China under fire from all sides a year ahead of Games

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - Free Tibet activists on the Great Wall, a barrage of critical rights reports, a shroud of smog hanging over Beijing -- China's government must surely have imagined a more auspicious one-year countdown for the Olympics.

On top of that, the flood of food safety scandals shows no sign of abating and a group of dissidents has written an open letter to President Hu Jintao calling for the Games' slogan to be changed to "One World, One Dream, Same Human Rights."

The weather is also refusing to cooperate in the run-up to the eighth day of the eighth month on Wednesday, which will start the one-year countdown to the opening ceremony.

Torrential rain has brought Beijing traffic to a standstill several times, and it seems so long since the sun last broke through the pollution that some are dubbing Beijing "Greyjing".

And few are convinced by government pledges to ensure media freedom.

On Monday, police prevented several journalists from leaving a Reporters Without Borders conference calling for greater media freedom. They were let go two hours later, without explanation.

"The ongoing harassment and detention of journalists make Beijing's Olympic pledge on media freedoms seem more like a public relations ploy than a sincere policy initiative," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said China was holding at least 29 reporters and editors behind bars because of their work.

"A decade ago we saw a tendency towards the liberalization of the media in China and under the Hu government we've seen a backing away from that. ...We don't see a liberalization," committee Asia program coordinator Bob Dietz told reporters.

"LET EXILES COME HOME"

Celebrations to kick off the one-year countdown start on Wednesday with a series of colorful events across the city, including in central Tiananmen Square, where soldiers bloodily put down pro-democracy protests in 1989.

Ding Zilin, whose son was killed in the protests and leads a campaign to seek redress for the events of 1989, was one of 40 people who signed an open letter to the government calling for more freedoms ahead of the Olympics.

"Let Chinese citizens who have been forced into exile for reasons of politics, religion or belief, come home, so they can enjoy the Olympics in their motherland and not some strange country," the letter said.

As if the government needed reminding about the potential for protests at the Games, the Free Tibet Campaign said six demonstrators had been detained for unfurling a banner on the Great Wall demanding independence for the Himalayan region.

"The Chinese government is exploiting the Olympics to gain acceptance as a world leader," said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of Students for a Free Tibet.