State-owned news agency Xinhua’s top headline on their Chinese website this morning is:
Are we ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games?
The answer comes in the form of a long essay that manages to quote Lu Xun and Hu Jintao, tell the story of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, rehash a bunch of Beijing Olympic slogans (green Olympics, humanistic Olympics etc.), invoke the Party’s previously stated intention of building a society of well-off people (小康社会), and criticize Beijing swearing (京骂).
The answer to the question posed by the headline is not given until the end of the article:
There are 800 days left until the Olympics, are we ready?
Beijing, a warmly smiling ancient city that is also a modern metropolis; vibrant China, a country that is forging ahead. In order to organize a unique, high level Olympic Games, we are doing great things that have never been done before, we will certainly be able to do this great thing.
The world will give us 17 days, we will give the world back 5,000 years!
That will put any doubts to rest!