model for other nations, chiefly the regimented nurturing of children of championship potential. Life is also about fun and freedom, which cannot be dispensed with -- even for national glory.
As for the handling of the dissent in Tibet and Xinjiang, the world will look for signs that a stronger China will find it easier to ease up a bit.
Nevertheless, the Beijing Olympics, which ended a few days ago in an outpouring of fellowship among the assembled, was a mission superbly executed by China.
The effect it will have on the rest of the world -- how well or poorly governments and people will view the real China that has been glimpsed, and how they will connect with an indispensable nation -- will be profound.
It is futile to think that the just-finished Olympiad was going to be anything other than a measuring gauge to evaluate a reawakened great civilisation, accompanying, of course, commensurate power and prestige.
The important achievement of the 29th summer Olympiad, it is observed, is that it helped promote mutual understanding between China and the world.
It is believed that this is something that will have a positive effect in the long run. Many even reckon that China's embracing of full-fledged democracy is now a matter of time. A rejuvenated China will not miss the opportunity to become stronger with an elixir of political and civic emancipation.

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.