Beijing Olympics open

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BEIJING -- This is the moment -- 8-8-08 at 8:08 p.m. -- that China has been waiting at least seven years for and, in reality, many, many more, going back to the Cultural Revolution when Chairman Mao attempted to return the country to an isolationist past.

But the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics (which began at 5:08 a.m. PDT on Friday) is not about China rejoining the world stage. The Chinese did that in 2001, when they were allowed into the World Trade Organization and won the right from the International Olympic Committee to organize the 2008 Summer Games.

This opening ceremony was about China for at least the next 17 days becoming the world stage. The Chinese, accustomed to humiliation, real and perceived, by foreigners for centuries, are secure enough these days that they were willing, even eager, to share the spotlight.

The design of the modernist 91,000-seat Olympic stadium, the Bird’s Nest, was a joint effort between the Chinese and a Swiss company. The choreographer for the opening ceremony, Shen Wei, is based in New York. One of the featured singers, Sarah Brightman, is British. Even the flag-bearer for the Chinese team, basketball’s Yao Ming, makes his living in Houston.

President Bush was among the foreign dignitaries who committed to attend the opening ceremony, which was expected to have a worldwide television audience of 4 billion.

Not everyone was invited. Protesters critical of China’s human rights record and its policies in connection with Tibet and Sudan have been removed from Beijing in recent days; other activists have been denied visas.

Bush, at the opening of the new U.S. Embassy Friday, urged the Chinese to ‘let people say what they think.’’

But Bush, the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil, stressed that he is here to support U.S. athletes and see some sporting events, which begin Saturday morning.

Next: More from the opening ceremony.

Enjoy your breakfast.

-- Randy Harvey

Updated photo at 9:25 a.m.