Sandstorm hinders citizens in Beijing.
By Franz Schurmann A sorepoint in China's collective memory is its snub as host of the 2000 Olympics. In the late 1990's in Beijing one could still see half-finished buildings that had been aborted when the news shock came that China was booted out. And those who kicked hardest were Americans, especially in Congress. Now, just when Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen was in Washington and held serious talks with American officials from President Bush down, several members of Congress introduced a bill to deny China the 2008 Olympics unless it changes its human rights behavior. The organizers then took the signatures to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco where Consul Wang Yunxiang accepted them.