Is it Really About the Health of Marathon Runners?

The controversy over this year’s Olympics in Beijing has been increasing in recent weeks, with protests during the torch relay and worldwide concerns over the practicality of having the games in a smog filled city. However, this issue seems to be much more than just anxiety about the breathing of a long jumper. I would posit that this is a way of soft balancing for declining super powers, like the US and for the rising power of China.
Pride is a central part of Chinese culture. Chinese people are proper and proud of their country and products. For them, the Olympics are a way to show the world that they are ready (a few decades down the line) to take the reins as a global hegemon. They want to demonstrate their ability to step on to the world stage and into the spotlight successfully. As a result of this desire, they have been particularly compromising when it comes to other countries’ anxieties about the pollution (I feel like in other situations, when it is not so globalized, the Chinese might not be so willing to change). The Olympics is a chance for them to highlight their success at leading the world.
For the US, the games are a chance to basically embarrass the Chinese. They need to balance their rise and a preventative war is simply not feasible and quite reckless. So, they must find other ways of reasserting their power and bringing the Chinese down. Embarrassment not only hurts the Chinese national pride, but also shows the rest of the world the Chinese weakness. Although the US is not entirely responsible for the current Tibet issue, I have no doubt that they encourage public debate and protest about it. Such global discussion allows the US to show Chinese weakness, especially in comparison to them, i.e. US has democratic freedoms, China does not yet. Additionally, the US wants to do everything possible to remind the world the China is a Communist country, so people remember that the US is the free, established democracy.
So, the Olympics this year are much more than just games. They are a battle between a declining and a rising, a fight of pride and power. I am curious to see who wins; I think it will have major implications for the next few decades of this battle.