According to the minutes of the meeting at that time, the presentations of both sides were excellent, especially China's presentation, which was well-founded and caused a lot of members attending the meeting to sing bad songs. In fact, in the first three rounds of voting, China took the lead and soon entered the final.
But no one expected that we lost to Australia in the fourth round of voting.
According to the memories of the participants at that time, the members of the China delegation had mixed feelings and could not keep smiling all the time, because they were afraid that the people of China would think that we had won, but they could not lose their manners and lose China's face.
At that time, the Puerto Rican Commissioner said to the representative of China, "Your words touched my heart. I know your heart was crying when you smiled and congratulated Sydney yesterday. "
For this scene, many modern people may find it difficult to understand. This is mainly because Beijing later bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, which also went down in history with great vigour. If we say 1993' s first painful experience of applying for the Olympic Games, perhaps only the older generation will remember it.
Let's put the clock back to1September 1993, and the bid for the 27th Olympic Games is just around the corner. Faced with this grand occasion, countless countries are actively striving for it.
According to the situation at that time, there were two popular countries to bid for the Olympic Games: China and Australia.
Needless to say, Australia is a developed country with British and American support. More importantly, Australia hosted an Olympic Games as early as 1956, so it has rich hosting experience and good hosting facilities.
But in comparison, China is not bad at all.
1993, China's economic strength was greatly improved, and it ranked 10 in the world that year. Moreover, China's industrial development is also very rapid, and the signs of "infrastructure fever" have begun to take shape. Anyway, in terms of strength, China is not inferior to Australia at all.
Besides, as far as China is concerned, we have two advantages. First, the overwhelming majority of Latin American countries support China, and second, China has close relations with African countries. In a word, most African countries are very willing to support China in hosting the Olympic Games.
You're welcome to say that we have a large number of votes from third world countries in our hands, and from previous estimates, the theoretical chance of winning will be even greater. In fact, the representative of China at that time was really full of confidence.
As early as 1990, Deng Xiaoping said in public: "I think these projects are very good, which is similar to hosting an Olympic Games. Do you dare to bid for an Olympic Games? "
Since then, China has been making efforts to prepare, including successfully hosting the Beijing Asian Games and listing the Beijing Olympic bid committee.
For China, bidding for the Olympic Games is an important channel for China to show its civilization to the outside world, and it is also an important way to promote opening up and let Chinese civilization go to the world again.
Therefore, after making full preparations and getting the support of many countries, we firmly believe that we can succeed. So will the vote really go as expected? The answer is beyond everyone's expectation.
At that time, when introducing the report, the representative of Australia was biased from the beginning. Instead of introducing the members of the Australian Olympic bid delegation as usual, they suddenly played a short film about the scenery of Sydney.
As we all know, Australia has beautiful scenery, especially Sydney, which combines modern civilization with natural scenery. Therefore, when the beautiful scenery of Sydney was presented to everyone, representatives of various countries already had a good impression on Sydney.
Then Australia used a tactic. It didn't say what preparations it had made for hosting the Olympic Games, but pointed out that it had hosted the Olympic Games, which was the third time in a row that they had applied for hosting the Olympic Games.
Between the lines, Australia's maturity in hosting the Olympic Games is revealed to highlight its advantages. After all, this is China's first attempt.
In all fairness, the speech and voice of the Australian representative did bring great pressure to Beijing's bid for the Olympic Games and hit the nail on the head.
However, as mentioned above, the representative of China has the support of the third world, which is the key. Moreover, since Deng Xiaoping put forward the plan to bid for the Olympic Games, China has made bold attempts and performed well in previous Asian Games.
Therefore, Australia's remarks may not be sure of success, and then it depends on the results of the fourth round of voting.
In fact, in the first three rounds of voting, we have always had an advantage. For example, in the third round of voting, Beijing had 40 votes, while Sydney had only 37 votes. Unfortunately, there are still 1 1 votes in Manchester, and these representatives may vote for Australia.
In the face of this scene, the representative of China also felt great pressure, and life and death were at this moment.
However, it is worrying that the representative of Australia seems to be a shoo-in. But there is no time to think about it. The fourth round of voting began, but the result was disappointing. Beijing lost to Sydney by 43 votes to 45.
After getting this result, the representative of China was like a bolt from the blue. At that time, Mr. He was particularly uncomfortable and had to leave the meeting alone. It was raining heavily that day, and the frustration of the people of China is beyond words at this moment.
In the past three years, countless people have given up their holidays. In order to overcome one difficulty after another for this day, I saw that victory was just around the corner, but suddenly I lost. ......
