Raised under Communist rule in the midst of the Cultural Revolution before setting down roots in Canada, Jujie Luan has watched up close – and then from afar – as China grew up fast.
China's gold-medal winning Olympic fencer, who is competing for Canada in Beijing, shrugs off criticism and protests about her homeland's selection to host the 2008 Games.
Times have changed, she says, especially in the past two decades since she's lived in Edmonton.
In China, the economy is better, she says. People have more money; so does the government. Chinese leadership is less secretive. Human rights have improved. And there is unity among the people. It is only now, she adds, that China could pull off what is being billed as the biggest Games in history.
“I think China is very strong now,” she says. “That's what China couldn't do before because they were not strong enough.”
She pointed to the spring's devastating earthquake in Sichuan, which saw China open the area to local and international reporters, invite foreign help and accept financial aid.
That wasn't the case in 1976, she points out, when a massive earthquake hit Tangshan, killing an estimated 655,000 people and injuring another 799,000. Yet China denied access to foreigners and refused outside assistance until years later.
Ms. Luan dismisses protesters and critics of the Games as “jealous” of China's success, and describes them as miscreants just looking for an international stage to voice their opinions.
“Some people just want to make trouble. That's the only thing with the Olympic Games, it's a big Games, right? That's the only way that they have the opportunity to try to make trouble,” she says.
Still, she's not worried that critics raising questions about independence for Tibet, arms supplies in Sudan and internal human rights will cause the kind of disruptions during the Games that have plagued the torch run.
“I don't think they can,” she says, waving her hand dismissively.
“Don't worry about it.”
