Beijing 2008: A Triumph for Human Rights Abusers Everywhere (Part 3)
March 13, 2008 Posted in News
In my last two articles, I have been examining China’s Human Rights record. In the first, I discussed China’s human rights abuses leading up to July 14, 2001, when the Olympic Committee agreed to have Beijing be the sight for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In the second, I detailed the negative impact that this decision is having upon the already stringent human rights of the Chinese populace.
Steven Spielberg withdrew from his position as an artistic adviser at the Beijing Olympics citing China’s record on Darfur. His decision received both praise and criticism.
In reaction to the resignation, Milan Zever, sports minister of Slovenia, the current presiding country of the European Union stated,
“Sports is too important. It is too important to use it as a political instrument.”
Really now? More important than a genocide?
President Bush portrayed Spielberg’s resignation as a personal choice rather than a selfless gesture:
“That’s up to him. I’m going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event […] On the other hand, I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg, so I get to talk to President Hu Jintao […] I do remind him that he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur.”
As great as it is for Bush to be able to remind us little people (though Spielberg is definitely not little) that he has foreign policy under control, evidence suggests that China could do much more to stop the genocide.
China actually has a very large impact within foreign policy. Its economic support of human rights violators deeply undermines the effectiveness of policies calling for the reversal of these violators’ positions.
China is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the most powerful body within the UN. The UNSC has considerable “soft power”—meaning that while it cannot threaten such “hard power” actions such as a declaration of war, it can influence world opinion by condemning certain actions and follow up such condemnation with economic sanctions.
Each UNSC member may use its veto power to strike down such measures. China has used this power to protect its’ trade interests with such countries as Sudan and Myanmar, blocking attempts to place pressure on these governments.
Sudan sells nearly two-thirds of its oil to Beijing who in turn sells weapons to Sudan.
Further pressure has been put on China through Team Darfur, a group of Olympic athletes dedicated to raising awareness on the issue. Team Darfur was begun by American speed skater Joey Cheek.
He stated,
“I would love to have several hundred more athletes in Team Darfur by Beijing and I see no reason why we can’t recruit a few hundred more […] So much of the Olympic charter is about brotherhood and achieving something greater through sport; it’s pretty lofty language. It seems hypocritical for people within the Olympic movement to say ‘We believe in human rights’ and then take no action.”
While the Olympic venues are already safeguarded from political demonstration by the rules of International Olympic committee, Britain, for one, feels that this is not enough.
The government has added an addendum to the contract of the British Olympians prohibiting them from making any politically sensitive remarks or gestures during the Games.
So am I saying you should boycott watching the Games? Not really. It might impress your friends, but seriously unless you want to hurt CBS and NBC it really won’t matter.
The best lesson we can all glean from this experience is to be more actively aware. Beijing was slated to host the 2008 games in 2001 yet it is only within the past six months that its’ human rights record has been hitting the news.
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Suzie - George Washi says:
Sun, 20th Apr 20085:38 am
Thanks for the Chinese Propaganda angle.
Check out my other posts for discussion of the Guantanamo travesties and Iraqi human rights nightmare.
Jarod says:
Sun, 20th Apr 20089:32 am
All these are purely western propaganda. I am currently residing in London and am disgusted with the western governments and the croynies, BBC, CCN, & etc drumming up the issue of Tibet & China. What about Guatamela Bay, the trade embargo by US on North Korea & Cuba, the INVASION of Iraq and Afghan (Where is the WMD and where is Osama??)
A recent German website report reinforced an impression about a puppet show going on along with the Olympic torch relay, with the Dalai Lama and his supporters on the stage and anti-China forces behind the curtain.
The report on the http://www.german-foreign-policy.com website said the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNSt), largely state-financed German foreign policy front organization, was behind an “action plan” to spur anti-China protests over Tibet before and during the2008 Beijing Olympics.
At the fifth “International Tibet Support Groups Conference” organized by the FNSt in Brussels on May 11-14, 2007, a “plan of action” was made after several days of consultations to make the Olympics the focus of attack for the next 15 months, the report said.
It said Paula Dobriansky, the Undersecretary of State in the U.S. State Department and special coordinator for Tibet questions, attended the conference.
“They hired a full-time organizer for their campaign, who has since been directing the worldwide Tibet actions from their Washington headquarters,” the report said.
Studying the recent chaos about Tibet, people found that so-called “peaceful demonstrations” claimed 19 innocent lives in Lhasa, rumors about “violent crackdown on peaceful protestors” were never confirmed, and tolerance was given to those violently interrupting the Olympic torch relay.
These are the same tricks as some anti-China forces have been playing against a fast-growing China.
A tendency to make this Asian giant a threat and devil is very obvious. Regardless of the reality in the country, some people in the West always blame China for its social system, democracy, human rights and environmental protection.
The Singapore-based daily Lianhe Zaobao said in a report, “Although remaining a small group of people, ‘Tibet independence’ supporters who tried to grab the Olympic torch and disturb the relay stood for the long standing bias, discrimination and hostility held by some people in the West.”
Anyone that is willing to stand against the country is embraced by these forces. The Dalai Lama has long been a good choice — he is portrayed as a “victim suffering China’s repression” and “merciful religious master.”
Historic researches have found that he received foreign supports to trigger a riot in 1959 and fled abroad.
His hardcore supporters had openly admitted that they received about 1.7 million U.S. dollars a year from foreign intelligence agencies in the 1960s and, according to some uncovered documents, the Dalai Lama himself was granted subsidies.
Several organizations such as “Tibet Fund,” “International Campaign for Tibet” and “Tibet Information Network” have also received a large amount of financial support from foreign foundations and organizations.
With their assistance, the Dalai Lama managed to tour the world as a “human right fighter” and spread his ideas about “Tibet independence.”
French Socialist senator Jean-Luc Melenchon said Tibet is just an excuse and the recent anti-China activities reminded him of the past when colonists forced China into opium trade.
Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan Antonio Samaranch also agreed that the chaos during the torch relay were not accidental.
At least, based on the report from Germany, people from the Dalai group and some anti-China forces have been working on this for quite a long time.
And this double act is going on.