Mr. He Liangzhen can't accept it, and neither can all people. Then the question is, why did we lose in the fourth round when we obviously had certain advantages?
According to the conditions of hosting the Olympic Games at that time, the bidding country must ensure the political stability of the country, be a big sports country, and have the economic strength and infrastructure to host the Olympic Games. Of course, you also need to have experience in hosting the Olympic Games.
Among the above five conditions, except for our experience in hosting the Olympic Games, we have not lost to Australia or even surpassed each other in any aspect.
For example, at that time, China resisted the Soviet Union and the United States, its political autonomy was first-class in the world, and its comprehensive national defense strength ranked in the top six in the world. Economically, we also rank tenth, better than Australia. Therefore, from the data of tooling, China is not lost to Australia.
Moreover, hosting the Olympic Games requires not only national strength, but also the votes of all countries. However, as mentioned above, China has received strong support from African countries, especially since China resumed its lawful activities in the United Nations, and China has had very close contacts with African countries.
Coupled with the strong support of Latin American countries, we should not lose to each other in terms of votes.
However, people in most countries have forgotten a background, that is, the cold war pattern of that year. Although China established diplomatic relations with the United States, it also resumed its legal seat in the United Nations. Western countries, led by the United States, have always kept their own ideological traditions, so they reject or even are hostile to China's participation in world activities.
As some western scholars said at that time: China's bid for the Olympic Games is a political event, not a national competition. As a result, the western media, led by the United States, began to focus on human rights, animal protection and the environment, and various reports discrediting China emerged one after another.
The trouble for the United States lies not only in encouraging western countries to fully support Australia, but also in directly exerting political pressure. For example, at that time, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution accusing China of being a country without human rights and opposing China's hosting of the Olympic Games by all political means.
For another example, after 60 members of the Senate wrote to Congress to oppose Beijing's bid for the Olympic Games, the United States later created more than 20 serious events that restricted China, such as the Galaxy incident.
Such a move made China's esoteric team once in trouble internationally. This is how Americans rely on public opinion to make a few western countries and some neutral countries less optimistic about China. Under the influence of such public opinion, they gradually tend to choose Australia, which calls itself "civilized".
Of course, although the war between the United States and western countries is fierce, if we look back at history, we will find that China was indeed glad you came in the 1990s. Although China emphasizes peace, we still insist on independence.
Therefore, we all use the facts and attitudes of big countries to refute the human rights and environmental problems accused by the other westerners. As for other serious political incidents, we adopt the attitude of "peace first, but never yield" to solve them.
So when we vote, African countries familiar with China will still support us. China's responsible attitude also makes Latin American countries trust us very much. Theoretically speaking, our match with western countries is actually a draw.
However, our competitors are not only huge western groups, but also direct competitors Australia.
As a country that hosted an Olympic Games at that time, Australia not only had this unique experience, but also had a beautiful environment and developed economy. Therefore, with the support of the forces behind him, he is also thinking of various tricks to prevent Beijing from bidding for the Olympic Games. From the opening scenery film to the suggestion that China is a novice, they actually played a lot of tricks.
However, it is the same as the game between China and the United States; In previous competitions, Australia did not gain a real advantage.
However, it was unlucky at that time. One is that we lost our votes by accident, and the other is that the informal method directly adopted by Australia succeeded.
Let's talk about accidental factors first. If you look at the delegates who voted at the beginning, you will find that two countries are absent, namely Egypt and Bulgaria.
The representative of Egypt expressed his support for China from the beginning, and Egypt's vote is a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, the Egyptian delegate was old and weak, and as a result, he had to leave for physical reasons before voting, so China lost one vote.
As for Bulgaria, this country's attitude is not clear, but its vote can decide the fate of China. However, civil strife broke out in Bulgaria, so the representative of that country was unable to vote.
Because of these two accidents, China is two votes behind Australia, so we have to say that Australia is lucky.
Of course, in addition to accidental factors, there are Australian means.
When Australia lagged behind China in the number of votes, Australia actually found representatives from two African countries. On the one hand, it treats them to dinner and gives them benefits. On the other hand, they were given a sports subsidy of $35,000 each.
It is exasperating that these two representatives originally chose to vote for China, but in the face of Australia's unconventional means, they chose Australia.
In this way, four tickets inexplicably flew out, especially at least three of them originally belonged to China. It was a proper victory, but it was sad to lose so painfully.
At that time, even Australian Commissioner Gospa made a meaningful remark after the vote: "Maybe some colleagues were thinking about Beijing when they voted for Sydney."
