A senior political advisor in China has said that the country
shouldn't be too enthusiastic about the number of gold medals it
could earn at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as it is no indicator
of the country's real national strength.
"I think it will be a quite satisfactory result if our country
can enter the top three of the gold medal tally at the 2008 Beijing
Olympics," said Xu Kuangdi, vice chairman of the National Committee
of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, China's
top advisory body in its annual full session here.
Given the fact that China's per capita GDP (gross domestic
product) only ranks around the 100th in the world, it is really
unnecessary for the people to lay too much stress on the goal of
reaping the most golds at the Beijing Olympics, Xu said during a
panel discussion with fellow advisors.
"Our country's national strength is still not good enough, so I
think it's inappropriate to make a big fuss over the goal of
becoming No. 1 on the Olympic gold medal tally," said Xu, also
president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and former mayor of
Shanghai.
China, which won its first Olympic gold at the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympic Games, seized 32 golds at the Athens Games in 2004, ranking
second on the gold medal table only after the United States which
grabbed 35 golds.
It is widely speculated that China will take advantage of its
host nation status and try to become the biggest winner at the 2008
Beijing Games.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2007)