MOFO Olympics Beijing

To change the Olympics, change the channel

2008-08-08T03:05:00.000-07:00

picture from http://neoshinka.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/why-i-boycott-beijing-2008-olympic-games/

To change the Olympics, change the channel

Jonathan Zimmerman

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I love everything about sports: playing them, viewing them and writing about them. But when the Olympic Games start later this week in Beijing, I'm not going to watch. And neither should you.

Call it the People's Boycott. Despite worldwide protests, every major nation is sending its athletes to Beijing. That's all the more reason for you and me to stage our own silent demonstration. If you want to change the Olympics, change the channel.

Anything less will make you party to the cynical brutality of China's leaders, who have broken nearly every promise they made when they were awarded the Games in 2001. Although the government pledged to allow journalists unfettered access to the Internet during the Olympics, for example, censors have blocked Web sites such as Radio Free Asia and Amnesty International. This is the same regime that bankrolls Sudanese dictator Omar el-Bashir, who was recently indicted for genocide and war crimes in Darfur. But China turns a deaf ear to the international community, insisting that the Darfur crisis is an "internal affair."

And that's the same line it uses with respect to Tibet, of course, where China crushed a rebellion earlier this spring. Ditto for the jailing of political dissidents and the muzzling of parents who lost children during last May's earthquake. "Internal affairs," all.

If you really believe that, go ahead and watch the Olympics. But if you think that people should have the same human rights, no matter where they happen to live, then it's incumbent upon you to look away when the Games come on. The People's Boycott will face objections, of course. I can already predict five of them:

1. The Olympics shouldn't be "political." That's like saying unmarried men shouldn't be bachelors. The Olympics have always been political. They were political in 1936, when Adolf Hitler used the Games to burnish his international standing; in 1968, when two African American medal-winners raised their fists in a black power salute; in 1972, when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes; and in 1980, when 60 nations boycotted the Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. One of those nations was - you guessed it - the People's Republic of China.

2. Protesting the Olympics reflects "anti-Chinese" bigotry. No, it doesn't. It's a critique of the Chinese government, not of its citizenry. I have written hundreds of columns questioning the American government's behavior, in Iraq and elsewhere, and but that doesn't mean I'm "anti-American." So why does a demand for an Olympic boycott make me "anti-Chinese"?

3. The United States commits its own human-rights abuses, in Iraq and elsewhere. Like I said, I'm no friend of the war in Iraq. But I'm also free to tell you that, in print and in person, without fear of government goons harassing me or my family. Chinese dissidents aren't so lucky.

4. The People's Boycott will penalize hard-working athletes. That was the best argument I have heard against a true Olympic boycott: if a country withheld its athletes, their toil and preparation would go for naught. Now that all of the nations are participating, however, it's hard to see how turning off your television set will harm Olympic competitors. They'll still get to play, but they'll also get put on notice that lots of people object.

5. The People's Boycott won't make a difference. Maybe not this year. But down the road, it will. After all, NBC bid nearly $900 million to broadcast the Beijing Games. If its TV ratings suffer, you can bet that the International Olympic Committee - which derives the bulk of its revenue from broadcast fees - will think twice before awarding the Games to another dictatorial government.

And remember: Whether you watch the Olympics or not, your children will be watching you. One day, people will read about the Beijing Games and ask how the world could possibly have played along. Your kids will have a ready answer: We didn't. And they'll be proud of it, too.

Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at New York University, is the author of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory," forthcoming from Yale University Press.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/05/EDH0124R8M.DTL

This article appeared on page B - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Obama says he wouldn't attend the Olympics opening

2008-07-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

Obama says he wouldn't attend the Olympics opening

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama took issue Monday with President Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, saying he would go to Beijing only if he saw progress between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

"In the absence of some sense of progress, in the absence of some sense from the Dalai Lama that there was progress, I would not have gone," the presidential candidate told reporters at a news conference.

Obama previously has called on the Republican president to boycott the ceremonies.

Bush said last week that he will attend opening ceremonies for the games in Beijing next month. Some world leaders plan to boycott the event because of China's human rights record and its handling of unrest in Tibet.

Chinese officials met last week with two envoys sent to Beijing by the Dalai Lama from his exile base in India.

A statement issued Saturday from the Tibetan side said another meeting would be held in October, but said it wished the Chinese leadership had taken "more tangible" steps during the talks. The Chinese side failed to agree to issue a joint statement committing the two sides to talks, it said

Obama said he "would liked to have seen some more aggressive efforts to encourage progress and talks between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

"It strikes me that although some meetings have been taking place, that we were not aggressive in encouraging the Chinese government to make serious concessions there," he said.

Bush on Sunday defended his decision, saying that to skip the opening ceremonies would be an "affront" to the Chinese people.

Obama's Republican rival, John McCain, said in April that if he were president, he would only attend the opening ceremonies if China improves its record on human rights and other issues.

Homegrown threats top Olympics security worries-official

2008-07-08T01:08:00.000-07:00

Homegrown threats top Olympics security worries-official

Reuters
Homegrown threats top China's security worries for the Beijing Olympic Games, an official overseeing security said, warning that airborne threats to Games venues will be shot down if they come too close.

Tian Yixiang, head of the Beijing Olympic Games Security Protection Coordinating Group, said the top "terror" threats to the August Games come from Uighur militants campaigning for independence for Xinjiang in China's far northwest, from Tibetan independence groups, and from followers of the banned Falun Gong sect.
"The security situation facing the Beijing Olympic Games is stable overall, but there remain threats in the traditional and non-traditional security spheres," Tian told the official magazine Outlook Weekly.

"Terror attacks are the principal threat to Olympic Games Security," he said, according to the report, which was circulated on the Xinhua news agency's website (www.xinhuanet.com).

Tian, who has rarely given public comments on preparations for the Games, said a failed bomb attack on a plane in Xinjiang in March and anti-Chinese unrest across Tibet that same month, "amply showed that they are scheming to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games".

The official comments bluntly underscored how, just over a month before the Games open on Aug. 8, Beijing sees the main Games threat from long-term domestic worries, rather than international terrorist groups with no direct focus on Chinese policies.
Exiled Uighurs and groups campaigning for Tibetan self-determination have both repeatedly denounced as self-serving exaggeration China's claims that they form terrorist threats.

In talks last week with envoys of the Dalai Lama, Chinese officials said the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader should denounce "violent terror" and named the exiled Tibetan Youth Congress as a particular threat.

The Dalai Lama's envoys said they "categorically rejected" the Chinese claims that the Congress engaged in "violent terror".

Tian said the airspace around Games venues would be closely controlled and security forces would seek to warn off, force down or shoot down airborne attacks as they approached.

Chinese military forces have been readying for the Games since early 2005, and were still rigorously training, Tian said.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Rights Group Slams China's Handling of the Media Before Olympics

2008-07-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

Rights Group Slams China's Handling of the Media Before Olympics

By VOA News

An international human rights group says the Chinese government continues to threaten and block foreign journalists in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch says correspondents in China face severe difficulties in accessing forbidden areas and covering topics that the Chinese government considers sensitive.

The report cites examples of how journalists were barred from Tibet and other Tibetan areas in the wake of unrest there in March. It also documents how foreign reporters and their sources have faced intimidation or are barred from covering stories that would embarrass authorities, or tell more about incidents of social unrest.

The report's release Monday comes a day before China opens its main press center for the August games.

About 25,000 journalists are expected to cover the Beijing Games.

The group's report is based on more than 60 interviews with correspondents in China between December, 2007 and June of this year.

The report says China's foreign ministry has declined to investigate death threats made against more than 10 correspondents in March and April of this year, following the unrest in Tibet.

It also says authorities have threatened to revoke media organizations' accreditation to the Olympics if they report on events that could embarrass the Chinese government.

Human Rights Watch Asia Advocacy Director Sophie Richardson says that with such restraints in place, the Chinese government is limiting the ability of journalists to objectively report on the complex realities of modern China.

Smog in Beijing five times over safety limit as Olympics nears

2008-07-08T00:59:00.000-07:00

Smog in Beijing five times over safety limit as Olympics nears

Flora Bagenal, Times on Line

Pollution around the Olympic stadium in Beijing could be five times worse than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.

Chinese officials admit they can no longer guarantee that the air quality will match international standards as pollution tests by The Sunday Times revealed the full extent of the challenge facing British athletes.

With just five weeks to go before the start of the Beijing Games, tests conducted outside the national stadium — known as the Bird’s Nest — and at Tiananmen Square, the starting point of the marathon, showed the air is thick with particulate pollution.

Even the Chinese government’s official air pollution index — which monitors a range of pollutants, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide — is running at double the level recommended by the WHO.

Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau, said: “We made a commitment to ensure air quality for the Olympic Games . . . as for whether we have reached the goal, that will be examined after the event.”

The British team is taking no chances and will train in Macau on the southern coast until the last minute to minimise athletes’ exposure to Beijing’s smog.

Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s leading long-distance runner, who suffers from asthma, has already pulled out of the marathon.

Last week The Sunday Times used an industrial hand-held air monitor to measure the number of particles in the atmosphere, which include car emissions and coal dust from factories. The particles are considered the biggest polluting factor.

The average reading at the stadium was 780,000 particles per litre of air. Even factoring in a 25% margin of error for humidity levels exaggerating the readings, this is more than five times the amount deemed safe by the WHO. The organisation considers 105,000 particles per litre of air a health risk.

Average readings at Tiananmen Square were lower — but still four times worse than the WHO standards when factoring in the humidity.

“Anything over 300,000 would be very worrying if you were using the same equipment in London,” said Professor Frank Kelly, a pollution expert at Kings College London.

Pro-Tibet groups call for Olympic boycott

2008-07-03T03:04:00.000-07:00

Pro-Tibet groups call for Olympic boycott

More than 60,000 Swiss have signed a petition demanding that President Pascal Couchepin boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on August 8.

The petition, organised by four pro-Tibet organisations, was handed over to the government on Thursday.

Couchepin announced at the end of May that he would attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

"Switzerland is home to the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee and other international sports federations, so it is only natural that the Swiss president attends the opening of the games," Couchepin said at the time.

The pro-Tibet groups also launched a campaign on Thursday, calling on the Swiss not to forget the Chinese-ruled region during the sporting event.

Switzerland is home to around 3,500 Tibetans.

from:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/

US lawmakers: Bush should skip Olympics

2008-07-03T02:56:00.000-07:00

US lawmakers: Bush should skip Olympics

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN ,BEIJING (AP)

Two Republican congressmen have called on President Bush to steer clear of the Beijing Olympics unless China makes substantial improvements in its treatment of dissidents, including releasing prisoners of conscience.

Chris Smith of New Jersey and Frank Wolf of Virginia spoke Tuesday on a visit to Beijing during which security agents blocked a group of dissidents from dining with them.

The two men told reporters such interference underscores what many activists and monitoring groups say is a deterioration of human rights ahead of the games, despite past assurances from Beijing that holding them would give a boost to China's rights protections.

"Unless there's tremendous progress over the next month, whereby they release some of these prisoners, I personally do not think the president should attend, nor do I think the secretary of state should attend the Olympics," said Smith, a ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Fan Yafeng, a legal scholar and researcher at the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he was among those invited to Sunday's dinner with the congressmen, but decided not to attend after receiving a phone call from police telling him not go.

"This type of situation is not uncommon, we often experience similar restraints on our freedoms," Fan said.

"We are worried that human rights violations may even worsen after the Olympics are over because the world won't be watching us closely anymore," Fan said. "It's a scary thought."

The White House has made clear that Bush intends to go to China in August for the games but has not said when. "We have not announced the president's schedule yet," said White House deputy press secretary Gordon Johndroe.

Some world leaders have said they might boycott the Aug. 8 opening ceremony to protest the most recent Chinese security crackdown in Tibetan areas of China. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would attend if talks this week between China and the envoys of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, made progress.

Some experts believe Beijing is agreeing to the discussions, previous rounds of which have produced little of substance, mainly to ease criticism ahead of the games.

Smith and Wolf said they presented a list of 734 political prisoners to Li Zhaoxing, chairman of the national legislature's Foreign Affairs Committee and a former foreign minister. Smith said they asked Li to work for the prisoners' release.

While praising China's economic progress, he said that such gains were made amid rights abuses and foreign policy stances that helped shore up repressive regimes in Sudan and elsewhere.

"Their government just doesn't have a very good record," said Wolf, who like Smith has long been active on Chinese human rights issues. Both men said the U.S. administration needs to publicly air complaints and identify imprisoned dissidents, saying private closed-door discussions were failing to produce results.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists and rights monitoring groups, said Fan and eight others were warned away from or prevented from attending the dinner. The rights group said lawyer Li Baiguang was detained in a Beijing suburb for three days and Teng Biao, a lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law, was placed under house arrest.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao appeared to turn the blame on the two legislators, saying their visit was supposed to be focused on meetings with U.S. Embassy officials.

"We hope the U.S. congressmen, while making a visit to China, while conducting relevant activities, respect Chinese laws and regulations and respect their commitments," Liu told reporters.

Asked repeatedly what rules had been violated, Liu merely repeated his earlier remarks.

China Troublemakers on Lockdown for Olympics

2008-06-25T03:26:00.000-07:00

China Troublemakers on Lockdown for Olympics

from http://www.weirdasianews.com/

If you are a troublemaker in Shanghai, then the China government has issued you a notice.

“In order to strengthen public order during the Olympics and ensure the Games go smoothly, these are the rules important controlled people in our area must follow from April 1 to October 31.”

“Do not pick quarrels in public places”, “Do not express any political opinion to foreign reporters” and “Do not distort the truth, intentionally spread rumours or use other methods to whip up and disturb social order”.

In addition to the above rules, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy issue a statement to the so called “troublemakers“, petitioners, or anyone on the “controlled” list, ordering them not to leave the city of Shanghai during the coming Olympics.

They have also been instructed not to talk about their political opinions to foreigners, leave the country (which is odd since they can’t leave Shanghai to begin with), or store weapons and explosives at their homes.

Anyone caught breaking the rules from April 1 to October 31, will be detained or prosecuted, depending on the rule broken.

The 2008 Olympic games will open on August 8th in Beijing, China.

IOC investigates anti-Dalai Lama torch relay speech

2008-06-25T03:22:00.000-07:00

IOC investigates anti-Dalai Lama torch relay speech

By Nick Mulvenney,BEIJING, June 25 (Reuters)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is investigating a speech made by Tibet's Communist Party boss at the end of last weekend's Beijing torch relay leg in Lhasa in which he denounced the Dalai Lama.

But it was not immediately clear what the IOC, which is largely powerless and has vigorously defended its policy of non-involvement in politics, could do. It has said before it has "no political mandate" to instruct countries how to behave.

IOC communications director Giselle Davies said Beijing organisers (BOCOG) had been asked to provide the contents of Zhang Qingli's speech and said it "would regret very much" if media reports were accurate.

Hardliner Zhang made the comments at a ceremony marking the end of Saturday's two-hour parade of the Olympic flame through the streets of Lhasa, the scene of anti-Chinese riots in March.

"Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it ... we will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique," he said in front of the Potala, the traditional seat of the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

Beijing blamed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his followers for the March 14 riots in Lhasa and accused him of scheming to split the Himalayan region from China.

China often rails against the Dalai Lama, but not at Olympic-related events. It has often denounced critics for politicising the Games and the Olympic charter states that no kind of demonstration or political propaganda is permitted "in any Olympic sites or other areas".

The Dalai Lama denied being behind the riots, said he just wanted autonomy and religious freedom in Tibetan areas of the country and has called on his followers to support the Beijing Olympics as well as the torch relay.

The transcript of Zhang's speech on the website of the Tibet Information Office website (info.tibet.cn) omitted the line about the Dalai Lama.

Lhasa's Communist Party boss, Qin Yizhi, also denounced the Dalai Lama at the opening ceremony of the Lhasa leg of the relay on Saturday, saying it would "smash the scheming of the Dalai clique".

