China's Olympic challenge: China wanted this summer's Games to be a showcase for its economic achievements, but its critics had another idea: focusing the world's attention on the regime's human-rights abuses, both at home and abroad.(Cover story) From: New York Times Upfront | Date: May 5, 2008| Author: Yardley, Jim | COPYRIGHT 2008 Scholastic, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

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The images were exactly what the Chinese government was hoping to avoid in the months leading up to the Summer Olympics: Red-robed monks in Tibet clashing with Chinese police in a crackdown that killed at least 20 people; and a few weeks later, thousands of protesters turning the Olympic torch relay in London, Paris, and San Francisco into chaotic melees.

China and its critics have very different agendas for the Games--and the intense ...