The 2008 Beijing Olympics were packed with made-for-TV moments. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set three world records, often smiling as he crossed the finish line. Michael Phelps, the American swimming superstar, won an improbable eight gold medals. And the opening ceremony, held in the Bird's Nest Stadium, dazzled an international audience with thousands of drummers and fireworks lighting up the night sky.
Such images helped forge a narrative of the Beijing games as a successful "coming out" party for first-time host China. For U.S. broadcaster NBCUniversal [NBC], meanwhile, it added up to a ratings bonanza. Over sixteen days, 211 million viewers tuned into its coverage, making it the most watched television event ever in the United States.
In less than two weeks, the Olympics will return to Beijing for the 2022 Winter games. But with China facing a new Covid surge caused by the Omicron variant and ten countries — including the U.S. — staging a diplomatic boycott
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Agribusiness giant Syngenta is unique on the world stage: it is a state-owned Chinese firm with an American CEO. After ChemChina's historic purchase of the company in 2017 — the largest ever purchase by a Chinese company overseas — Syngenta is now ready for its big China debut with a planned blockbuster IPO in Shanghai this fall. But while "modernizing" farming in China has been good for Syngenta's business, helping Beijing achieve its long-sought after goal of food self sufficiency will be more complicated feat.
The journalists and authors talk about what sets China's use of surveillance tech apart from other countries; how the building blocks of that tech came from the West; and how the surveillance state can be...