Tibet has cast a long shadow over the torch relay, which China hoped would project the image of a modern and vibrant country ahead of the Games.

But the March riots became a focus of anti-Chinese protests and counter-demonstrations on relay legs in London, Paris and San Francisco, prompting ugly scenes which alarmed the IOC.

The Vancouver Sun reported on Wednesday that the international leg of the Beijing Paralympic torch relay, scheduled to take in London, Vancouver and Sochi, had been cancelled.

A BOCOG spokesman did not confirm the cancellation but a news conference has been called for 0700 GMT on the "Scale Reduction of Beijing 2008 Paralympic Torch Relay".

Dalai Lama under fire at Tibet relay

2008-06-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Dalai Lama under fire at Tibet relay

By Geoff Dyer in Beijing,The Financial Times

Chinese officials used the visit of the Olympic torch to the Tibetan capital on Saturday to launch an attack on the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The torch relay in Lhasa lasted for just over two hours, much shorter than had been planned before the unrest in Tibet in March. It went off without protests along a route lined with a heavy security presence.

"We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique," said Zhang Qingli, Communist party secretary in Tibet, at the end of the event, according to Reuters.

Speaking in front of the Potala Palace, the Dalai Lama's former residence, Mr Zhang said: "Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars [China's flag] will forever flutter high above it."

The government has accused the Dalai Lama and other exiles of inciting the unrest, particularly the riot on March 14 when several Han Chinese were killed. The Dalai Lama has denied the charge. The torch goes next to Qinghai province.

The decision to carry on with the Tibet visithas been criticised by Tibetan exiles and human rights groups, which accuse the government of politicising the torch relay.

"This provocative decision - with the blessing of the International Olympic Committee - could aggravate tensions and undermine the fragile process to find a peaceful long-term solution," said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.

"The government's insistence on parading the torch through Lhasa can only undermine the respect and trust required for a genuine dialogue with the Dalai Lama."

A small group of foreign reporters, allowed into Tibet to cover the event, said hundreds of paramilitary and other police were positioned along the route. They added that people living nearby were told to stay at home unless they had a special pass to witness the torch.

Tensions simmering with Olympic torch in Tibet

2008-06-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Relations are still very tense between Chinese officials and Tibetans. (Getty Images: Guang Niu)

Tensions simmering with Olympic torch in Tibet
By China correspondent Stephen McDonell,ABC News on line

Over the weekend the Chinese Government went ahead with its controversial plan to run the Olympic torch relay through Tibet.

Heavy security guaranteed there were no human rights demonstrations. Instead, the relay ended up being a rallying point for local political leaders who vowed to destroy the Dalai Lama, even as they put new touches to some of Lhasa's landmarks.

Though foreigners are still banned from entering Tibet, after the violent rebellion in March a handful of journalists were allowed into Lhasa to cover the torch relay, which had been cut from three days in Tibet to three hours.

We were allowed to witness the relay in the capital Lhasa, along with a small, specially-selected crowd.

Most ordinary people were told to stay off the streets until it was over. Relations are still very tense between Chinese officials and Tibetans.

After the relay we were kept busy with a program full of whirlwind visits to cultural attractions.

When Tibetans restore historic buildings the workers sing and bang and tap in time. This image of happy, working Tibetans in touch with their culture is a side to life that Government authorities are happy for foreign reporters to see.

We visited the Sera Monastery where the recent conflict started in March, after its monks clashed with police on the anniversary of a failed uprising.

There are supposed to be 550 monks living at the Monastery. We saw fewer than 10. Maybe they were confined to their sleeping quarters. There were a lot of police with walkie-talkies and local officials with loud hailers telling us where we should go and to hurry up.

We were eventually presented with a "senior monk" who could talk to us. He said the monks from his monastery had been permitted in recent days to go shopping in town. He was asked what the monks are being taught in the recently introduced re-education classes.

Speaking through a translator he said that the content of the legal knowledge education was to improve the monks' understanding of state law and the constitution so that they "do not violate laws".

He seemed to want to go on to explain himself but we were denied a chance to ask another question.

We were then taken to the Potala Palace the huge former residence of the Dalai Lama.

It was here that the torch relay became a political rally when the head of the Tibetan Communist Party, Zhang Qingli, held up the Olympic torch and then announced "Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it".

Inside the Palace on a hill overlooking the site is a room which used to be the home of China's favourite enemy, the Dalai Lama.

I got to stand in his bedroom, a small, modest space decorated with religious artefacts. Upstairs there was banging as workers carried out restoration.

It is unclear though what he would have thought had he been here to look out his window at the sights and sounds of the Olympic torch arriving to great fanfare, and local Government officials declaring their readiness to crush the "Dalai Lama clique".

What you can see from the room is a city with a heavy police and military presence.

Over the weekend trucks full of riot police were driving up and down and by late Sunday only a smattering of pilgrims had returned to the streets which are normally crowded with visitors to the holy city.

I have been to Tibet several times, and the fear and mistrust here is much worse now than it was before.

The overall sense is of a land under occupation where the occupiers are worried that the locals could turn on them at any time, and they are prepared to use the full force of the state to make sure that that does not happen.

Beijing to limit vehicle use during Olympics

2008-06-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Beijing to limit vehicle use during Olympics
Beijing (dpa) - China on Friday said it would restrict usage of vehicles before and during the Beijing Olympics to improve air quality and allow better traffic flow for visitors.

All private vehicles will be limited to alternate-day usage from July 20 to September 20, based on licence plates ending in odd and even numbers, the government said.

Taxis, buses and emergency vehicles are exempt from the restrictions, while about 70 per cent of government vehicles are expected to be kept off Beijing's roads.

The restrictions are designed to improve traffic circulation and raise air quality for the Olympics in August and the Paralympics in September, the Beijing city government said in a statement.

The traffic control measures are expected to remove a daily average of about one-third of the city's 3.3 million vehicles.

The statement said many heavy trucks and all vehicles which do not meet the European number one emissions standard will be banned throughout the period.

The government will exempt all Beijing vehicle owners from road tax for the three months in compensation for the temporary restrictions, costing it 1.3 billion yuan (186 million dollars) in lost revenue.

China earlier said it planned controls on industrial pollution and suspended dust particles to improve Beijing's air quality during the Olympics.

The city will ban all excavations and concrete pouring at construction sites from July 20 until September 20, Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, told reporters recently.

It will shut down inefficient coal boilers, stop work at quarries, cement and concrete plants around Beijing, and has ordered 19 heavy-polluting firms in the city to cut emissions by an extra 30 per cent in the three-month period, Du said.

Contingency plans for the Olympic competition days in August include tougher "urgent control measures" to be used if Beijing experiences "extremely negative atmospheric conditions", he said.

The International Olympic Committee said it would also have contingency plans for the possible rescheduling of cycling, distance running and other events demanding high respiratory function for more than an hour, depending on pollution and other factors such as heat, humidity and wind.

France urged to support Games ceremony boycott as new head of Council of Europe

2008-06-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

France urged to support Games ceremony boycott as new head of Council of Europe

Reporters Without Borders called today on France, as new president of the Council of Europe, and its European partners to say they would boycott the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing on 8 August.

Members of the worldwide press freedom organisation unfurled a giant 100 sq.metre banner showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs across the front of a building opposite the Brussels headquarters of the Council, which began its new session today.

“Threatening to boycott the ceremony may be the only way to get concrete results,” it said. “If Europe does not take a stand, the Chinese government will be able to dismiss future European Union demands to improve human rights. The Olympic flame will be passing through the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in a few days time and Europe’s political leaders will win respect by firmly calling now for greater freedom of expression in China. Repression of journalists there has not diminished and well-known dissident and blogger Huang Qi has just been arrested again. It is urgent for Europe to speak up.

“French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said clearly that he will not attend the ceremony unless talks resume between the government and representatives of the Dalai Lama. The situation is deadlocked and China rejected the recent United States and EU joint call for sincere talks about Tibet as interference in its internal affairs. Beijing also refuses to allow foreign journalists to visit Tibet and the neighbouring Xinjiang autonomous region where mass arrests and “re-education” operations are under way,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“The competitors at the Games rightly say it is up the politicians, not them, to sort out this tricky issue. The Council of Europe must not pass up this historic chance to create the necessary conditions to extract real progress from the Chinese government. The ruling Communist Party will not always be able to get away with answering legitimate demands to free political prisoners by drumming up nationalistic fervour.”

Reporters Without Borders has for several months been urging a boycott of the opening ceremony by heads of state and government and members of royal families. The Polish, Estonian, Austrian and Czech governments have already agreed not to attend. Most EU states have not yet taken a stand and are waiting for France to take the lead in the name of Europe.

Reporters Without Borders is also calling on European institutions to ask the International Olympic Committee to consider the criteria for allowing countries to host future Olympic Games and to take account of the local level of individual liberty, notably freedom of expression.

About 100 journalists, cyber-dissidents, bloggers and other Internet users are currently imprisoned in China, with only two months to go before the Games start. The Chinese government has not kept the promises it made to improve human rights after Beijing was awarded the 2008 Games in 2001.

For more on the Reporters Without Borders worldwide campaign concerning the 2008 Games, see: www.rsf.org (in English, Chinese, Spanish, French and Arabic).

China tightens screws against dissidents ahead of Olympics

2008-06-20T01:20:00.000-07:00

China tightens screws against dissidents ahead of Olympics

GENEVA (AFP) — Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to censor dissenting voices in the run-up to the Olympic Games, a report by two human rights groups charged Thursday.

"The context related to the run-up to the Olympic Games in August 2008 has continuously strengthened an environment already hostile to human rights and their defenders," said the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in its annual report.

The observatory is a joint project by the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH).

It cited four people who were arrested after making protests in relation to the Olympic Games.

Among them was Hu Jia, who was taken into custody last December 27 after publicly criticising the Chinese government's failure to keep its promise to promote and protect human rights, a promise that was make when it was awarded the Games.

Hu, 34, was found guilty at a Beijing court of "incitement to subvert state power" following a one-day trial in March, and sentenced to three-and-a-half years behind bars in early April.

In a foreword to the report, writer Wei Jingsheng wrote: "In particular, last year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008 Olympics."

Outside China, charged Wei, some Western politicians have even tried to stop their sportsmen from expressing their political opinions on China during the Games.

In February, the London-based Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that the British Olympic Association had inserted clauses into its athletes' contracts forbidding them to comment on "politically sensitive issues."

Other human rights repression in China had included the forced evictions of citizens from their homes as well as censorship of the media and Internet, said the NGO.

Press freedom in China is now among the lowest in the world, and commentaries are tailored to meet "the propaganda standard(s) of the Chinese Communist Party," said the report.

China's Olympic Nightmare

2008-06-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

China's Olympic Nightmare

What the Games Mean for Beijing's Future
By Elizabeth C. Economy and Adam Segal
From Foreign Affairs , July/August 2008

Summary: Failure to plan for predictable problems has turned China's coming-out party into an embarrassment.

ELIZABETH C. ECONOMY is C. V. Starr Senior Fellow and Director for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. ADAM SEGAL is Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

On the night of July 13, 2001, tens of thousands of people poured into Tiananmen Square to celebrate the International Olympic Committee's decision to award the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing. Firecrackers exploded, flags flew high, and cars honked wildly. It was a moment to be savored. Chinese President Jiang Zemin and other leaders exhorted the crowds to work together to prepare for the Olympics. "Winning the host rights means winning the respect, trust, and favor of the international community," Wang Wei, a senior Beijing Olympic official, proclaimed. The official Xinhua News Agency reveled in the moment, calling the decision "another milestone in China's rising international status and a historical event in the great renaissance of the Chinese nation."

Hosting the Olympics was supposed to be a chance for China's leaders to showcase the country's rapid economic growth and modernization to the rest of the world. Domestically, it provided an opportunity for the Chinese government to demonstrate the Communist Party's competence and affirm the country's status as a major power on equal footing with the West. And wrapping itself in the values of the Olympic movement gave China the chance to portray itself not only as a rising power but also as a "peace-loving" country. For much of the lead-up to the Olympics, Beijing succeeded in promoting just such a message.

The process of preparing for the Games is tailor-made to display China's greatest political and economic strengths: the top-down mobilization of resources, the development and execution of grand-scale campaigns to reform public behavior, and the ability to attract foreign interest and investment to one of the world's brightest new centers of culture and business. Mobilizing massive resources for large infrastructure projects comes easily to China. Throughout history, China's leaders have drawn on the ingenuity of China's massive population to realize some of the world's most spectacular construction projects, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and the Three Gorges Dam among them. The Olympic construction spree has been no different. Beijing has built 19 new venues for the events, doubled the capacity of the subway, and added a new terminal to the airport. Neighborhoods throughout the city have been either spruced up to prepare for Olympic visitors or simply cleared out to make room for new Olympic sites. Official government spending for the construction bonanza is nearing $40 billion. In anticipation of the Olympics, the government has also embarked on a series of efforts to transform individual behavior and modernize the capital city. It has launched etiquette campaigns forbidding spitting, smoking, littering, and cutting in lines and introduced programs to teach English to cab drivers, police officers, hotel workers, and waiters. City officials have used Olympic projects as a means to refurbish decaying buildings and reduce air pollution, water shortages, and traffic jams.

Yet even as Beijing has worked tirelessly to ensure the most impressive of Olympic spectacles, it is clear that the Games have come to highlight not only the awesome achievements of the country but also the grave shortcomings of the current regime. Few in the central leadership seem to have anticipated the extent to which the Olympic Games would stoke the persistent political challenges to the legitimacy of the Communist Party and the stability of the country. Demands for political liberalization, greater autonomy for Tibet, increased pressure on Sudan, better environmental protection, and an improved product-safety record now threaten to put a damper on the country's coming-out party. As the Olympic torch circled the globe with legions of protesters in tow, Beijing's Olympic dream quickly turned into a public-relations nightmare.

Although the Chinese government excels when it comes to infrastructure projects, its record is poor when it comes to transparency, official accountability, and the rule of law. It has responded clumsily to internal and external political challenges -- by initially ignoring the international community's desire for China to play a more active role in resolving the human rights crisis in Darfur, arresting prominent Chinese political activists, and cracking down violently on demonstrators. Although there is no organized opposition unified around this set of demands, the cacophony of voices pressuring China to change its policies has taken much of the luster off of the Beijing Games. Moreover, although the Communist Party has gained domestic support from the nationalist backlash that has arisen in response to the Tibetan protesters and their supporters in the West, it also worries that this public anger will spin out of control, further damaging the country's international reputation. Already, China's coveted image as a responsible rising power has been tarnished.

For many in the international community, it has now become impossible to separate the competing narratives of China's awe-inspiring development and its poor record on human rights and the environment. It is no longer possible to discuss China's future without taking its internal fault lines seriously. For the Chinese government, the stakes are huge. China's credibility as a global leader, its potential as a model for the developing world, and its position as an emerging center of global business and culture are all at risk if these political challenges cannot be peacefully and successfully addressed.

TIANANMEN'S GHOSTS

Nothing has threatened to ruin China's Olympic moment as much as criticism of the country's repressive political system. China lost its bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics to Sydney, Australia, at least in part because of the memory of the violent Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 1989. When China made its bid for the 2008 Games, Liu Jingmin, vice president of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee, argued, "By allowing Beijing to host the Games, you will help the development of human rights." Fran蔞is Carrard, director general of the International Olympic Committee, warily supported such a sentiment: acknowledging the seriousness of China's human rights violations, he nonetheless explained, "We are taking the bet that seven years from now ... we shall see many changes."

Few would place such a bet today. For months, human rights activists, democracy advocates, and ethnic minorities in China have been pressuring the government to demonstrate its commitment to greater political freedom. For many of them, the Olympics highlight the yawning gap between the very attractive face that Beijing presents to the world and the much uglier political reality at home. Exactly one year before the Olympics, a group of 40 prominent Chinese democracy supporters posted an open letter online denouncing the Olympic glitz and glamour. "We know too well how these glories are built on the ruins of the lives of ordinary people, on the forced removal of urban migrants, and on the sufferings of victims of brutal land grabbing, forced eviction, exploitation of labor, and arbitrary detention," they wrote. "All this violates the Olympic spirit." Even Ai Weiwei, an artistic consultant for Beijing's signature "Bird's Nest" stadium, has been critical of the Chinese government. He declared in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel, "The government wants to use these games to celebrate itself and its policy of opening up China .... By now, it has become clear to me that this hope of liberalization cannot be fulfilled .... The system won't allow it."

