BEIJING, July 17 (AFP) - China has signalled it will not be pressured into improving human rights following its comments that the Olympic win justified its tough crackdown on the Falungong spiritual movement, analysts said Tuesday.
Just three days after Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Games, vice premier Li Lanqing vowed to continue the government's suppression of the group, which is outlawed in mainland China but nowhere else in the world.
"The winning of the 2008 Olympic bid is an example of the international recognition of China's social stability, economic progress and the healthy life of the Chinese people," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying.
"We should keep fighting against the cult which has stirred insecure elements."
China analysts said the comments were a statement by China that it would not succumb to pressure to make domestic political reforms over the next seven years despite being in the international spotlight.
"I think it's back to business, back to the reality of China," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, director of the Hong Kong-based French Center for Research on Contemporary China.
Lau Siu-kai, a Hong Kong political analysts, said the message was aimed at telling Falungong members not to expect any let-up in the crackdown.
He said it was also meant to ensure people did not think that Beijing made political deals to win the bid.
Falungong's Hong Kong spokesman Tuesday said he feared China would use the international recognition gained as a "license to kill" practitioners on the mainland.
"We are very worried that after winning the Olympic bid that (Chinese President) Jiang Zemin's regime will still persecute and torture Falungong practitioners," Kan Han Cheung said.
Supporters of Beijing's Olympic bid had hoped giving China a chance to host the Games would lead to the type of democratization seen in South Korea after Seoul won the bid to host the 1988 Games.
The South Korean military regime eventually relinquished power and agreed to allow democratic elections prior to the Games.
But many China watchers said China was a more complicated country and it was unlikely any significant political reform would come about as a result of the Olympics.
Change would more likely come about due to internal pressures, they said.
"In the next seven years, there will be efforts by the Chinese government to propagate a better image, but that will be just for show, such as releasing a few dissidents at the right time," Cabestan said.
China has arrested tens of thousands of Falungong members over the past two years and launched a major anti-crime campaign resulting in the execution of more than 1,800 people.
Critics of Beijing's bid said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had given China a blank check in terms of repression by granting it the Games.
They argued that anyone trying to use the Olympic build-up to pressure Beijing would be criticised by the public for jeopardising the nation's ability to successfully host the Games and causing China to lose face.
The Olympics would then be the perfect argument for authorities to suppress dissent, analysts said.
Unless there was another massacre like the one on June 4th, 1989, which crushed pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square, or an invasion of Taiwan, China would be unlikely to fall under any major pressure from the IOC, countries or athletes, analysts said.
The main impetus for change, Lau said, would be the results of economic opening and the leaders' realizing economic growth could only occur if reforms were carried out, such as wiping out corruption.
Domestic pressures, such as high unemployment, and the growing demand for public services and social guarantees, might also pressure the government to change.