On the Olympic torch protests
When China was awarded the 2008 Olympics seven years ago, the executive director of the International Olympic Committee made the announcement with breathtaking naiveté:
Beijing was the front-runner throughout the race, even with criticism about its human rights record. IOC members clearly believed the Olympics will open China to the world, improve the human rights situation and speed social and economic reforms.
"We are totally aware at the IOC there is one issue on the table ... and that is human rights," IOC director general Francois Carrard said. "Human rights is a very serious issue in the entire world ... It is not up to the IOC to interfere in this issue, but we are taking the bet that seven years from now, we sincerely and dearly hope we will see many changes."
Seven years later, nothing has changed. Seven years later, free speech is non-existent in China, the Beijing government continues its brutal, illegal occupation of Tibet, and its human rights record on all other issues remains abysmal. The Chinese government has failed to live up to its end of the bargain. The current protests accompanying the Olympic torch in London, Paris, and San Francisco are just about the only thing standing in the way of the Chinese government turning the 2008 Summer Olympics into a repeat of 1936's propaganda orgy in Berlin.
The protesters have it exactly right.
Heads of state will validate China's horrific human rights record by attending the opening ceremonies, tourists will validate China's regime by spending their money in Beijing, and athletes will validate China by participating in the games. All three groups would bear equal blame for lending credence to the totalitarian Chinese regime, and all three would do so by their own autonomous choices. Although the Olympics are supposed to be beyond politics and are supposed to rise above international disputes, the Chinese government itself is assuring that this cannot happen. By responding with violence to the recent protests in Tibet, the Chinese government has triggered global protests which it fully deserves.