Protests have arisen around virtually every Olympic Games in recent history, but Beijing, with its authoritarian political system, is uniquely threatened by dissenting voices, and it has responded with a traditional mix of intimidation, imprisonment, and violent repression. Teng Biao, a lawyer and human rights activist, was seized in March 2008, held by plainclothes police for two days, and warned to stop writing critically about the Olympics. Yang Chunlin, a land-rights activist, was arrested for inciting subversion because he had gathered more than 10,000 signatures from farmers whose property had been expropriated by officials for development projects. After a 20-minute trial, he was sentenced to five years in prison. In April, the HIV/AIDS activist Hu Jia, who was also one of the authors of the open letter, was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for subversion, after being held under house arrest for several months along with his wife and baby daughter. Although the vast majority of Chinese are probably unaware of these protests and arrests, Beijing's overreaction demonstrates how fearful the Chinese government is that any dissent or protests could garner broader political support and threaten the party's authority.

CRASHING THE PARTY

The international community has also raised its own human rights concerns. For more than a year, China has endured heightened scrutiny of its close economic and political ties to Sudan. A coalition of U.S. celebrities and international human rights activists has ratcheted up the pressure on Beijing to do more to help bring an end to the atrocities in Darfur, labeling the 2008 Olympics "the genocide Olympics." The very public attention they have brought to China's relations with the Sudanese government prompted the movie director Steven Spielberg to withdraw as the artistic adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies for the Games. It also seems to have had some effect on Beijing, which now strives to appear as if it is placing more pressure on Khartoum.

The Chinese government's questionable human rights record has received even more scrutiny since its violent suppression of Tibetan demonstrators in the spring. In March, Tibetan Buddhist monks marched to commemorate the 49th anniversary of Tibet's failed independence uprising and to call for greater autonomy for Tibet and the return of their exiled religious leader, the Dalai Lama. The demonstrations soon escalated into violent protests. Chinese police forcefully cracked down on the protesters in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and throughout other Tibetan areas of western China, leaving more than a hundred dead and injuring hundreds more.

Ignoring international calls for restraint, Beijing closed off much of the affected region, detained or expelled foreign journalists from the area, and created a "most wanted" list of Tibetan protesters. All independent sources of news, including broadcasts by foreign television stations and YouTube videos, were blacked out in China, and text messages in and out of Tibet were filtered. Vitriolic government propaganda condemned the Dalai Lama as a "wolf in monk's robes" and a "devil with a human face but the heart of a beast." Chinese officials accused the "evil Dalai clique" of attempting to restore "feudalist serfdom" in the region and called for a "people's war" against it. The international community immediately condemned the crackdown and called for Beijing to resume negotiations with representatives of the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Czech President V塶lav Klaus, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk have since announced that they will not be attending the Olympics' opening ceremonies.

As the Olympic torch made its way across the globe, the number of protesters along its path ballooned, from a few in Athens to thousands in London, Paris, San Francisco, and Seoul. These large-scale disruptions of Olympic pageantry humiliated the Chinese government and angered Chinese citizens, producing a wave of nationalist counterdemonstrations by Chinese living abroad and millions of virulent anti-Western posts on Chinese Web sites. A bit more than a month after Beijing's initial crackdown, senior Chinese leaders indicated a willingness to meet with the Dalai Lama's envoys. But this does not represent a fundamental shift in policy; it is merely a stopgap measure designed to quell the international outrage.

WAITING TO INHALE

Although some foreign athletes have joined the chorus of China's critics, the more immediate concern for many Olympians will be whether Beijing can ensure clean air and safe food for the duration of the Games. The city has reportedly spent as much as $16 billion to deliver a "green Olympics"; many of the Olympic sites showcase a number of clean-energy and water-conservation technologies, and for the past seven years the city has been shutting down many of the biggest polluters and steadily weaning the city's energy infrastructure off coal, replacing it with natural gas. On February 26, senior Chinese officials formally announced a more sweeping effort, including restrictions on heavy industry in five neighboring provinces surrounding Beijing, a ban on construction in the months immediately preceding the Olympics, and plans to compensate car owners for staying off the road during the Games.

But pollution levels in Beijing are still far above average. On a typical day, the city's air pollution is three times as bad as the standard deemed safe by the World Health Organization. Last August, an air-quality test revealed that pollution levels in the city had barely improved despite one-third of the cars having been removed from the city's roads. Even some senior Chinese officials have reservations about the prospects for a green Olympics. The mayor of Beijing, Guo Jinlong, admitted in early 2008 that bringing traffic and environmental pollution under control by the time the Games begin would be an "arduous" task. After all, there are few economic incentives for businesses to reduce pollution; the central government routinely calls on local officials and businesses to clean up their act to no effect. Many factory managers have agreed to slow production during the Olympics but not to shut down. In the brutally competitive Chinese economy, closing factories for several weeks could well spell the end of those enterprises unless the government provides significant financial compensation. Meanwhile, corruption flourishes, and local officials openly flout environmental laws and regulations. In January 2008, it was revealed by a Western environmental consultant, Steven Andrews, that officials in Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau had for several years been skewing the city's air-quality data by eliminating readings from some monitoring stations in heavily congested areas.

Faced with the prospect of dangerously high levels of air pollution during the Games, International Olympic Committee officials have warned that competition in endurance sports, such as the marathon and long-distance cycling, might be postponed or even canceled. The world's fastest marathon runner, Haile Gebrselassie, has already withdrawn from the Olympic race for fear that air pollution might permanently damage his health. Many athletes are planning to take precautions, such as arriving in Beijing as late as possible, coming well equipped with medication for possible asthma attacks, and wearing masks once there.

Beijing's capacity to provide safe food and clean water for the athletes is also in question. In the past year, China has endured a rash of scandals involving food tainted with steroids and insecticides, and as much as half of the bottled water in Beijing does not meet potable-water standards. Some teams, such as the United States' and Australia's, have announced that they will be bringing some or all of their own food and that their bottled water will be supplied by Coca-Cola. Olympic officials have put in place a massive food-security apparatus that will track the athletes' food from the producers and distributors to the Olympic Village. Having promised a safe and green Olympics, Beijing must now deliver. Otherwise, it risks irrevocably damaging the historic legacy of the 2008 Games.

BEIJING'S BLIND SPOT

Beijing's failure to respond creatively to its critics and effectively manage its environmental and product-safety issues reveals a certain political myopia. China's leaders have long been aware that opponents of the regime would try to disrupt the Olympics. They prepared extensively for disturbances by developing a citywide network of surveillance cameras and training, outfitting, and deploying riot squads and other special police. They also made some attempts to defuse international hostility, such as offering to renew the human rights dialogue with Washington that was suspended in 2004 and publicly pressuring Khartoum to accept a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force. But Beijing has been unable to counter the images emanating from Darfur and Tibet. Chinese leaders simply saw no relationship between the pageantry of the Olympics and Tibet, Sudan, or broader human rights concerns, and they never figured out how to engage and disarm those who did. They continue to fail in this regard.

As a result, tensions will run high until the end of the Games. There are also real worries that with the spotlight focused on Beijing during the Games, some of the opposition to the regime could take an extreme form. For example, Chinese security forces have expressed concern that activists from the religious movement Falun Gong might attempt to immolate themselves in Tiananmen Square. Because of such concerns, the 30,000 journalists covering the Games may find themselves straitjacketed when reporting on controversial stories. And despite recent assurances that a live feed from Beijing will be allowed and that the Internet will be uncensored in China, the government has yet to fulfill its promise to allow foreign journalists unfettered access throughout the country.

The Chinese public is already angry about what it sees as a pervasive bias toward Tibet and disrespect of China in the Western media. Chinese citizens are likely to view any disturbances of the Games as an effort to embarrass the country and undermine China's rise. Foreign media, corporations, and governments might all bear the brunt of the sort of nationalist backlash that the French retailer Carrefour endured -- in the form of a consumer boycott -- in the wake of the disrupted torch ceremony in Paris.

The combination of demonstrators desperate for the world's attention and the heightened nationalism of Chinese citizens makes for an extremely combustible situation. The official Beijing Olympic motto of "One World, One Dream" suggests an easy cosmopolitanism, but Chinese nationalist sentiment will be running high during the Games, stoked by the heat of competition. In the past, sporting events in China, in particular soccer matches against Japanese teams, have led to ugly riots, and the same could happen during the Olympics. If the Games do not go well, there will be infighting and blame shifting within the party's central leadership, and it will likely adopt a bunker mentality. Vice President Xi Jinping, the government's point man on the Olympics and President Hu Jintao's heir apparent, would likely face challenges to his presumed leadership.

A poor outcome for the Games could engender another round of nationalist outbursts and Chinese citizens decrying what they see as racism, anti-Chinese bias, and a misguided sense of Western superiority. This inflamed form of Chinese nationalism could be the most enduring and dangerous outcome of the protests surrounding the Olympics. If the international community does not welcome China's rise, the Chinese people may ask themselves why China should be bound by its rules. As a result, Beijing may find the room it has for foreign policy maneuvering more restricted by public opinion. This form of heightened nationalism has occasionally hurt the Chinese government, as happened after a U.S. spy plane was shot down over China in 2001. When the crew was eventually released, an outraged Chinese public accused the government of weakness and kowtowing to the West. More recently, despite a decade of increasingly close economic, political, and cultural ties between Beijing and Seoul, South Koreans were outraged by the Chinese counterprotests during the Olympic torch ceremony; in response, the South Korean government imposed tight restrictions on the number of Chinese students permitted to study in the country. Sensing the potentially damaging consequences of a prolonged nationalist backlash, the official Chinese media began signaling in May that it was time for people to move on, focus on economic development, and steer clear of staging counterprotests and boycotting Western companies.

The barrage of criticism China has endured prior to the Olympics may have brought a short-term gain in forcing the Chinese leadership to agree to meet with the Dalai Lama's envoys, but real reform of China's Tibet policy or a broader willingness to embrace domestic reforms is unlikely to follow in the near term. Nevertheless, the current controversy could yield positive results in the long run. Beijing's Olympic trials and tribulations could provoke soul searching among China's leaders and demonstrate to them that their hold on domestic stability and the country's continued rise depend on greater transparency and accountability and a broader commitment to human rights. Already, some Chinese bloggers, intellectuals, and journalists, such as Wang Lixiong and Chang Ping, have seized the moment to call for less nationalist rhetoric and more thoughtful engagement of outside criticism. The nationalist outburst has provided them with an opening to ask publicly how Chinese citizens can legitimately attack Western media organizations if their own government does not allow them to watch media outlets such as CNN and the BBC. Similarly, they have used the Olympics as a springboard to discuss the significance of Taiwan's thriving democracy for the mainland's own political future, the need for rethinking China's approach to Tibet, and the desirability of an open press.

Whatever the longer-term implications of the 2008 Olympics, what has transpired thus far bears little resemblance to Beijing's dreams of Olympic glory. Rather than basking in the admiration of the world, China is beset by internal protests and international condemnation. The world is increasingly doubtful that Beijing will reform politically and become a responsible global actor. The Olympics were supposed to put these questions to bed, not raise them all anew.

No Torch Through Tibet, say NYC Tibetans

2008-06-18T01:48:00.000-07:00

No Torch Through Tibet, say NYC Tibetans

New York, June 17, 2008 - As Beijing postponed its Tibet leg of the Olympic torch relay, the Tibetans went ahead with their protest against the Olympic torch here today. Organized by Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Students for a Free Tibet, Regional Tibetan Women’s Association, New York and New Jersey Tibetan Community and US Tibet Committee, the event marked the 100th day of China’s crackdown in Tibet following March 14th protests in Lhasa and daily protest by Tibetans in New York.

Tibetans and supporters from New York, New Jersey, Boston, and Philadelphia gathered this morning at the Chinese Consulate with Tibetan national flags, banners, placards and leaflets to condemn the Chinese government’s decision to pass the Olympic torch through Tibet. The Tibetans say that the Chinese government is deliberately putting Tibet in the torch route to reaffirm its domination over Tibet by attributing its claim over Tibet to the passage of the torch through Lhasa. The Tibetans also fear that the China would not hesitate to resort to violent crackdown in the event of Tibetans in Tibet protesting the torch relay. Tsering Palden, the president of the RTYC, NY&NJ, told phayul that the 5 organization strongly condemn the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet and that the organizations stand in complete solidarity with the Tibetan people inside Tibet which is locked down since the March crackdown. “We seek the International Olympic Committee’s intervention to remove Tibet from China’s route for the bloody torch relay, “said Palden.

Youngsters dramatizing Tibet leg of the Olympic torch relay as protesters watch, 06/17/08
The organizers said they are gravely concerned about the situation inside Tibet as reports of arrests and killings continue to reach the outside world particularly as China keeps the international media at bay. A banner that read ‘China! Allow Free Media into Tibet’, made rounds in the sky opposite the Chinese Consulate as the Tibetans shouted slogans below.

After an event that featured speeches by the organizers, a political skit by volunteers of Students for a Free Tibet, and slogan raising, the Tibetans walked from the Chinese Consulate to the UN Plaza where another gathering was held. The Tibetans raised slogans against China’s killing of Tibetan protesters in Tibet in the last three months and condemned the Tibet leg of the torch relay due this Saturday. A group of Tibetan youngsters performed a skit depicting Chinese repression in Tibet. The skit arranged by Regional Tibetan Youth Congress dramatized events related to the Olympic torch relay in Tibet and consequent clampdown by Chinese security forces. The event concluded with a march to the Chinese mission where the Tibetans continued to protest vehemently.

Olympic torch relay cut to one day in Tibet

2008-06-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

Olympic torch relay cut to one day in Tibet

China has scrapped its original plans for a three-day Olympic torch relay tour of Tibet and will send the flame there just for one day this weekend, a Beijing Olympic official said Wednesday.

Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman at the Beijing Games organising committee, said the decision to cut short the relay and run it through the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Saturday was taken following last month's earthquake in Sichuan province.

"Following the earthquake on May 12, BOCOG has announced adjustments to the domestic legs of the torch relay," Zhu said.

"The Tibet leg of the relay will be on June 21, with the relay taking place in Lhasa."

The torch was originally scheduled to tour Tibet for three days from June 19 to 21 as part of its long international journey to the Games being hosted by the Chinese capital in August.

The torch is currently travelling through Xinjiang, a largely Muslim region in China's northwest, on a three-day, four-city tour scheduled to end Thursday.

The stops in Xinjiang and the Tibetan regions of China are regarded as the most sensitive of the domestic relay route, which runs for thousands of miles (kilometres) over three months through every part of the country.

China accuses Muslim separatists in Xinjiang of plotting terrorist attacks on the Games and stepped up security in the region ahead of the relay.

Tibetans are also accused of targeting the Olympics, following a crackdown on anti-Chinese government unrest in Lhasa in March in which exiled Tibetan leaders say 203 people died.

China has reported killing one Tibetan "insurgent" and says "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths.

Despite the unrest China stuck with its original plan to take the torch relay to the top of Mount Everest on May 8 using a separate flame from the one used on the relay route through the rest of the country.

The ascent took place under tight security and triggered protests from exiled Tibetan groups who said it was a provocation and politicised the torch relay.

China's rule over Tibet was a major rallying cry for protesters who dogged the torch's month-long global journey in April before it came here.

Pro-Tibet activists have argued that the leg in Lhasa should be cancelled due to the unrest.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Chinese authorities were using the relay as a propaganda tool and had been carrying out arbitrary arrests to prevent protests during the relay.

"It is irresponsible for the Chinese government to deliberately send a torch into a powder keg, and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and Olympic sponsors should ask Beijing to cancel this part of the relay," the group said in a statement.