Shortly after the Olympic bid delegation came back, Wu Shaozu, the rank of Major General and the first director of the State Sports General Administration, attended a National Day celebration. As soon as Deng Xiaoping saw him, he asked about the specific matters of Beijing's failure to bid for the Olympic Games a few days ago.
Wu Shaozu briefed Deng Xiaoping on the final vote in Monte Carlo, and some angrily said, "Someone is playing tricks abroad." After hearing this, Deng Xiaoping was silent for a while. ......
In fact, this reason is what he expected. At that time, Deng Xiaoping's first reaction after learning the news of the failure of the Olympic bid was that someone was playing tricks.
But others are others, and things are not done well. We should also find some reasons from ourselves, constantly improve our own strength, and let others have no excuses. This is the key. Therefore, in view of this election failure, Deng Xiaoping's reply did not blindly feel the difficulties of the West, but summed up his own problems.
At that time, Deng Xiaoping said, "The West has nothing to rely on. This truth will take many years. Don't trust promises easily. Don't believe it if you don't get it. " Later, he said to him in a very kind and calm tone: "It doesn't matter if the bid fails, we will sum up our experience."
Deng Xiaoping's words not only criticized this unfair treatment, but also looked for reasons from his own factors. In the future, he will continue to strive for conditions and bid for the Olympic Games. I have to say that this fully reflects the foresight of a generation of great men.
In fact, it was not only difficult for China to bid for the Olympic Games at that time, but also some immature things, especially the technical problems of bidding for the Olympic Games, and the subsequent economic and international integration, which were more stringent than the Asian Games, and we still need to continue to hone.
In addition, according to the Olympic tradition at that time, it was difficult for every city to bid for the Olympic Games once, and most of them had to go through four or five times. Although we were already excellent at that time, it was still difficult for Beijing to succeed once.
However, China has a tradition of fools moving mountains, so failure is not terrible. The terrible thing is to retreat from difficulties.
Sure enough, China has further intensified its reform and opening up and continuously improved its economic strength and technological construction ability after being brave after being ashamed.
By the time of 1998, China's economy had exceeded 1 trillion, and the reform and opening up was flourishing. China let people all over the world see the hypocrisy of American rumors.
So, that year, we applied for the Olympic Games again. This time, other countries have recognized China, and they warmly welcome China's bid for the Olympic Games. At the same time, this time, the bidding team is more emboldened, even if some countries want to make things difficult again, it will not help.
When 200 1 was officially voted, the staff of the International Olympic Committee came to congratulate. "Beijing will be fine this time. Don't forget to invite us to dinner. " Members of the Olympic Committee who did not vote for the first bid for the Beijing ticket also said, "I'm sorry to apply for the last time, but today I think you have the conditions."
To the excitement of the bid members, the representative of China contacted 50 members of the International Olympic Committee. In the past, everyone was still discussing whether China could host the Olympic Games, but now everyone is giving advice to Beijing to host the Olympic Games.
The contrast before and after is simply different, and Beijing's bid for the Olympic Games is unstoppable.
Sure enough, the final voting result came out, and Beijing won the qualification to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Participants warmly celebrated, and the people of China were in tears when they heard the news. This time, we finally washed away the shame.
Looking back on the past history, we have the honor of hosting the Olympic Games in 2008 and the humiliation in the process of applying for the Olympic Games for the first time. Before and after the contrast is like a lifetime ago.
We don't have to be ashamed of our previous failures, let alone be proud of our success in 2008. We should clearly see the difference between before and after, not because the attitude of western representatives has changed, but because we have become stronger.
At that time, our strength was not really strong, so the west could launch more than 20 major political events to make things difficult for us, and also let public opinion attack us for not having human rights and destroying the environment.
Now, we have the economic strength that affects the world and the foundation of the first factory, and the western countries must accept us.
In addition, the 1990s coincided with the end of the Cold War, when the world was dominated by confrontation and supplemented by economic exchanges.
Therefore, western scholars believe that China's Olympic bid is a political event. But now economic globalization is the mainstream, and peaceful trade is everyone's appeal. Therefore, hosting the Olympic Games in China also represents the progress of an era and the arrival of a bright future.
As witnesses of history, we are proud of the Beijing Olympic Games and the beautiful development of mankind.
But at the same time, we should be alert that all the beauty lies in our development and our own strength, which requires everyone's efforts. In a word, fundamentally speaking, sports are closely related to the national movement. Sports will flourish only when the country is prosperous.