Does China deserve a 'fair go'? What has the IOC achieved?

While officials claim tens of thousands of people have been "relocated and compensated," the story is very different on the ground along the route and unrest is growing. What angers most is the fact that while they are in the grip of a major drought, and unable to access water for their livelihoods, their water is being used to flush polluted waterways in Beijing and irrigate the massive Olympic landscaping projects.

Civil unrest

The extent is one of China worst kept secrets. Solving the problem of extreme rural poverty has always eluded the CCP since its focus is directed to industrial and economic growth. The peasants were there to keep the workers in food.

Journalists breach state security for reporting on anti-government demonstrations. The state's response is an aggressive "campaign of persuasion" in which development projects and land seizures are "… part of a harmonious new era of prosperity, benefiting all and without protest ..."

The defenders of human rights face swift and harsh retaliation. The prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Teng Biao was detained and brutalised during a crackdown on NGOs and "undesirables". Gao Qinrong, a journalist uncovered official corruption in a fraudulent irrigation project. His records were confiscated and Gao was sentenced to eight years jail.

Teng and his compatriots are referred to as "barefoot lawyers" and a serious threat to the CCP. They are charged with "instigating public disorder", imprisoned, committed to mental institutions and diagnosed with "litigation mania".

Demonstrations or civil unrest go under many names in the Chinese media ranging from "crimes that interfered in government business", "mass incidents", "mass gatherings that disturbed social order" or "provocation and stirring up trouble".

• 1994: 10,000 demonstrations involved more than 3.7 million people;
• 2003: more than 58,000 demonstrations;
• 2004: more than 74,000 demonstrations;
• 2005: more than 87,000 (51,000 officially recorded as "pollution disputes"); and
• 2006: The unrest escalated due to a combination of pollution, serious health risks and illegal land grabs by corrupt officials. Numbers blew out to 120,000.

In recent years "pollution disputes" are increasing by 29 per cent each year. Degrading environment and associated serious health issues are fuelling "pollution disputes" and no longer relate just to "poisoned rivers", "cancer villages", "officially sanctioned illegal toxic waste dumping". They are becoming the focal issue that trigger fear for the CCP - increasing rural unrest.

China claims 250 million people were raised from poverty in 25 years. China's media highlights spectacular economic and industrial growth and China's place on the world stage. There is however a negative side. Access to TV, mobile phones and working in the big cities have increased the awareness of poor peasants and migrant workers of the prosperity enjoyed by their richer urban cousins.

The average city dweller may earn US$1,000 a year and can expect to live five years longer than his rural cousin earning just US$300 a year. The rural cousins however, represent 67 per cent of China’s 1.3 billion population. The CCP cannot ignore that widespread social unrest follows where economic growth ignores the poor.

The increasing inequalities of the wealth gap represent just as clear and present dangers for the CCP as that represented by the environment and related health issues.

Is China not being given a fair go?

Protest is growing from China's supporters suggesting that detractors are refusing to acknowledge China's considerable advances. These supporters demand recognition and respect for China.