BOCOG said that 50 journalists from 31 news organisations would be allowed to cover the relay in Lhasa, which has been off limits to foreign reporters and tourists since the crackdown on unrest there three months ago.

"We will make proper arrangements for media coverage of the relay in Lhasa," said Zhu.

She declined to say whether scrapping the original three-day torch leg was connected to security fears in the Himalayan region following the unrest.

"The adjustment to the Tibet leg of the torch relay is because of the earthquake, which has caused us to make several changes to the original route," said Zhu.

According to the original torch relay schedule, the Tibetan leg was to be followed by a trip to neighbouring Qinghai and then Gansu province, which both have ethnic Tibetan communities.

Zhu said the future route had yet to be officially announced. Torch relay organisers in the Qinghai capital of Xining told AFP that they had no information and calls to the torch relay office in Gansu's capital Lanzhou went unanswered.

Olympic visitors' data is at risk

2008-06-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

Olympic visitors' data is at risk
Officials: China targets secrets in laptops, PDAs
By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — National security agencies are warning businesses and federal officials that laptops and e-mail devices taken to the Beijing Olympics are likely to be penetrated by Chinese agents aiming to steal secrets or plant bugs to infiltrate U.S. computer networks.

Chinese government and industry use electronic espionage to "easily access official and personal computers," says one recent report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, a federally chartered panel comprising security experts from corporations and the State, Commerce and Treasury departments.

Equipment left unsupervised for just minutes in a hotel or even during a security screening can be hacked, mined and bugged, adds Larry Wortzel, who chairs the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a federal panel that monitors China-related security issues for Congress. China's government also controls Internet service providers and wireless networks, he says, so computers and PDAs can be monitored and planted with bugs remotely, too.

"There is a high likelihood — virtually 100% — that if an individual is of security, political or business interest to Chinese … security services or high technology industries, their electronics can and will be tampered with or penetrated," Wortzel says.

China's embassy did not respond to requests for comment but usually dismisses espionage charges.

"The so-called accusation of the Chinese military espionage against the U.S. is groundless and fabrication with ulterior motives," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news conference last month.

China's pursuit of American government and business secrets has been noted repeatedly in federal threat assessments.

Last year, the office of the Director of National Intelligence reported that China's espionage services are "among the most aggressive in collecting against sensitive and protected U.S. targets."

Thousands of Americans are expected to attend the Olympics, including President Bush and a large entourage of federal officials. The government isn't doing enough to publicize the potential espionage risks, says Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a former FBI agent who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, which has been briefed on Chinese espionage threats.

The reticence stems partly from the administration's reluctance to anger China, a key U.S. trading partner, Rogers says. "I appreciate their position," he adds, but by "underreporting" the threat, national security officials let potential targets get "lulled into this notion that they don't have to worry about it."

The Chinese "will take full advantage of any opportunity to not only take a peek at what's on electronic devices but also to implant them" with bugs that could provide access to U.S. computer networks, Rogers says.

Rogers and others briefed on the threat suggest that Olympic visitors purge sensitive information on laptops and e-mail devices, or leave their regular equipment at home and carry "clean" surrogates.

Travelers returning from the Games also should have their equipment checked for bugs or viruses before reconnecting to U.S. computer networks, says Ray Mey, who ran Olympics security at the FBI before joining GardaWorld as a corporate security consultant.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko declined to discuss briefings given to federal officials and businesses. Any time executives are in a country capable of "exploiting electronic media," he says, the FBI strives "to notify them of these risks and … appropriate precautions

Behind the music

2008-06-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

kd lang speaks out on Tibet (full interview)

Behind the music
For someone who says she's not a political person, k.d. lang has no trouble speaking her mind
by Jen Zoratti,Uptown Magazine

Although k.d. lang has a new, big-deal record to promote - the recently released Watershed marks her first collection of original material in eight years - the four-time Grammy winner is focusing her attention on Tibet.

The 46-year-old singer/songwriter made headlines in late April when she made a special trip to Canberra, Australia to join pro-Tibetan demonstrators protesting the Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay as it made its way through the Australian capital. She also spent time in Melbourne as a guest editorialist for The Age, another forum in which she worked to raise awareness about human-rights issues in the repressed country.

Although "Free Tibet" has been a rallying cry among many musicians over the years - a certain trio of white rappers from New York and its groundbreaking Tibetan Freedom Concert series in the late '90s immediately comes to mind - lang has personal reasons for speaking up for Tibet.

"I'm a Tibetan buddhist, that's foremost," she says matter-of-factly, over the phone. "And I have a lot of Tibetan friends. So it's my job, in a way, to be a voice of the Tibetan people."

The upcoming Olympic games in Beijing has certainly put an amplified spotlight on China's spotty human-rights track record - Google 'Beijing Olympics' and see what pops up - but Beijing isn't the first host city to endure international criticism. The 1936 Olympics, hosted by Berlin during the rise of Nazi Germany, faced a boycott by the U.S. Sixty-two countries didn't participate in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, most protesting the 1979 Soviet invaison of Afghanistan. Over 20 African countries withdrew from the 1976 games in Montreal, protesting New Zealand's rugby ties with South Africa.

And who could forget the 1972 Olympics in Munich, in which 10 Israeli athletes and a coach were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group?

lang says the Olympic Games has a more political past that some care to admit.

"I think the Olympics has, historically, been a political platform," lang says. "This is no exception, especially with a country who's been historically very cryptic and don't want people questioning their human-rights practices. And it's the Chinese government, not the Chinese people."

Still, there's many that would - and do - argue that sports and politics don't mix.

"That's not true," she says, simply. "Politics is people. The Olympics is the perfect place. I don't think it's necessarily the athletes themselves - they aren't hurling their politics back and forth with the tennis ball - but when you carry the torch through a country that's repressed, you make yourself open to commentary."

It would be easy to assume that lang is political in all areas of her life - and indeed, her storied music career has been punctuated with bold acts of activism, both intentional and unconscious.

When lang exploded onto the Canadian music scene in the mid-'80s and came out as a lesbian shortly thereafter, the gay community quickly embraced her as its own. Although being an openly gay musician wasn't necessarily a political move by lang, posing on the cover of Vanity Fair in a barber's chair while supermodel Cindy Crawford shaved her face with a straight razor certainly was.

Then there's the notable furor she caused in her home province of Alberta with her Meat Stinks! animal-rights campaign in the early '90s.

Incredibly, as pioneering as lang has been, none of her politics make it into her music.

"I don't use my music to voice my politics - I don't think of myself as a political person," lang says. "I have passions that become political - whether it's my sexuality, or my eating habits or my religion. I think music itself should transcend all those things. I've never used it to promote my gayness, necessarily. Music is about the listeners' relationship with the music."

So while her latest effort, the stunning Watershed, doesn't get political in the social-issues sense, it certainly gets personal. A milestone in her exceptional 25-year career, Watershed is the first record that lang has produced - as well as written and performed - entirely on her own.

Serving as a follow-up to 2004's critically lauded Hymns of the 49th Parallel - an album on which lang lent her pipes to tunes by fellow Canadian songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell - Watershed is a revealing album that sees lang flex her muscles as a songwriter, not just as a singer.

"I wrote over the period from 2001 to 2007," lang says. "I really took my time. It's a culmination of all the things I've touched before. I've gathered all my favourite sounds and genres and mixed them all into one."

EU parliament vice president wants Olympic boycott

2008-06-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

EU parliament vice president wants Olympic boycott

The Chinese government's crackdown on Falun Gong followers began in 1999 China's "genocidal campaign of repression" against a popular religion should result in a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games, a prominent European politician believes.

Edward McMillan-Scott, a Conservative MEP, says he believed the Chinese government was carrying out organ harvesting against those in its prisoners.

He cites research by UN for special rapporteur Manfred Novak that three-quarters of China's seven million detainees are Falun Gong followers.

The religion, which encourages forbearance, compassion and truthfulness, had 70 million followers by 1999 when Beijing launched its campaign against them.

Mr McMillan-Scott says it reflects wider failings within the Chinese government.

"The situation of human rights in China is so severe we need to go back to the 1936 situation where, had we known… the Olympics would not have taken place," he said at thinktank Policy Exchange in London.

"The Olympics are all about the human spirit. China specialises in crushing it."

Mr McMillan-Scott said the European parliament had pressed the International Olympic Committee for its public and private undertakings with China on human rights issues. It responded by saying it had no political standpoint on the issue, he said.

A sense that it was too late to take action against China grew during last week's Policy Exchange debate, which culminated when the speakers focused on the IOC's decision to award China the Games in 2001.

Heavy expectations were placed on China to improve its human rights record then, fundamentally linking sport and politics in a way which attracted criticism from the panel.

Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat frontbencher and president of the Tibet Society, said the IOC "has not done what it should have done – it should have been rather firmer than it has been".

And Mr McMillan-Scott added the IOC had made a "very political decision".

"Politics are in sport. The Chinese government asked what they want and they got it. That was public opinion," he added.

Seven words

2008-06-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

China Faces Predicament Over North Korean Refugees

Seven words
By Edward Kim

Calling for a Jewish boycott of the Beijing Olympics, 194 American rabbis recently cited the following reasons: China ’s support for the genocidal government of Sudan; the nation’s human rights record; its crackdown on Tibet; and providing missiles to Iran and Syria.

Seven words strikingly absent from this list and from the whirlwind of protests engulfing the Beijing Olympics are: “. . . Beijing ’s forced repatriation of North Korean refugees.”

What makes the missing seven words here particularly depressing is that they are missing even from the lips of the most conscientious human rights activists. It would be equivalent to 194 American pastors calling for a boycott of the Nazi Olympics and failing to mention the persecution of the Jews as one of the reasons. If that had in fact occurred in 1936, the Jewish rights movement of that time would have done some soul searching in terms of how and why they were failing to communicate effectively the plight of their Jewish brethren to the world.

In 2008, Beijing is perceived as being blamed by everyone for almost everything except for the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees. Accordingly, it is time for the North Korean human rights movement to do some soul searching.

In this opportune moment when the world’s attention is fixed on Beijing and the backdrop of protests has heightened awareness of the Chinese regime’s complicity in some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, how is it that the issue of the forced repatriation of North Korean refugees has failed to get on the radar of the majority of anti-Beijing protesters or of the Western media?

Another case in point is Western criticism of the Myanmar junta’s response to the recent cyclone.

In circumstances uncannily similar to North Korea - a regime that refuses to allocate aid donations with transparency; that turns natural disasters into man-made catastrophes; that has caused tens of thousands of preventable deaths – Western leaders have reserved their public and bold criticisms to Myanmar and largely stayed silent on Pyongyang.

Here are some hypotheses:

Reason #1:

If the South Koreans do not appear that concerned about human rights in North Korea, then why should the rest of the world be. Put in more recent terms, when the national pride of the South Korean people is more hurt by what 10,000 Chinese students did to their 50 countrymen on their own soil than by the fact that just 50 South Koreans came out to oppose Chinese forced repatriations, then the world’s deafening silence on this issue should not come as a surprise. If kin see no evil, then why should strangers.

Reason #2:

North Korea, unlike Myanmar, has nuclear weapons. Forbidding problems with no available solution in sight are easier on the conscience (and ego) to ignore than to acknowledge and seek to address. Nobody likes to be reminded of their impotence.

Reason #3:

North Korea, unlike Myanmar, borders China, the rising superpower, which does not want hundreds of thousands of refugees to pour into its country and drain its resources. So it is in China’s best interests, and consequently in the best interests of those that desire to do business with China, to downplay anything that might destabilize Pyongyang and thereby upset Beijing.

This is the tragedy that is North Korea. The country draws little attention from the world because it belongs to a dysfunctional family. The world turns a blind eye to the country’s atrocities because doing otherwise would mean looking down the barrel of a gun. And the country’s abusive partner happens to be the next superpower of the world.

What would be the value of uttering the seven words in such a tragic situation?

Boycott the Chinese Olympics?

2008-06-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Olympic bloody games

Boycott the Chinese Olympics?

by Suzana Megles,Opednews

I keep on asking myself: why wasn't there a clamor and protests when the
Olympic Committee selected China for the Summer Olympics 4 years ago?
I know that this announcement made me very angry. How could they have chosen China to host the games? Over the last 30 years I remember reading so many accounts of cruelty to animals in China, particularly in the southern part. Should not the way a country treats its animals be a factor in the selection process?

Now that the "damage" has been done and the Olympic Torch is making its way to Beijing, should I and others of my ilk boycott the games? Someone even hoped that the Olympiads would do so. But that's a very, very big stretch-- seeing as I haven't even heard any rumblings in this direction from the rank and file. But the question persists for me-should I boycott the games? At one internet site, I was one of three at the time who said we would.

I think I'll hold to that even though some incredibly compassionate and brave people who have visited some of China's live animal markets are seeing the Olympic games being held this year as an opportunity for us to urge China to improve the situation at live animal markets. Sadly though, we can't even seem to close down our own cruel ones in San Francisco-- despite wonderfully caring and enterprising people who are continually working to do so.

I guess a very great part of the problem is the customers in SF Chinatown and Fisherman's Wharf who want their frogs, lobsters, turtles, fish, chickens, quail, doves, and pheasants freshly killed and slaughtered on-the-spot. Obviously, they are not all Chinese who keep this cruelty going. But it is gratifying to know that there are Asian-American animal rights activists who are simply demanding that animals killed for food be housed and slaughtered humanely according to existing law.

They have painted for us a horrible visual picture of what happens in these live animal markets: "In Chinatown shops, live turtles are hacked apart limb by limb and shells are cut off while the animal is still alive. Chickens, frogs, and doves are suffocated by stuffing them into plastic bags. Frogs are clubbed and skinned alive."

In 1997 San Francisco attorney Baron Miller, acting on behalf of a coalition of animal rights activists sought an injunction agains 12 Chinatown live animal market merchants. In 1998 Superior Court Judge Carlos T. Bea ruled against the animal rights activists' lawsuit, arguing that the Bible's language granting humans "dominion" over animals condones animal cruelty. I had to read that twice -- for me and I hope the majority of people reading this -it is an absolute perversion of what God meant when He gave us dominion over the animals. And these are the people sitting on our benches of law?

As for the Chinese Live Animal Markets, Wanda Embar of Animal Asia, along with two of their team, Christie and Rainbow, visited one in Guangzhou in southern China. They admit that this is the hardest part of their work-- but among the most important because by monitoring the situation, they are able to expose the truth about these hell holes.

As their taxi pulled up to Maoshan Market, they heard the screams of terrified animals. Their cries echoed around each avenue of the market until they finally met the eyes of petrified dogs and cats who were minutes or hours from death. She wrote: "Panting from thirst and dehydration, crying with terror, confusion and pain, their suffering is profound. Sometimes their tails wag in hopeful anticipation that the soft apologies of people recording
their pain will lead to release- until their eyes fade once again into hopeless reality and they turn away."

In tiny cages stacked high-- hundreds of dogs and cats are piled in. While they were there, one cat cage broke opened and all hell broke loose as three cats found the opening and dashed out into the lane trying to flee. But the traders quickly cornered the terrified cats and Wanda describes this terrible scene: "......grasping them around the necks with wire tongs and
smashing them onto the ground until their bodies go limp. A young ginger male twitches for a few seconds and becomes still. A black and white cat convulses wildly in a semi-conscious state, blood pouring from her mouth, nose, and broken legs before awaking more fully and trying to scramble under a truck." The traders let her go knowing that she will soon die of shock and pain and isn't worth chasing."

The internet has so many facets and information re China's shame in the way animals are viewed and treated. On another occasion three members of Animals Asia made a trip to Chongqing Safari Park to monitor the situation of animal treatment there. They found thousands of bored and unhappy animals and some were forced to "perform" with the help of a whip.

At one point they drove through the tiger enclosure, where they were told to expect live animal feeding, when a chicken was suddenly thrown out of a safari park car. One tiger pounced on the live bird and began leisurely plucking its feathers before eating the meat. If this was meant as entertainment, it certainly backfired. In the past many zoos did live feeding to the crocodilians until I believe the London Zoo pioneered a more
humane feeding of either freshly killed animals or frozen meat which is thawed.

