World leaders to attend launch of $50bn event which, say human rights groups, has also brought crackdown on dissent
Tania Braningan in Beijing
After eight years preparing, Shanghai is launching the biggest Expo so far with a lavish show of lights and fireworks.
Hu Jintao, China's president, is hosting leaders including the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, amid intense security in the eastern Chinese city. The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, and North Korea's top official, Kim Yong-nam, are also attending.
Almost 200 countries are participating in the multibillion-pound Expo, which opens its doors to the public today. An estimated 70 million people – mainly Chinese – are expected to visit in the next six months.
The Shanghai Expo 2010 features everything from palm trees from Saudi Arabia to Rodin sculptures from France – perhaps a bid by Paris to rival Denmark, which has brought its Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen harbour. Tourists will ride up to the roof of Switzerland's pavilion on a chairlift, while the Netherlands' "Happy Street" has miniature buildings set on what appears to be a helter-skelter.
The British pavilion – a cube pierced with 7-metre (23ft) Perspex spikes – proved so popular at trial openings that at one stage it had to be closed when too many people rushed to see it.
"Shanghai's hosting of the World Expo is the pride of all Chinese people," Hu told a delegation from Taiwan, according to China's state media. Earlier he described the event as "yet another important international gathering following the 2008 Beijing Olympic games".
Celebrities expected to perform at the opening include actor Jackie Chan – ubiquitous at big Chinese events – as well as pianist Lang Lang and tenor Andrea Bocelli, who also sang at the opening for the Beijing Olympics.
The tradition of Expos and World Fairs began with Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, but has lost much of its lustre in recent years.
China is hoping to breathe new life into it. It is spending $4.2bn (£2.7bn) to host the Expo. A reported $45bn has been spent overhauling Shanghai for the event – more than Beijing spent for the Olympics – with new airport terminals, hundreds of miles of subway line and a revamp of its historic waterfront, the Bund.
With security precautions at their height tonight, thousands of police are on duty, guards have been stationed at thousands of bus stops and 8,000 firefighters are on alert.
But campaigners say the event has also brought a crackdown on dissent. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said officials have detained, harassed or placed under surveillance activists, intellectuals and petitioners across Shanghai and surrounding areas. One target has been those who have protested over the forced demolition of their homes to make way for the Expo site. According to official estimates, 18,000 households have been knocked down.
In a statement the CHRD urged: "The government must stop the practice of placing 'troublemaking' individuals under surveillance and restricting their movements on 'sensitive' occasions. These individuals should not be punished for exercising their freedom of expression or their right to defend human rights."
Similar pressure was put on activists ahead of the Olympics.
Last month 6,000 people were detained in Shanghai in what officials described as a drive against "theft, gambling, prostitution and selling pornographic materials". In the runup to the event officials have also cleared many vendors off the streets and even ordered residents not to wear their pyjamas outside their homes, as some have become used to doing.
The Expo site, which spans both banks of the Huangpu river, is more than twice the size of Monaco at 5.3 sq km (1,310 acres). Shanghai residents have begun thronging areas nearby in the hope of catching the best of the fireworks display.
The Guardian
