By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing opened the Paralympic Games inspectacular fashion on Saturday, an event China's leaders hopewill show them in a compassionate light.
The crowd roared its approval in the main Bird's Neststadium at the lavish performance put on to welcome the Games,overseen by renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, whichfeatured the incorporation of sign language into dance.
Particularly well received was a ballet performance by ayoung girl who lost a leg in May's massive Sichuan earthquake,and an athlete who hoisted himself up a rope -- along with hiswheelchair -- to light the Paralympic flame.
"The Chinese people uphold the spirit of self-reliance andperseverance, and they are proud of their virtue of supportingand helping people with a disability," chief Games' organiserLiu Qi said in a speech.
Chinese President Hu Jintao told an official lunch earlierin the day that the government was dedicated to improving thelives of the country's 83 million disabled citizens.
"We stand for equality, oppose discrimination, care for thevulnerable and respect human rights," Hu said, according tostate media.
"We have adopted a range of policies and measures toencourage public care and support for people with a disabilityand actively promote their overall well-being, and ourachievements have been recognised by all."
To ensure stadiums will not be half-empty after asuccessful Olympics, the Communist Party will use itsmobilising power via omnipresent neighbourhood committees toentice people to come.
Incentives offered include free T-shirts, baseball caps,bottled water, lunch boxes and 30 yuan ($4.40) each tospectators to cheer Paralympic athletes.
"The leadership has decided to host a high-profileParalympics," a source with ties to the leadership toldReuters, referring to the government's focus on an eventnormally totally overshadowed by the Olympics.
An unprecedented 6,000 reporters have registered to coverthe September 6-17 event, organisers said. More than half areChinese.
RIGHTS PROBLEMS
While there is applause in some quarters for China'sefforts to tackle stigma associated with being disabled, and toimproving access by adding elevators for wheelchairs inBeijing's subway for example, rights groups say the picture isnot so rosy.
That includes harassment of some activists, Human RightsWatch said.
"Until the Chinese government tolerates a civil societywhich operates without threat of official repression andimproves ordinary citizens' access to justice, its commitmentson paper to people with disabilities will remain limited," saidSophie Richardson, the group's Asia advocacy director.
The opening ceremony was briefly disrupted when a Chinesewoman entered the main floor area and tried to remove herclothes as the athletes paraded in, though she was "persuaded"to leave, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Conspicuously absent from the Games are several survivorsof the Tiananmen pro-democracy protest crackdown in 1989,including a former wheelchair discus and javelin champion, whowere left disabled after troops rolled in to put down thedemonstrations.
Fang Zheng, who lost both legs after they were mangled by atank during the unrest, has been a living testimony to the useof brute force and an embarrassment to the government.
He went on to become China's wheelchair discus and javelinchampion in 1992 and 1993, but was barred from the Far EastGames for the Disabled in Beijing in 1994 even though he hadagreed not to reveal the cause of his injury to foreignreporters.
"I suspect Fang Zheng is under surveillance again," saidDing Zilin, spokeswoman for the Tiananmen Mothers group.
(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim; editing byRobert Hart)