So much to cover - old women in southern China boiling cats alive for their curative powers. Using caged bears with incisions to "milk their galls" for questionable medical use. And last but not least - the cruel dispatching of dogs on the menu in some Chinese restaurants. It is one thing to use dog meat, but caging them for long periods, with their snouts tied up and their
front legs bound --unable to eat or drink until they are mercifully dispatched. That is barbaric.

However, less we feel too superior --what about our own food animals? We can use some lessons in compassion and humane husbandry by tearing down the factory farms from hell. And we can also make certain that the slaughter lines are slowed down enough-- insuring that no animal goes through the slaughtering process ALIVE.

I have been concerned about animal suffering ever since I received my first puppy Peaches in 1975. She made me take a good look at the animal kingdom and I was shocked to see how badly we treat so many animals. At 77, I've been a vegan for the past 30 years and I thank God every day that I am. I am most disturbed at how little the Catholic Church and Christian churches generally give to concern re animal suffering in their ministry. I wrote to 350 bishops in 2001 and only 10-13 responded. I feel that the very least they can do is to instruct that the priests give one sermon a year on compassion to animals. I am still waiting for that sermon. I also belong to Catholic Concern for Animals - founded in England in 1929. (They are on the internet) I recently sent a sample copy of their bi-monthly publication called the ARK to the 8 Catholic bishops of Ohio. Only ONE kindly responded. Somehow we have to reach the Christian teaching magisterium. There is next to nothing re animal concerns and compassion for them. They basically believe that animals are the lessor of God's creation and that gives us the right to do anything we want to them. Way wrong. We need to change their mindsets. The animals are God's first and He expects us to treat them compassionately. I loved all of Mark Hawthorne's writings. God bless him and may he continue to be a voice for the voiceless.

Athletes fight to end violence in Darfur

2008-06-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

Team Darfur athlete, Rosanna Tomiuk, sings World on Fire

Athletes fight to end violence in Darfur
by JACK TODD,The Gazette

China's slogan for the Beijing Olympic games set to begin in a little more than two months is "One World, One Dream."

"One World, One Nightmare" might be more accurate.

After I wrote a column a couple of months ago to urge a boycott of the 2008 Olympics unless China alters its repressive murderous policies in Tibet, Canadian water-polo player Rosanna Tomiuk wrote to call attention to Chinese involvement in another troubled region. Tomiuk, a member of the women's national team that fell short of an Olympic berth, is also a member of Team Darfur - an international association of elite athletes attempting to call attention to the plight of Darfur.

Tomiuk and Alouettes defensive-tackle Devone Claybrooks have joined Team Darfur in order to do what they can as athletes to shed light on one of the world's largest and least-understood humanitarian crises, the ongoing genocide in Darfur. (The United Nations has refused to call the killings in that region genocide, but both the U.S. government and a long list of humanitarian organizations call it precisely that.)

The Team Darfur athletes (many of them Olympians) are not urging a boycott. Team Darfur explicitly calls for "a celebration of the Olympic spirit, not a boycott." What they are attempting to do, Tomiuk says, is to "focus on what the world can do to help in Darfur without putting a target on the Chinese."

The situation in Darfur is as complex as it is tragic. The clash is between nomads moving south in search of water and the farming communities of Darfur. (This may be one of the first of the water-fuelled conflicts of the future, triggered by global warming.)

Militias backed by the Sudanese government (and, indirectly, by China) have been accused of mass killings in Darfur, with estimates of the dead ranging from as low as 100,000 to as high as 400,000 (the UN's estimate, even if it refuses to use the word "genocide") and another one to 2.5 million people, again depending on the estimates, displaced and relocated, many of them to refugee camps in neighbouring Chad.

The athletes of Team Darfur are hardly alone in decrying the killings carried about by Sudanese militias funded by the Chinese. All three of the remaining U.S. presidential candidates (Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain) signed their names to an ad that appeared in the New York Times Wednesday, accusing the Sudanese government of genocide in Darfur and urging an end to the violence.

But it is the nature of life in our One World, One Nightmare global village that a tragic earthquake in China will make it more difficult to stop the Chinese-funded genocide halfway around the world in Darfur.

The enormous disaster of the earthquake in Chongqing has had far-reaching implications outside China's borders. In Darfur and Tibet, there was hope that pressure for a boycott or some other gesture connected to the Beijing Olympics might persuade the Chinese regime to alter its policy. But sympathy for the earthquake victims has muted the protests to a degree, even though the regime's failings in areas such as school construction are part of the tragedy.

It is perfectly natural to sympathize with the victims of the natural disaster in Sichuan province and to do everything possible to help. But it is equally natural to sympathize with the victims of the man-made tragedies in Tibet and Darfur and do everything possible to persuade the Chinese regime to alter its course.

While the Chinese have not been accused of direct involvement in the killings in Darfur, China pours billions of dollars into Sudan and buys an overwhelming portion of Sudan's oil. The state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (an official partner in the Beijing Olympics) owns the major share in Sudan's largest oil companies. The Sudanese government has been accused of pouring as much as 70 per cent of its oil revenue into weaponry to be used against the poverty-stricken people of Darfur.

Through its investments in Sudanese oil, China is indirectly funding the government's war effort in Darfur. Even at the United Nations, China has repeatedly used the threat of a veto to keep UN peacekeepers out of Sudan.

In response, the athletes of Team Darfur are attempting to raise awareness of the crisis in Darfur and to put pressure on those countries who have failed to act to bring pressure on China to stop the violence. Team Darfur was co-founded by Olympic gold medallist speed-skater Joey Cheek and UCLA water-polo player Brad Greiner. Cheek raised more than $1 million in 2006 after announcing that he would donate his medal bonuses to relief in Darfur.

Cheek and Greiner and their fellow athletes have created a world-wide symbol, a wristband athletes can wear to raise awareness and funds to ease a humanitarian crisis.

The emphasis throughout Team Darfur is on education, not confrontation. If you take two minutes to go on Team Darfur's website and sign up, you can help to put the spotlight on Darfur - and receive a wristband.

Tomiuk says that she became involved because "I absolutely believe that I have the power to help change the world. As someone who represents my country all over the world, I have the responsibility to represent people who can't stand up for themselves. I believe in Team Darfur because it links athletes with human rights.

"I have so much freedom, but what does it mean if I can't find a way to pass some of it on to those who don't have it? There are people who are dying in Darfur and it's my responsibility to do what I can to help."

The pressure the Chinese can bring to bear to silence athletes is enormous. American softball player Jessica Mendoza, for instance, is a member of Team Darfur, but has refused to publicly criticize the Chinese because she says it's impolite to criticize her Olympic hosts, but also because one of her sponsors, Nike, has a major presence in China.

Athletes who have actually visited the refugee camps are, understandably, the most vocal. Emanuel Neto, who expects to make the Angolan basketball team, told the New York Times: "I've seen what those kids are going through and it's really, really bad. It doesn't matter at this point what will happen to me. What matters to me the most is that something has to be done."

Olympics: Foreigners told to behave at Beijing Olympics — or else

2008-06-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

Olympics: Foreigners told to behave at Beijing Olympics — or else

By STEPHEN WADE, Associated Press

BEIJING — Foreigners attending the Beijing Olympics better behave — or else.

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee issued a stern, nine-page document — covering 57 topics — on Monday. Written only in Chinese and posted of the organizers' official Web site, the guide covers everything from a ban on sleeping outdoors to the need for government permission to stage a protest.
The document, not immediately available in English, also said having Olympic tickets is no guarantee of getting a visa to enter China.

"Those holding Olympic tickets are not guaranteed of being granted a visa," the guide said. "They still need to visit China embassies and consulates and apply for visas according to the related rules."

Fearing protests during the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, China's authoritarian government has tightened controls on visas and residence permits for foreigners. It has also promised a massive security presence at the games, which may include undercover agents dressed as volunteers.

The government is hoping to keep out activists and students who might stage pro-Tibet rallies that would be broadcast around the world. It also fears protests over China's oil and arms trade with Sudan, and any disquiet from predominantly Muslim regions in western China.

"In order to hold any public gathering, parade or protest the organizer must apply with the local police authorities. No such activity can be held unless a permit is given. ... Any illegal gatherings, parades and protests and refusal to comply are subject to administrative punishments or criminal prosecution."

The document also warns against the display of insulting slogans or banners at any sporting venue. It also forbids any religious or political banner in an Olympic venue "that disturbs the public order."

The guidelines seems to clash with a pledge made two month ago by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who said athletes could exercise freedom of speech in China. He asked only that athletes refrain from making political statements at certain official Olympics venues.

"Freedom of expression is something that is absolute," Rogge said in Beijing in April. "It's a human right. Athletes have it."

The highly detailed document is entitled: "A guide to Chinese law for Foreigners coming to, leaving or staying in China during the Olympics." This appears under the slogan of the Beijing Olympics: "One World, One Dream."

For months Chinese authorities denied there had been any change to visa regulations, but recently acknowledged that rules had been amended. The changes may have little affect on some of the 500,000 foreigners expected to visit for the Olympics, many of whom will come on package tours with visas already arranged.

The rules published Monday say entry will be denied to those "who might conduct acts of terrorism, violence and government subversion ... and those who might engage in activities endangering China's national security and national interest."

The rules also bar entry to smugglers, drug traffickers, prostitutes and those with "mental diseases" or contagious conditions.

The document also warns foreigners that not all areas of the country are open to visitors. One such area is Tibet, which is also off limits to journalists.
"Not all of China is open to foreigners, and they shall not go to any venue not open to them," the statement said.

The guide also spells out a long list of items that cannot be brought into the country including weapons, imitation weapons, ammunition, explosives, counterfeit currency, drugs and poisons. It also prohibits the entry of materials "that are harmful to China's politics, economics, culture and morals".

Foreigners staying with Chinese residents in urban areas must register at a local police station within 24 hours of arriving. The limit in rural areas is 72 hours.
The guide also threatens criminal prosecution against anyone "who burns, defaces ... insults or tramps on the national flag or insignia."

For those planning on sleeping outdoors to save a little money — forget it. This is banned in order to "maintain public hygiene and the cultured image of the cities."

Tibetan Freedom Torch Riders Present Petition to U.S. Olympic Committee

2008-06-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

Tibetan Freedom Torch Riders Present Petition to U.S. Olympic Committee

BOULDER, Co – On May 27, four Tibetans and two westerners successfully completed the Colorado “Tibetan Freedom Torch” bicycle ride from the Capitol Building in Denver to the U.S. Olympics National Headquarters in Colorado Springs. The leader of the “Freedom” ride was also able to hand over to a high level official of the U.S. Olympic Committee a petition demanding that the Beijing Olympic Torch not pass through Tibet.

In Denver, the “Torch” event began with a walk to the State Capitol Building by about 100 individuals including Tibetans, Sherpas, and others. During the walk, leaders of the Tibetan Association of Colorado, Colorado Friends of Tibet, International Tibet Independence Movement, and others in attendance carried the “Torch.”

As the walkers approached the Capitol Building, Nawang Khechog sounded a Tibetan long horn and the “Torch” was passed from the oldest Tibetan walker to the 2 youngest Tibetan walkers who were situated in baby strollers.

On the steps of the Capitol, a young Tibetan girl passed the “Torch” to Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez. Mr. Lopez then spoke in strong support of Tibet. Other speakers included Telo Rinpoche, Native American Activist Rudy Balles, Tenzin Dhongyal (President-Tibetan Association of Colorado), Dawn Engle (President- Colorado Friends of Tibet), and Jigme Norbu (son of Taktser Rinpoche who is the oldest brother of His Holiness The Dalai Lama).

After the rally, the 6 “Freedom” riders including Jigme Norbu proceeded on their way to Colorado Springs. During the 60-mile ride through rural central Colorado, the weather was cloudy, cold, damp, and hazy. As twilight approached, the fog was so thick that the riders experienced limited visibility. Even still, they achieved their target goal location for the first day. In the evening, the riders met with members of the Colorado All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church and discussed the situation in Tibet and the purpose of their ride.

On the second and final day, the riders circled downtown Colorado Springs and then joined a welcoming rally of over 150 Tibetans and supporters on the steps of City Hall. From here, all in attendance began a 2.5-mile walk to the U.S. Olympic Committee Headquarters.

As the participants approached the entrance to the Headquarters, Nawang Khechog once again sounded a Tibetan long horn. Darryl Seibel (Director of Public Affairs, U.S. Olympic Committee) was present as the “Freedom” seekers arrived at the entrance to the compound.

At the Headquarters, Tenzin Dhongyal read a statement directed at the U.S. Olympic Committee and its’ President, Peter V. Ueberroth, demanding that the Beijing Olympic Torch not pass through Tibet and that President Bush not attend the Olympics unless significant progress was made in negotiations between China and His Holiness The Dalai Lama in settling the Tibet issue. Mr. Dhongyal strongly urged the U.S. Olympics Committee President in his capacity also as a Director of Coca-Cola Company to use his significant influence in the upcoming last meeting of the IOC before the Beijing Olympics to speak up for Human Rights in Tibet. Mr. Dhongyal then presented to Mr. Seibel the statement and a petition making the same demand.

When asked to speak to the audience upon receiving these documents, Mr. Seibel declined and simply left the entranceway. He promised to forward the petition to his higher authorities. It also should be noted that Mr. Seibel prior to the commencement of the rally had agreed to take a photograph with the “Freedom” seekers. This, however, did not occur. Currently, the organizers are awaiting a statement from the U.S. Olympics Committee and its President, Peter V. Ueberroth.

The rally continued with speeches by Larry Gerstein (President- International Tibet Independence Movement), Dawn Engle, and Jigme Norbu, interspersed with the singing of the Tibetan National Anthem, Tibetan freedom songs, Tibetan prayers, and a long life prayer for His Holiness The Dalai Lama.

Before leaving, the participants posed for a photograph in front of the U.S. Olympic Headquarters.

While many participants wished to enter the Headquarters and walk through the Visitors Center, security denied access to each of them.

Tibetans from Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and Indiana participated in the Denver and Colorado Springs rallies.

Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, Voice of Tibet, and many of the local television stations and newspapers reported on the events in Denver and Colorado Springs.

For pictures of the activities in Colorado, visit www.coloradofriendsoftibet.org, www.coloradotibetans.org, and www.rangzen.org.

US Jewish leaders call for boycott of Beijing Olympics

2008-05-28T01:07:00.000-07:00

US Jewish leaders call for boycott of Beijing Olympics

By ERIC GORSKI(AP)

A wide-ranging group of U.S. Jewish leaders plans to release a statement Wednesday urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China's troubling record on human rights and Tibet.

The statement also notes China's close relationships with Iran, Syria and the militant group Hamas.

So far, 175 rabbis, seminary officials and other prominent Jews have signed the declaration, which comes shortly before Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, organizers said.

"We are deeply troubled by China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas," the statement reads.

"Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today."

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, said signers are not alleging that the Chinese government is the equivalent of the Nazi regime, but that China, like Germany in 1936, is trying to use the Olympics as a public relations tool to deflect attention from its record.

The declaration was organized by Greenberg and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of New York _ both Orthodox Jews _ and the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Several representatives of Judaism's major U.S. branches and large Jewish institutions signed on. They include Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Neil Goldstein and Richard Gordon of the American Jewish Congress; and Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, an association of Conservative rabbis.

The statement seizes on Olympic organizers' plans for a kosher kitchen at the Olympic Village, where athletes stay. Greenberg characterized the move as an attempt to lure Jewish tourists by presenting an image of sensitivity.

"I would say in principle, athletes and tourists and governments should all draw the same conclusion to this," Greenberg said. "Unless the Chinese make some significant corrections, they should not participate."

Meyers said he hopes the declaration is interpreted as a call for Israel and Jewish athletes worldwide to boycott the games, although he doubts such a boycott will come to pass.

