New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2008. This is one of the first books to look at the 2008 Beijing games within the context of the politics of sport in Asia. For China, the Beijing Games introduced a liberalizing ethos that its authoritative regime could ignore only at its peril. Victor D. Cha - former director of Asian affairs for the White House - evaluates Beijing's contention with this pressure considering the intense scrutiny China already faced on issues of counterproliferation, global warming, and free trade.