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Olympic expectations
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CommentSeven years ago, when Olympic organizers awarded the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing, there were high hopes that the event would force China to open its society and foster greater respect for human rights. “This is a very important step in the evolution of China’s relationship with the world,” said former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, architect of another important step in that evolution in the 1970s.
Yet on the day of the announcement in July 2001, CBS News reported that government officials in Beijing had forbidden the network from transmitting video footage for a news story on the Falun Gong religious movement. That should have been taken as an omen.
Yet on the day of the announcement in July 2001, CBS News reported that government officials in Beijing had forbidden the network from transmitting video footage for a news story on the Falun Gong religious movement. That should have been taken as an omen.
Contrary to the fondest hopes of the likes of Kissinger and former International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, China is not moving forward. If anything, Beijing’s paranoia about foreign and domestic threats to its power has only been heightened by the international spotlight cast by the Olympics. Human rights organization Amnesty International reports that the government has stepped up detentions of individuals who threaten the “harmony” of the Games, and despite assurances that foreign journalists would have free access to the Internet, Beijing is blocking Web sites that it finds politically troublesome. The Games have done next to nothing to discourage China from propping up a genocidal regime in Sudan, nor did they prevent the brutal repression of Tibetan protests this spring.
Meanwhile, the government’s assurances that it would clear up Beijing’s filthy skies in time for the Games now look like so much hot air. Conditions are so bad that current IOC chief Jacques Rogge has warned that outdoor endurance events may have to be postponed.
Meanwhile, the government’s assurances that it would clear up Beijing’s filthy skies in time for the Games now look like so much hot air. Conditions are so bad that current IOC chief Jacques Rogge has warned that outdoor endurance events may have to be postponed.
This isn’t the first time a totalitarian regime has hosted the Olympics, and it usually hasn’t turned out well. Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Games as a propaganda tool for the Third Reich. Soviet leaders wanted to do the same in 1980, though a U.S.-led boycott spoiled those plans and turned that summer’s event in Moscow into a farce. Of course, sometimes the Olympics can have a progressive effect — many believe that the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul helped speed South Korea’s democracy movement. But it’s looking increasingly unlikely that China will follow that example.
Beijing wasn’t ready for the Olympics in 2001, when it was selected to host the Games, and days before the opening ceremonies, it still isn’t ready. That’s something the IOC should ponder the next time it’s tempted to try to spread freedom via freestyle.
Beijing wasn’t ready for the Olympics in 2001, when it was selected to host the Games, and days before the opening ceremonies, it still isn’t ready. That’s something the IOC should ponder the next time it’s tempted to try to spread freedom via freestyle.
(This editorial originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.)
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Sandra wrote on Aug 7, 2008 10:28 AM:
Beijing wasn’t ready for the Olympics in 2001, when it was selected to host the Games, and days before the opening ceremonies, it still isn’t ready. "
All I can say is...WELL, DUH! "
kdbk wrote on Aug 7, 2008 7:39 PM:
Totalitarian regimes will not change when the world is nice to them and "accepts" them. They change when their own people rebel or when an outside force overcomes them.
The human rights abuses in China are simply awful. And I'm sure I don't even have to mention the environmental catastrophe that exists in China. What utter madness that the Olympics are being held in such a place.
Granted, there is no perfect approach to dealing with totalitarian countries. But one thing is for sure. Left-wing double-speak ideology about making concessions and "working things out" always ends up just making the bad guys stronger. Think about that when you vote in November.
I don't expect the U.S. and other countries to completely turn their back on China. But allowing them to host the Olympics, and then sending our athletes to that place where they can't even breathe safely, is a travesty against all who suffer persecution under cruel regimes the world over. "