"It would be good if that happened," Meyers said. "(But) I know Israel has political ties to China, and does business with China. It presents a somewhat awkward issue for Israel."

China needs to stop playing games

2008-05-28T00:58:00.000-07:00

China needs to stop playing games

As 20,000 journalists get ready for the Beijing Olympics, just how much freedom will they have to report what is happening on and off the track?
by Phil Harding , The Guardian, Monday May 26 2008

In Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics, the guarantee was clear and unmistakable: "there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic games".

In a country that keeps such a tight grip on its own media and which severely restricts access to its markets by foreign media companies - resisting even the persistent blandishments of Rupert Murdoch - it is a guarantee that has been hotly disputed ever since. In just under three months' time, amid some very mixed signals from the authorities, just over 20,000 journalists and broadcasters will descend on the Chinese capital to put it to the test.

Ever since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in 2001 that this year's games had been awarded to Beijing, it has been clear that they were going to be the most politically sensitive since the boycotted Moscow Olympics of 1980, possibly even since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Ashling O'Connor, Olympics correspondent for the Times, believes that is bound to shape the reporting: "Normally once the games actually begin, the coverage is pretty much confined to the sports pages. This time because the Chinese authorities have left so many questions unanswered these games are going to be on the news and foreign pages too."

Free to travel

The journalist advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, has singled out China as the world's leading jailer of journalists, with at least 33 imprisoned at the start of this year. Sports and news editors' in-boxes have been flooded with emails from human rights groups. Given the highly controversial nature of these games and given China's record on media freedom is it going to be possible to report freely?

Lindsey Hilsum, Beijing correspondent for Channel 4 News, says the big tests will come when the games start: "Will the internet really be uncensored? Will journalists be free to travel? Will CNN and BBC World not be blacked out any more?"

In January 2007 the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that accredited foreign journalists would be free to travel in China, outside Tibet and the Muslim western region of Xinjiang, without official permission. In practice, this has only partly happened. In the last fortnight access for the foreign media to the disaster areas of the Sichuan earthquake has been relatively unrestricted. But during the Tibet disturbances in March more than 40 journalists were turned away from covering protests in neighbouring regions, and some were detained. The Guardian's Jonathan Watts made a video of his frustrating trip calling it "7 Days not in Tibet".

The important difference is that the Tibet protests were political, the earthquake emergency is not. Jon Williams, the BBC's world news editor, says of the government's attitude overall: "When they've been good, they've been very good, when they've been bad they've been horrid."

Free access to the internet in China - another promise for the Olympics - has always been problematic. Via the "Great FireWall of China", there is strict control on what can be seen and what can't. When challenged over access to the BBC news site, the Chinese government always denied blocking and cited "technical problems". This year in March during the Tibet demonstrations, the Guardian site was briefly blocked in China for the first time.

Then at the end of March - and just before an inspection visit by the IOC - the BBC News site in English suddenly and without explanation was unblocked for the first time in 10 years. But the BBC's Chinese-language site has stayed off limits. The internet now mirrors what happens with the World Service's radio broadcasts where the Chinese broadcasts are jammed while the English programmes are not.

After their most recent visit, the IOC said they "were satisfied by the assurances we received across a number of areas including internet access". But a month later, China's technology minister, Wan Gang, was less clear: "I've not got any clear information about which sites will be screened or shut ... Every country limits access to some websites". According to Hilsum, internet access still "comes and goes", Wikipedia sometimes disappears, sites such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are still blocked: "I would not be surprised if all the English sites are unblocked for the three weeks of the Olympics. The big issue will be what happens after that."

The most important window on this summer's games will be television. It is the television images that will set the tone for the games. The worldwide audience is expected to top 4 billion viewers. Dave Gordon, who as BBC Sport's head of major events is in overall charge of the BBC's Olympic coverage, says: "This to me is a huge challenge of a story. My first Olympics was Moscow. This is even more of a challenge." It is significant that for these games the BBC has decided not to treat the opening ceremony as just another sporting event. Its coverage will be fronted by Huw Edwards from News alongside Hazel Irvine from Sport with expert analysis from Carrie Gracie, the former Beijing correspondent.

Pictures of the ceremony and sporting events will come almost exclusively from a pool feed provided by the Olympic host broadcaster, Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, a joint Chinese-foreign company set up specifically for these games. For each event there will be one set of identical pictures from each venue available to each broadcast rights holder. In all there will be some 3,800 hours of live feeds. At any one time broadcasters will have up to 20 feeds coming in. As the Chinese have a track record of censoring television coverage they don't like, possible censorship of the Olympics has become a real issue.

At one time it was reported that the Chinese authorities had asked for a delay on the live feeds. But Gordon says: "We have been given absolute assurances that the feeds will be live." But what is not yet clear is what the policy of the host broadcaster will be on coverage of any demonstrations. For Gordon this is fundamental: "We will expect all events to be fully covered in the stadium whether it's on the field or off the field action. We don't want any editorial decisions made for us." But, just in case, the BBC will have its own unilateral cameras at some events "able to capture what we need if we need to".

French television has said if there is any censorship of the pictures, they will boycott coverage. What can domestic Chinese audiences expect to see during the Olympics? Until the non-stop coverage of the earthquake eclipsed all other news, the tone of much of the Olympic coverage on CCTV had been remorselessly upbeat and euphoric. Step-by-step reports on the progress of the torch relay through China were regularly the lead item on the news. On one day just the dress rehearsal for the relay in Macao made the second lead. Coverage of the earlier protests in the west was much more circumspect. What has also come across strongly from Chinese media coverage is the real sense of hurt and anger at the way the western media have concentrated so much on protests and abuses of human rights. Both the BBC and CNN have encountered fierce protests about their coverage (there is now a Chinese website called anti-cnn.com). Many of the comments also seem to express genuine puzzlement at what they see as the dismissal of China's best efforts to offer the world a peaceful torch rally, coupled with a spectacular Olympics. Some bloggers see a western-led conspiracy between Washington and Paris.

In the next few weeks the media spotlight will inevitably switch away from the earthquake and back to the Olympics. For those covering the games, it will be a tricky and pressurised time. If the Olympics are portrayed as a well-organised success, the media will be accused of falling for a Chinese propaganda exercise. On the other hand, if there are protests and they are properly covered, there will be accusations from the Chinese that the actions of an unrepresentative minority have been magnified out of proportion. Jon Williams warns against journalists going to China with too many preconceptions: "It would be wrong for us to start with a fixed mind to cover the games through the prism of Tibet and protest. But on the other hand we have to be prepared for any events if they do happen."

Beijing Olympic Games: Dalai Lama calls for boycott of opening ceremony

2008-05-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

Beijing Olympic Games: Dalai Lama calls for boycott of opening ceremony
By Stephen Adams 23/05/2008

The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, has called on Western governments to boycott the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony in Beijing if they think it will put pressure on the Chinese government to change.

But he said if they thought they could achieve more through diplomatic means, they should attend the ceremony.

Speaking during a high-profile 11-day tour of Britain, he also confirmed it was Gordon Brown’s decision to hold their meeting tomorrow away from Number 10, in a bid not to offend the Chinese.

The Dalai Lama is due to meet the Prime Minister at Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

He is also due to meet with House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee to lobby his cause today.

In the interview with the BBC , the Buddhist spiritual leader, 73, said of the Olympics’ opening ceremony: “Right from the beginning I fully support about the Olympic Games. Meantime I have also made clear the world takes this opportunity to remind the Chinese government about poor record on human rights, religious freedom and environment. The Chinese leadership should pay more attention.”

Asked whether politicians and others should attend the opening ceremony if invited, he said: “[If an ] individual feel [that is] the best way to remind them [is] not [to[ attend, don’t do it.”

But he qualified that: “If they feel to talk, to meet with Chinese leaders, that’s more effective, then go there.”

On the question of where his meeting with Mr Brown is to be held today, the Dalai Lama said: “From my part there’s no differences, so long as the meeting [takes place]. So perhaps I think [with] our meeting, the Prime Minister I think, is becoming more spiritual minded.”

He accepted the Prime Minister did not want to receive him at Number 10 for “economy reasons”.

The Bhuddist spiritual leader, 73, said he was fully committed to a “middle way” of bringing greater autonomy for Tibet, but said he did not want the disputed province to break away entirely from the Chinese state.

Asked what exactly he wanted for Tibet, he replied: “We are not seeking separation. It is in our own interest to remain within China.”

“Defence and foreign affairs should be carried by central [Chinese] government but the rest of business - education and environment, religious work - should be handled by Tibetans themselves. That’s meaningful autonomy.”

He said he thought the Chinese leadership “should take a more liberal way, a more open way, to look towards Tibet.”

Despite the recent crackdown which Tibetan authorities claim left 203 civilians dead - a figure denied by the Chinese - he said he was “quite optimistic” about prospects for his homeland.

But he admitted his people were getting “frustrated” with the lack of progress towards greater autonomy.

“The longer time [there is] no improvement inside Tibet and ruthless suppression continue, then more frustration.”

On Friday he will also plant a tree at Clarence House in the presence of the Prince of Wales.

The pair have met a number of times before, with Charles known to be a keen admirer of the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan holy man will also deliver a speech on Universal Responsibility in the Modern World at the Royal Albert Hall.

Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2006564/Beijing-Olympic-Games-Dalai-Lama-calls-for-boycott-of-opening-ceremony.html

Tibetan ‘Olympics’ hit a number of hurdles

2008-05-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Tibetan ‘Olympics’ hit a number of hurdles

AFP, DHARAMSHALA, INDIA Friday, May 23, 2008, Published on Taipei Times

A mock “Olympics” being held as an anti-China protest by Tibetan exiles in India has failed to attract sponsors and cannot even afford to pay out the prize money on offer, organizers say.

The alternative Olympics, which has just 23 participants, comes less than three months before the real games in Beijing and will feature sports such as swimming, archery and shooting.

Catherine Schuetze, an Australian acting as clerk for the “Tibetan Olympics”, said lack of money was threatening the event, which starts Thursday in Dharamshala, home to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

“We’re stripping expenses to the bone and we’re still about to run out of money,” she said. “There’s a desperate need for sponsors, donations — anything.”

The Tibetan games’ organizer, Lobsang Wangyal, warned he did not have enough cash to hand out US$8,000 in promised prize money.

“I’ve got just 40,000 rupees (US$930) and total expenses are expected to be well over 2 million rupees,” said Wangyal, who planned the event as a protest against Chinese rule in his remote Himalayan homeland.

Organizers face other problems as the exiled Tibetan administration in Dharamsala has turned its back on the event, which it views as too insulting to China and likely to damage the prospects of future talks.

The Tibetan administration favors the Dalai Lama’s goal of “meaningful autonomy” for the region within China, rather than the full independence demanded by more radical Tibetans — such as those behind the sports event.

The Dalai Lama’s Tibetan government-in-exile on Wednesday also called for a suspension of protests against China as a mark of respect to victims of this month’s devastating earthquake.

The Dalai Lama has been at pains to assert he supports China as the Olympic host and has distanced himself from the protests that dogged the global torch relay.

The Dharamsala event is also causing embarrassment for its unwilling host India, which has allowed the Tibetan exiles sanctuary as long as they do not use the soil as a springboard for anti-Chinese activities.

But games director Wangyal said the Tibetan Olympics were “not being held to counter the Beijing Olympics.”

Besides Schuetze, volunteers from France, Italy, Peru, Egypt, Japan, Israel, Germany and the US have teamed up to help.

“But it’s hard work without funds,” said Susan Hayano, a US photographer who has been drafted into action to take pictures of the games.

Despite the lack of official enthusiasm for the Dharamsala event, the competitors were upbeat.

“I’ve participated in many anti-China protests and I thought this one’s going to be cool as there’ll be no police to beat us up,” said 22-year-old Tenzin Dhadon, who traveled from Nepal to take part in the javelin.

Ten women and 13 men aged between 18 and 30 have been practicing for the past week for the games and the three top winners will receive hand-crafted gold-plated medals.

However, the mountainous topography has imposed restrictions on some events. The 100m dash has been shortened to just 24m because of lack of flat land.

Chinese-controlled Tibet was rocked by unrest in March, and the Tibetan government-in-exile says 203 Tibetans were killed and 1,000 injured in China’s subsequent crackdown.

China says Tibetan “rioters” and “insurgents” killed 21 people, and has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympics — a charge the Tibetan spiritual leader denies.

BEIJING: WE ARE READY

2008-05-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET

BEIJING: WE ARE READY

"If...human rights are not acted upon to our satisfaction then we will act." Jacques Rogge, IOC President on China, ... all » BBC's Hardtalk, April 2002

December 10th, International Human Rights Day, is a day set-aside to recognize the inherent rights of every individual. The IOC promised in 2001, when they awarded China the 2008 Summer Olympics, that the Games would bring an improvement in the human right situation in China.

In reality, the human rights situation in China and Tibet is growing steadily worse. In the lead up to the Beijing Olympics, Chinese authorities are intensifying their crackdown on freedom of religion, assembly and expression in Tibet.

Just last month in Eastern Tibet, Runggye Adak (http://actionnetwork . org/campaign/runggye_ adak), a 52 year-old father of eleven, was sentenced to eight years in prison for simply calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet.

China is clearly a human rights failure. And yet, the IOC remains silent.

But Tibetans and their supporters around the world are speaking out. In the lead up to August 2008, we are shining the spotlight on China's brutal occupation of Tibet and failed human rights record.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

1) Download and watch SFT HQ's "Beijing: We are Ready" video and spread the word on UTube/ Flickr/ Facebook/ Hi5/ Blog/ website or other social networking site. Screen the film on campus or in your community.

2) Create your own "Beijing: We are Ready" video, upload it to UTube, and send the link to tv@studentsforafreetibet . org.

3) Call on the International Olympic Committee to speak out for Tibet: www . studentsforafreetibet . org/IOC

4) Join Team Tibet - a movement of people around the world who believe in freedom and justice for Tibet. Click here (http://www . supportteamtibet . org/supporter/new) to add your name to the international list of Team Tibet supporters.

5) Check out (hyperlink: http://www . indiemerchstore . com/sft) SFT's stylish line of Team Tibet Gear and spread the world about Team Tibet!

6) Click here (http://www . studentsforafreetibet . org/olympics) to find out more about SFT's 2008 Beijing Olympics campaign.

Students’ body asks athletes to quit Games

2008-05-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

Students’ body asks athletes to quit Games

By AMIT AGNIHOTRI

New Delhi, May 19: The All India Tibetan College Students’ Mass Movement has appealed to the athletes to boycott the Beijing Olympics if China continues to suppress the innocent Tibetans for expressing their love for freedom.

"We appeal to the athletes to consider boycotting the Beijing Olympics if the Chinese government continues to suppress the Tibetans for showing their love for human dignity," said All India Tibetan College Students’ Mass Movement member Tenzin Morkyi. The college students’ body has also asked the Chinese government to immediately hold a meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama, reconsider its agreement on human rights improvement and free media coverage in Tibet.

Concerned over the whereabouts of their fellow students in Tibet, the group members said that they "want the Chinese government to explain the fate of Tibetans university students who are missing after expressing their solidarity with the Tibetans killed in Tibet".

Calling for a UN intervention, the students have appealed to the international body to send a team to check the reality in Tibet and investigate the human rights violations there.

The body, which has been formed as a result of realistic demands and several emergency meetings held by representatives of 14 prominent regions, is going to launch a membership drive from May 21.

Will the Beijing Olympics ultimately help or hurt the cause of freedom in China?

2008-05-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

Playing for Keeps: A Symposium
By THE AMERICAN
From the May/June 2008 Issue
Filed under: World Watch

Will the Beijing Olympics ultimately help or hurt the cause of freedom in China? THE AMERICAN asked eight experts.
From August 8 to August 24, China’s capital city will host the 29th Summer Olympics. It promises to be as much a political event as an athletic spectacle. With that in mind, THE AMERICAN asked eight China experts to answer this question: Will the Beijing Olympics ultimately help or hurt the cause of freedom in China? Here are their responses.

