Olympic mascots and dancers celebrate the start of the 1,000-day countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics at Beijing's Workers' Stadium on Nov. 11.

The International Olympic Committee will not make a decision until next year or possibly 2007, said Gilbert Felli, executive director of the Olympic Games.

Beijing official submitted the relay plan to the IOC, Wang Wei, executive president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said Nov. 10.

The proposal highlights how China hopes to use the Beijing Games to advance political goals, in this case its claims that Taiwan is part of China.

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian suspects that Beijing wants to use symbolic and commercial diplomacy to lend legitimacy to the main- land's territorial claims. Taipei has yet to agree to Beijing's offer of a panda, made earlier this year to a Taiwanese opposition politician.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 19, 2005
(C) All rights reserved