Beijing

BEIJING - Wedged between a rice paddy and the city's eight-lane beltway stands a giant billboard with an artist's rendering of Beijing's Olympic Park. In the center is an 80,000-seat soccer stadium flanked by a sleek, gunmetal-gray gymnasium and a swimming center bathed in glass. In the sign's bottom right corner, almost as an afterthought, is a small reminder that the complex may never be built. "Beijing 2008," it reads. "Candidate City." Today, in Moscow, Beijing finally meets its fate.

BEIJING - The first U.S. anti-drug czar to visit China announced yesterday that the two countries have signed an unprecedented agreement to share intelligence and evidence in combating the narcotics trade and related crimes. Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House national drug policy director, said U.S. law enforcement agencies will begin working more closely with their Chinese counterparts to ferret out international crime rings dealing drugs, laundering money and smuggling arms. McCaffrey held out the possibility of opening an FBI office in Beijing, which would require an unusually high level of cooperation between two nations often on edge in their joint ties.

BEIJING - As the number of reported SARS infections rose sharply in China's capital yesterday, an army of construction workers rushed to erect a hospital in the northern suburbs to house at least a thousand people who have the highly infectious respiratory illness. Working nonstop for four days, 4,000 people from this city's biggest construction companies have dug trenches, laid pipe, poured concrete and slapped together siding to create a grid of low-rise shelters that resembles a military encampment.

BEIJING -- Add another sad chapter to the lengthy annals of East does not meet West.Moments before Sydney, Australia, was announced as the International Olympic Committee's choice to host the 2000 Summer Olympics this morning, hundreds of geared-up party-goers here broke into pandemonium under the misimpression that Beijing had been picked.Watching the proceedings on a huge TV screen, they heard IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch thank the five contesting cities, beginning with Beijing.

BEIJING -- China's besieged leaders have hit on a new formula to maintain political stability, curry international respect and promote economic development: hosting big-time international sports meets.They believe it worked in 1990 when the Asian Games were held here for the first time. And they are counting on it again if Beijing is selected as the site for the Summer Olympics in 2000.China applied to host the Olympics in December. It faces a stiff fight with perhaps seven other cities -- among them, Berlin and Sydney, Australia -- before the International Olympic Committee decides late next year.

HONG KONG - Fearing a setback in elections next year, the leaders of the main pro-Beijing political party here called yesterday for the government to delay internal-security legislation by more than a year. The step was especially surprising because the Beijing-controlled newspaper China Daily declared in an editorial this week that the legislation must be enacted "as soon as possible." Huge street demonstrations last month and the defection of key political allies had already forced Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, to retreat from his original insistence that the bill be passed before the lawmakers' summer recess.

This weeks landmark U.S.-China trade accord is producing jubilation and fears around the globe. The European Union and Canada now wonder whether they can reach terms as advantageous. Meanwhile, the World Trade Organizations Nov. 30 ministerial meeting in Seattle promises to be a focus point for demonstrators worrying about the deals implications for environmental standards, trade unions and national sovereignty.All those issues are certain to provoke plenty of debate. As they should. In the end, though, this trade normalization measure is in the best U.S. interests.

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's chief executive, bowing to public pressure, announced yesterday that he was withdrawing internal-security legislation that had provoked huge protests in July. The retreat by Tung Chee-hwa, the chief executive, is a startling setback for Beijing, which rarely yields to popular demand. Beijing had insisted for much of the past year that Hong Kong pass stringent security laws as soon as possible. Tung mounted a campaign to persuade the public that the bill's opponents were unpatriotic people who disliked China and, in the words of Qian Qichen, until recently China's deputy prime minister, had "devils in their hearts."

The Sun's Olympic correspondents, Rick Maese and Kevin Van Valkenburg, are blogging back and forth to each other at baltimoresun.com/olympicsblog. An excerpt: To Kevin, et al. It feels like years, but a couple of weeks ago I wrote a column about Michael Phelps moving back to Baltimore after these Olympics. I had a small line toward the end of the column, mentioning how Phelps hopes to nab Ravens tickets when he returns home. Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti took note of the line, and I was asked how he could get in touch with Phelps.

BEIJING -- Two months ago, China's senior leader, Deng Xiaoping, kicked off a public drive for greater economic reform with a trip to Guangdong province in the south. Yesterday, news of his trip finally made it into major state-controlled media here.The reports by China's official news agency, its national television news and two Beijing-based newspapers carried no new information. But their appearance suggests Mr. Deng has at least partly triumphed over conservative opponents who control Beijing's propaganda mill.