DAN BLUMENTHAL

During the 2008 Summer Olympics, 600,000 armband-wearing citizen volunteers will join 90,000 police, military, and paramilitary forces in Beijing, flush with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on security technology to help enforce the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) writ. No one should be under any illusion that the Olympics will pry China open. On the contrary, the party’s repressive techniques will grow stronger thanks to Western technology and training. The requirements for security technology in Beijing are large, and Western companies are rushing in to meet them. Some American companies are installing surveillance systems, while others are providing networks of security cameras.

As the former head of criminal intelligence for Hong Kong puts it, “They are certainly getting the best stuff.” The “best stuff” is similar to the technology that was supposed to liberalize China throughout the 1990s. It didn’t. Instead, Internet and telecommunications technology was put to work by the Communist regime against its citizens. The news that grabs headlines—for example, when Western companies provide Chinese authorities with the IP addresses of known dissidents—tells just part of the story of a Chinese security apparatus that has grown stronger through international commerce. Even before the Olympics, tens of thousands of Internet police monitored antiparty activities each day. During and after the Olympics, this number will certainly grow.

The Olympics will not pry China open. The Communist Party’s repressive techniques will grow stronger thanks to Western technology and training.After the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, many foreign experts predicted that the days of one-party rule were numbered. But that was 20 years ago, and the CCP is still very much in power. True, it survives thanks to impressive economic growth. But no less important is the CCP’s acquisition of sophisticated and modern technology to squelch dissent. The party simply has more resources to employ against those trying to use new technologies to push for a more open China.

In other words, by deepening trade with China, in particular technology trade, the West threw the CCP a lifeline. Although the “Tiananmen Sanctions” were meant to prohibit the sale of goods and services that would improve the repressive means of the state, there is simply no way for companies to ensure that technologies sold for commercial purposes are not diverted to police or security use. The Olympics have further opened the spigots.

All countries, including China, have legitimate concerns about terrorist threats during the Olympics. The problem is that the CCP’s definition of “terrorist” includes Tibetans and Uighurs agitating for greater religious and cultural freedom. Indeed, as Liu Shaowu, a senior Chinese official in charge of Olympic security, has stated, the CCP has set its sights on anyone taking part in any protest. Even democratic countries err on the side of more centralized power when faced with potential threats. But China is not a democratic country: there are no checks on power, and there is no recourse for a citizen whose rights are abused. The ruling elite uses legitimate security concerns as excuses to become even more dictatorial.

With foreign journalists pouring into China during the Olympics, there will surely be protests against the CCP. But if the 1990s are any lesson, the Chinese Communists will emerge stronger, prouder, and more sophisticated in their repressive techniques, and they will be armed with the finest Western technologies to crush dissent well past the Olympics.

Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

JACQUES DELISLE

The Olympics are likely to have a modestly positive impact on freedom, civil and political rights, and kindred values in China. This unexciting prospect is more plausible than predictions that Beijing 2008 will bring a reprise of the 1988 Seoul Games (sometimes credited with expediting South Korea’s democratization) or the 1980 Moscow Games (sometimes interpreted as hastening Gorbachev’s reforms, and thus the demise of Soviet Communism). Marginal change is also more likely than the bleak vision of a Beijing Olympiad reminiscent of the 1936 Berlin Games, which handed an odious host regime a propaganda coup.

Having led China through meteoric economic growth and rapid ascension as a regional and aspiring great power, the reform-era Chinese regime is far more resilient than its counterparts in South Korea and the Soviet Union were during the 1980s. Also, China remains below the level of affluence and related social changes that presaged democratization in South Korea and other East Asian countries. On the other hand, and despite heavy investment in Games-related security and the suppression of Games-linked dissent, China has come a long way from its Maoist past. It has engaged the outside world’s norms and institutions, introducing freedoms and openness that would have been unimaginable under Mao.

To be sure, the run-up to the Olympics has included much that is bad for freedom and human rights. The regime has used poorly paid and mistreated migrant workers to build Olympics-related projects; it has ousted urban residents to make room for that construction; it has quashed many protesters (including those calling for Tibetan autonomy, religious freedom, freedom of the press, property rights, and labor rights); and it has scolded, without apparent irony, its critics for “politicizing” the Games.

If the Games present China as a powerful and capable state, this will increase expectations that China live up to international human rights standards.Still, the net effect of the Olympics is likely to be favorable. If the Games go smoothly, this should boost Chinese rulers’ confidence that the liberalizing influences the Olympics foster do not threaten their political order. If the Games present China as a powerful and capable state, this also will increase expectations that China live up to international human rights standards. If the regime does not respond, Beijing will find it harder to persuade the world that China’s rise will be “peaceful” and “harmonious.”

If the Games show the regime’s repressive face—especially if there are telegenic moments akin to the lone man standing before the tanks in Tiananmen Square or a military vehicle toppling the “Goddess of Democracy”—then post-Olympics China will have a more difficult time achieving the international recognition and rehabilitation the Games were supposed to provide, as they variously did for South Korea in 1988, Germany in 1972, and Japan in 1964. More broadly, the Olympics likely will increase China’s openness to international ideas and foreigners’ monitoring of its human rights record. While global attention to China will wane, it is unlikely to recede to pre-Olympics levels. At least in the long run the Beijing Games promise to be another small step in China’s long march toward greater global engagement and political transparency.

Jacques deLisle is the Stephen A. Cozen Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

JAMES A. DORN

Will the Beijing Olympics ultimately help or hurt the cause of freedom in China? Once one realizes that any expansion of trade—in goods, sports, ideas, or capital—widens the range of individual choice, the answer to this question is obvious. The Olympic Games will link China more closely to the free world, and the millions of people who view the Games will see firsthand the progress China has made since it opened to the outside world 30 years ago.

But the world will also hear the cries of demonstrators who rightly recognize the repression of human rights in China. Those protests, however, should not shut down the Games and deny Chinese and other athletes the opportunity to pursue their dreams of winning Olympic gold.

China has come a long way since Mao Zedong made capitalism a crime and abolished private property, but the CCP has yet to accept the basic principle of freedom. Today, Chinese people are allowed to own their own homes and are free to start their own businesses, to work in the nonstate sector, and to travel and trade.

The Olympics will allow the Chinese to take pride in their progress and to show the rest of the world that China is a peaceful rising power, not an inevitable enemy of the West.But the state continues to deny people freedom of expression and to maintain its monopoly on political power. Nonetheless, one should not lose sight of the positive impact of economic liberalization. As Jianying Zha, author of China Pop, has noted, “The economic reforms have created new opportunities, new dreams, and to some extent, a new atmosphere and new mindsets…. There is a growing sense of increased space for personal freedom.”

In March 2004, the National People’s Congress (NPC) amended the official Chinese constitution, which now proclaims, “The lawful private property of citizens is inviolable.” And in 2007, the NPC passed a landmark property law to better protect ownership rights. Such legal changes would have been unthinkable during Mao’s reign.

In 1978, China’s foreign trade sector barely existed and was dominated by a handful of state trading companies. Today, the foreign trade sector is open to virtually anyone, and China is the world’s third-largest trading nation. The transition from central planning to a “socialist market economy” has allowed millions of people to escape from poverty and has increased the demand for safeguarding newly acquired property.

The Beijing Olympics will allow the Chinese people to take pride in the progress they have made and to show the rest of the world that China is a peaceful rising power, not an inevitable enemy of the West. “Peaceful development” has been the mantra of China’s leaders since 1978. Their primary goal has been economic development. Treating China like Cuba or North Korea would be counterproductive.

We should recognize the progress China has made and hope for a peaceful and prosperous China. However, we should not confuse market socialism with market liberalism. More importantly, we should remind the Chinese leadership that official proclamations of human rights must be backed up with institutions that limit the power of government and allow people freedom under a just rule of law.

Brave protesters are reminding the world of what still needs to be done in the cause of Chinese freedom. Their voices should not be shut out in the quest for Olympic gold.

James A. Dorn is a China specialist at the Cato Institute and editor of The Cato Journal.

DAVID S. G. GOODMAN

There is considerably more freedom in China today than there was at the height of the Mao era in the early 1970s. Economically, politically, and socially, the degree of personal freedom has continued to increase since the early 1980s, even though change has sometimes been fitful. It is hard to see how the 2008 Olympics can have anything other than a slight impact on the pattern of developing freedom.

The increase in economic freedom has been the most dramatic change in China during the last three decades: for entrepreneurs, managers, and peasants. We have seen the emergence of an entrepreneurial class that has sped up the pace of growth and change. In a very real sense, economic freedom has made it possible for Beijing to host the Olympics, both by integrating China into the world economy and by providing the party-state with the resources to finance the event. If the unveiling of the new buildings and infrastructure associated with the Olympics is a reliable guide, the Games will showcase the achievements of economic liberalization.

It is unlikely that the Games will expedite China’s social liberalization. In fact, the continued evolution of domestic freedoms may be temporarily halted.Many foreign observers have expected China’s integration into the world economy and its economic development to lead almost automatically to increased political freedom. There have indeed been some gains. Independent political space has expanded, albeit slowly, which has made room for a range of new institutions, including chambers of commerce, nongovernmental organizations, and even loosely defined “activist” groups. All the same, more dramatic political change is unlikely absent a major reform movement within the CCP, a state crisis, and widespread unrest. And in any case, the Olympic Games are not likely to affect this trajectory.

Socially, Chinese people have won many new freedoms. For example, it has become much easier to move around China in search of work or leisure. Employment opportunities are more market-driven than ever before. The standard of living has improved dramatically for most people, providing them with greater opportunities for personal expression. Cultural activities and artistic expression have started to flourish, with the aid of greater private funding.

At the same time, there is little doubt that social customs and China’s entrenched inequalities of class, sex, and region have been slower to change. For that matter, it is unlikely that the Summer Games will expedite China’s social liberalization. On the contrary, there is the strong possibility that, due to the increased public expression of Chinese nationalism associated with the Olympics, the continued evolution of domestic freedoms may be temporarily halted.

David S. G. Goodman is a professor of contemporary China studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.

DAVID C. KANG

Will the Beijing Olympics ultimately help the cause of freedom in China?

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is still no, but somewhat more encouraging. China is in the midst of a long-term economic, social, and political transformation. At the start of China’s opening 30 years ago, few could have foreseen its rapid economic growth, its increasingly globalized citizenry, its membership in international and regional institutions, and its often responsible behavior as a great power. Yet as far as China has come, there remain many areas in which Chinese rights do not meet international standards.

However, nobody has any idea whether or when China will become democratic, whether or when China’s economic and intellectual rights will match its GDP growth, or whether the CCP can “muddle through” for the next generation. The Chinese people themselves will decide this over time, and the choices made today will affect how and when the process unfolds.

Hosting such a global event throws a spotlight on China and makes it clear that China’s own interests are furthered by continuing domestic reforms.So what is the role of external influence on that process? The two main approaches to swaying another country’s internal affairs can be characterized as “cursing the darkness” and “lighting a candle.” Neither is likely to work by itself, but a combination of approaches to China is the strategy most likely to succeed.

To be sure, those hoping for a dramatic change in China will be disappointed, and it is hard to imagine external pressure (“cursing the darkness”) having an immediate effect. Realistically, barring fundamental change in the ruling Communist Party, political rights in China will be the slowest to improve. If America pressures China to reform, it is likely to sour relations between our two governments at a time when Sino-American cooperation is crucial to solving many environmental and strategic problems. It may also provoke a nationalist, anti-American backlash among the Chinese people.

“Lighting a candle”—that is, engaging China and making it clear that responsible behavior is in Beijing’s interests—may bring some benefits, but progress will be slow. The Beijing Olympics are one example of this approach: hosting such a global event throws a spotlight on China and makes it clear that China’s own interests are furthered by continuing domestic reforms. Yet the Olympics will merely be one more step in China’s long transformation, and the process will be gradual at best.

Ultimately, Chinese freedoms will arise when Chinese themselves, both inside and outside of the government, decide that the best way to govern themselves, their economy, and their society is through a model in which basic freedoms are expressly present. China is well along that path, and the role of the Olympics will be one small factor in its transformation.

David C. Kang is a professor of government and an adjunct professor at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. His latest book is “China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia” (Columbia University Press).

TARUN KHANNA

On a recent flight from Beijing to Los Angeles, I read the eloquent writings of Mandarin Yung Wing, a senior bureaucrat during the time of the Manchu regime in China and the first Chinese national to graduate from Yale University (class of 1854). His story is instructive in understanding how the Olympics might advance freedom in China, if at all.

Yung Wing was responsible for creating a pathway for Chinese students to study in the United States, for transferring U.S. machine-technology to China, and for promoting the rights of Chinese workers in the Western world. He was a successful human bridge between the West and China at a time of turbulence, including the U.S. Civil War and China’s Taiping Revolution.

His bridging was based on a deep understanding of both societies, and on finding helpful change agents in both China and the West. This meant “working within” both systems. That may sound like a euphemism for acquiescing to unsavory acts, but it is not, as Yung Wing amply demonstrated through his disavowal of corruption in graft-ridden Manchu China.

Of course, many bridges—both personal and institutional—have been constructed since then, most recently following the modern phase of Chinese reforms initiated around 1978, a process interrupted by the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 but renewed by Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 “southern tour” (in Chinese, nanxun). Seen in this light, the 2008 Olympics offer another opportunity to continue China’s bridging to the world.

The Olympics offer another opportunity to continue China’s bridging to the world.With this progressive bridging have come freedoms of many sorts. Primary among these are freedoms from basic economic deprivation and hunger for hundreds of millions of Chinese. It is hard to overemphasize the importance of these freedoms. There is also much more information available than before, particularly regarding economic activity. For example, magazines such as Caijing, a leading business publication, would not have been feasible even a few years ago.

Of course, there are many freedoms that remain unrealized in China. There is little freedom to express religious beliefs—witness the tension between the party-approved Catholic Church and the underground one—and to debate politics.

During the Beijing Olympics, the government has promised limited press freedoms in return for restraint exercised by foreign journalists. But it is hard to let this press freedom genie out of the bottle only partially. The party must contend with a host of entities pursuing goals that are sometimes at odds with its own.

What do Yung Wing’s efforts tell us about outside attempts to promote freedom in China? Simple: outsiders desirous of spurring change are more likely to make progress if they figure out a way to leverage the system within China. As Yung Wing demonstrated, outside catalysts need to work with China’s domestic reformers. There is no compelling evidence that force majeure will produce the desired results—something we should keep in mind before, during, and after the Beijing Olympics.

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann professor at Harvard Business School and author of “Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours” (Harvard Business School Press).

MINXIN PEI

The organizers of the 29th Summer Olympic Games in Beijing picked an auspicious date, 08/08/08, for the opening ceremony. In Cantonese, the number eight has the same sound as “making a fortune.” But it remains unclear whether the Beijing Olympics will be auspicious for the future of freedom in China. If history provides any guidance, it offers little encouragement.

Since the first modern Olympic Summer Games were held in Athens in 1896, the only authoritarian state that became democratic directly as a result of the Olympics was South Korea, which played host in 1988. Recent political developments within China do not augur well for an immediate expansion of political freedom. Although the average Chinese citizen enjoys more personal freedom today than he has during any period since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, essential political rights (such as dissent) and civil liberties (such as freedom of speech, association, and assembly) remain severely restricted.

With the Olympics approaching, the instinct of the Chinese government is not to relax political control but to strengthen its “stability-enhancing” capabilities and ensure that the Beijing Olympics will not be tarnished by unwelcome incidents of political protest or social unrest. As a result, urban slums, where thousands of petitioners from the rural provinces have temporary shelters, are being cleared. The Chinese media and the Internet are subject to more intense scrutiny. A leading AIDS activist, Hu Jia, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

It is understandable that the government would seek to provide security for the athletes and foreign visitors. But the unfortunate short-term effect of the Beijing Olympics has been to curtail Chinese freedoms, not to expand them.

The unfortunate short-term effect of the Olympics has been to curtail Chinese freedoms, not to expand them.This puts the West in a quandary. Since the Chinese people genuinely want to see Beijing stage the most successful Olympics in recent memory, it is unrealistic to expect them to respond positively to international criticisms of China’s poor human rights performance. In all likelihood, such criticisms will backfire, convincing the average Chinese that the West is unwilling to give China the international respect it deserves. Indeed, there is a real risk that the cause of freedom in China might suffer a further setback due to such a nationalist-populist backlash.

However, the long-term effects of the Beijing Olympics on freedom are likely to be more positive, although very limited. Massive investments in Beijing’s infrastructure will speed up its urbanization. The millions of peasants who subsequently migrate to Beijing will not only have access to a higher standard of living, they will also have greater opportunities to agitate for political rights. But it would be too generous to credit the Beijing Olympics even with this possible upside. Modernization, not the staging of international sports competitions, has long proven to be a far more potent force for expanding freedom around the world.

Minxin Pei is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of “China’s Trapped Transition” (Harvard University Press).

ROSS TERRILL

The Beijing Games will display China, not change it. The world will see a booming urban China that has temporarily separated economic freedom (which is permitted) and political freedom (which is denied), thus creating a hybrid system of liberalized commercial life coexisting with authoritarian politics. During the Games, the Chinese regime will do what it takes to put on a good show.

In the short term, freedom will shrink for those Chinese who are always on the threshold of repression. These include handicapped people, migrants from the countryside, AIDS activists, pro-democracy figures, bloggers who show a tendency to make “anti-China” statements, and others who mar China’s “harmonious society.” Over the long term, however, there may be a slight gain in freedom’s prospects, as sometimes occurs when the Chinese party-state has to rub shoulders with non-authoritarians.

Today, Chinese nationalism is burnished by economic progress, the space program, archaeological research to demonstrate how old and clever Chinese civilization is, and Japan bashing. The Olympic Games will add a little to this mix, if everything goes smoothly.

To be sure, hosting the Games is politically risky, as it means bringing international elements into China. Something could happen. But then, something could happen to China’s brittle political system at any time: for example, if disgruntled farmers mobilized; if Tibet or the Muslim area of Xinjiang grew restive (witness the recent protests by Tibetans in Lhasa and elsewhere); if Hong Kong tangled with Beijing; or if a regime collapse in North Korea brought millions of refugees flocking into northeast China.

Freedom can’t advance far under the present party-state. Beijing has learned how to turn the screws on and off according to circumstance. But a secular movement away from communism is gaining strength in China, and the Olympic Games may mildly help it.

The party-state will win some rounds with its organizational and theatrical skills. Beijing will look clean, bright, and exciting. If the Asian Games of two decades ago are any indication, the opening and closing ceremonies mounted by Beijing will be of the highest standard.

If there are massive international protests against the Games, most Chinese will rally behind their government.Other elements of the show will strike informed observers as bittersweet. Few Americans will guess that the tap water in their five-star hotels is unavailable to the vast majority of Beijing residents. Most of the city’s tap water is not safe to drink. Only in the area housing athletes and some foreign visitors—and only during the Games—will drinkable water flow from faucets. Providing safe water for an Olympic elite and dirty water for the Chinese masses does not exactly boost the credentials of socialism.

Politicizing the Games would not have a good outcome. It would not free any Chinese political prisoners, nor would it make China’s foreign policy in the Third World more pro-democracy.

If there are massive international protests against the Beijing Games, most Chinese will rally behind their government.

Yes, the Olympics are a tool in the authoritarian state’s box of tricks. But a successful Olympics will be China’s glory more than the government’s. The government will sweat, repress, and spend billions. But the Chinese people will feel proud, and why shouldn’t they?

The Olympic Games are ultimately a sporting event. Unfortunately, they can’t be a 100 percent sporting event because authoritarian governments use the occasion for boasting. We may grimace at this, but we must stick by our principles. The United States did not need to trumpet the 1984 Los Angeles Games to fortify its political legitimacy. If other countries use the Olympic Games as a crutch, so be it. I think the world will get the message: free governments are relaxed, but repressive regimes are always fearful.

Ross Terrill’s books include “Mao” (Stanford University Press) and “The New Chinese Empire” (Basic Books). He was recently a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Athletes should consider Beijing boycott

2008-05-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

Athletes should consider Beijing boycott: Stojko
The Canadian Press
TORONTO — Two-time Olympic silver medallist Elvis Stojko says Canadian athletes should "make a stand" for human rights and think twice about heading to the Beijing Summer Games.

Stojko, who captured the silver in men's figure-skating at the 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics, says he would consider boycotting the Games if he was still competing.

Stojko made the comments during a Saturday afternoon rally outside the Ontario legislature, protesting China's human rights record.

About 200 people showed up for the rally, which included lighting a mock Olympic torch.

The three-time world champion also says it's unacceptable for countries to muzzle athletes' opinions, since the athletes are the ones representing their countries.

China's government has faced mounting criticism over its human rights record, and drew fire for a recent crackdown against anti-government protests in Tibet.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has confirmed he will not attend the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games, but Canada has rejected the idea of boycotting the Olympics.

"I know for me, it would be extremely difficult to be able to go compete in a country that was hosting the Games, but don't exemplify what the Games are being held for,'' Stojko told The Canadian Press.

He added that athletes have an ability to raise awareness about important issues.

"People should know what's going on and athletes have a chance to be able to do that if they wish,'' Stojko said, adding that China's treatment of its people is dragging "negative energy'' into the world tournament.

But Steve Keogh, communications manager from the Canadian Olympic Committee, said athletes are free to say what they want,'' he said in an interview. "There's been no instruction to our athletes not to say anything.

"They can say anything they wish.''

Keogh did say Canada is a signatory of the Olympic charter, which prohibits athletes from making any "proactive demonstration while in an Olympic venue.''

Torchbearers donate $ to earthquake: Torch Relay is a Farce

2008-05-15T03:16:00.000-07:00

CCTV reported Olympic torchbearers donate money to Sichuan earthquake.

Watching at near half point of video and look at the torchbearers hands, they did not put any money, their hands are empty, as they pretended donate money.

The Torch Relay is a farce. CCP's made Olympic a political and propaganda tool. CCP Shows off Communist ideology and economic, but hiding oppression in Tibet, torture, kill, imprison Tibetan, and illegal evicted Beijing resident for building stadiums upcoming Olympic. China violated more human rights contrary to its promised.

Activists carry torch to protest human-rights violations in China

2008-05-15T02:02:00.000-07:00

Activists carry torch to protest human-rights violations in China
by Christa Hillstrom May 14, 2008

Like the games in Germany in 1936, and in the Soviet Union in 1980, this year’s Beijing Olympics will go down in history as a gross corruption of the Olympic spirit, said Chen Kai, former member of China’s national basketball team.

Kai, now a U.S. citizen, is part of an international movement called the Human Rights Torch Relay that is spreading this message across 37 countries on five continents, including more than 36 U.S. cities.

Chicago is one of those cities. More than 100 people gathered in Lincoln Park on Saturday to support the torch’s Chicago run— a 2 kilometer symbolic walk around the pond.

The relay is intended to raise awareness about human rights violations in China, such as the persecution of the religious group, Falun Gong.

Eleven speakers offered their support, including Mayor Jim Burke of Dixon, a representative of U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Chicago), and students and activists.

"This torch is hugely significant because it symbolizes our united stance in a worldwide effort to raise awareness about not only the human rights abuses of the Chinese Communist Party, but also the ongoing persecutions of people under corrupt regimes in the countries of Myanmar, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Darfur and wherever unjust practices are being inflicted upon humankind," said Dorothy Brown, Cook County circuit clerk, in a statement read by her representative, Jalyne Strong.

The goals of the relay, organizers said, are to create a platform to speak about injustices perpetrated by the Chinese government.

Sharon Kilarski, spokeswoman for the Relay, said the running of the torch uses global attention on the Olympics to spotlight these injustices, but is not anti-China and does not promote a boycott of the Olympics.

Using the games to promote an image of China that ignores human-rights issues is deceitful, said Kai.

“China has already become ... a cheap prostitute using Olympics as makeup to hide and disguise itself, and now it wants to make love to the world,” he said.

He added that he has hope for his homeland’s future, comparing his own dream of Chinese freedom and unity to that of one of his adopted nation’s heroes, Martin Luther King Jr.

“I dream that one day the Chinese people will free themselves,” he said.

Other “human rights torches” were simultaneously run in Detroit and Evansville, Ind. Saturday, and the next stops on the international tour include cities in Canada and Asia.

Boycott as the only effective form of protest

2008-05-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

Boycott as the only effective form of protest
Posted By Beth Gandy On May 13, 2008

Beth Gandy talks to the Vice President of the European Parliament on Olympic boycott and human rights abuses China

While the Olympic Torch, the manifestation of the Olympic spirit, continues its tour around the world, April 30 marked 100 days until the start of the Games in Beijing.

However many deem China responsible for genocide in Darfur and Tibet and some vehemently uphold that it is in Tibet that the Olympic spirit died. For these reasons, should a boycott of this year’s event in China take place?

Many in the European Parliament stand by this including its Vice-President, Edward McMillan-Scott, the Conservative MEP for the Yorkshire and Humber region. He created the European Democracy Initiative in 2004 and has been actively campaigning for a debate about the prospect of a boycott.

When interviewed by Nouse he shed some light on the situation. “As the founder of the EU’s £100m democracy and human rights programme, I have tried to gauge the capacity to work in the world’s largest country and its biggest tyranny. There is a universal acknowledgement in the human rights community that the situation in China is already worse than it was in 2001 when it was awarded the games by a hopeful IOC (International Olympic Committee).”

Along with organisations such as Amnesty International, McMillan-Scott believes human rights abuse in China is actually worsening as a consequence of the Olympics. In being asked by the IOC to organise “a secure Olympics Games”, the Chinese government has resorted to more arrests of dissidents and more censorship.

The Games have in the past been used to bring estranged countries together. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, North and South Korea entered the same stadium together during the opening ceremony for the first time, two countries that consistently antagonise each other at the negotiating table. The South Koreans, in the end, used the Olympics as a coming-out event, as it is hoped China will, and it is now a democracy.

It is thought that the Olympics will give the country exposure to the world, to different ideals will hopefully bring about change. As McMillan-Scott said: “thanks to the boycott campaign, the world is watching China.”

He went on to scrutinise Chinese politics saying that “the techniques of repression in the name of the Chinese Communist Party are so effective with their PR company teaching 84 key Beijing spokesmen how to lie about them. China is selling the same techniques to other tyrannies around the world, from Burma to Sudan to Zimbabwe”.

Politicians worldwide will now face a decision over whether to lend legitimacy to a regime with a terrible human rights record, which continues to oppress people and silence those who oppose it. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, has vowed to boycott the opening ceremony. Hilary Clinton also recently took to the stand in her election plight, urging George Bush’s administration to reconsider its Olympic plans. France’s President Sarkozy has not ruled out a boycott, and while Gordon Brown has said he will go to the closing ceremony of the Games, it is likely that in private he is uncertain about his position.

McMillan-Scott takes a powerful stand supporting the boycott saying: “It is time for the democratic world to stand up and be counted”.

Article printed from Nouse.co.uk: http://www.nouse.co.uk

URL to article: http://www.nouse.co.uk/2008/05/13/boycott-as-the-only-effective-form-of-protest/

Internationally Exhibited Hawaii Artist Cancels 'Goodwill Tour' to China

2008-05-14T03:08:00.000-07:00

Internationally Exhibited Hawaii Artist Cancels 'Goodwill Tour' to China
Written by associate1 Wednesday, 14 May 2008

'Goodwill Tour' to China as the wave of worldwide protests continue to haunt the upcoming Olympics. The Artist calls for a Boycott of the Olympics, Boycott of travel to China and other countries that suppress freedom and human rights.

HI, United States, May 6, 2008 -- With the ever growing international discontent over China's Human Rights Violations of Tibetans, Ughers, Chi Gung practitioners, and other minorities, Hawaii Artist Aelbert Aehegma has announced the cancellation of his non-political, 'Goodwill Tour' to China as the wave of worldwide protests continue to haunt the upcoming Olympics. The Artist calls for a Boycott of the Olympics, Boycott of travel to China and other countries that suppress freedom and human rights, and personal limiting of purchase of goods and services from repressive regimes worldwide. Mr. Aehegma states that the Chinese Government interfered with the 'Goodwill Tour,' by completely limiting communication with his sponsor, a Chinese doctor he met as Artist-in-Residence at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Artist's Cultural Tour was to include outdoor mural paintings of famous Chinese landscapes, meetings with artists, dignitaries, and children, video documentation, and a special series of Olympic sports paintings; along with the cancellation, the Artist will not be donating a proposed mural to the Beijing Museum. His works have been exhibited in over a dozen countries. As well, 'Our Renaissance: The Next Enlightenment,' was chosen to be sent aboard the space shuttle to the MIR Space Station for 'Ars Ad Astra', the 'First Art Show in Space' as an international, goodwill venture. President George W. Bush owns the First Artist Proof of a Commemorative 9-11 Art Giclee Print entitled 'Enduring Freedom,' by Mr. Aehegma which features the masonic symbols of America and depicts Miss Liberty riding on an American Eagle.

Although Mr. Aehegma's post-impressionist landscapes are greatly influenced by Chinese landscape painting, he states, ' Celebrating the qualities of a nation's past culture and its golden ages is all well and good; however, good world citizens should not just be just cultural consumers. Continuing, he states, that,"modern, worldwide media challenges us to be more humane, and compassionate for the whole human family. One by one we must rally against repressive regimes that crush 'Freedom', and continue human rights violations not only in China but across the globe." Finally he feels that sustainable international programs must be urgently implemented, family to family, community to community in environmentally and humane balance to put off rapidly increasing, catastrophic human suffering."
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On Boycotting the Beijing Olympics

2008-05-14T02:56:00.000-07:00

On Boycotting the Beijing Olympics
Eric Reeves | May 13, 2008 Foreign Policy In Focus www.fpif.org

Recent events -- in Darfur, in Tibet, in Burma, and within China -- force an inevitable debate about the appropriate political and moral response to China’s hosting of the Summer 2008 Games, and in particular whether some form of boycott is warranted. Unfortunately, if predictably, there has been a good deal more heat than light generated by this debate, which too often reflects clashing axioms rather than informed argument. Since my own expertise lies in understanding Sudan, and in particular the ongoing genocide in Darfur, I’ll necessarily focus on this part of the debate. But few working on Sudan are unaware of the controversies associated with Chinese economic policy and human rights standards elsewhere in Africa.

My own view is that there is a morally intolerable contradiction between Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Games, the preeminent international event in sports, and its deep complicity in the ultimate international crime, genocide in Darfur. I believe we cannot have sporting “business as usual” while China continues to be instrumental in supporting the brutal Khartoum regime in its obstruction of a UN-authorized peace support operation, designed to protect millions of vulnerable Darfuri civilians and the thousands of humanitarian workers upon whom they increasingly depend for survival.

Slippery Slope

Of course “slippery slope” arguments abound in the debate about any form of Olympic boycott. Many center on the foreign policy of the United States, instancing the war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay. How can we in the United States boycott games in China, the argument goes, when the United States has also committed terrible atrocities. These are indeed deep disgraces to the US, as well as a terrible squandering of moral and political capital of precisely the sort needed in confronting the Khartoum regime. So, I would understand decisions of conscience, by athletes and governments, that put such important issues in the balance the next time the United States hosts the Games. Still, whatever the force of “slippery slope” arguments -- “no country is without sin, therefore no political or moral response targeting the Olympic host country can be justified” -- we must confront the unsurpassably grim precedent of allowing Nazi Germany to host the Games in Berlin in 1936.

Was it right to attend these Games and the propaganda extravaganza that accompanied them? Should governments, alone or together, have done more to rebuke this brazen display of fascist arrogance? However impressive Jesse Owens’ achievements were, did they counter-balance the implicit international ratification of Hitler’s dictatorship and its racist, militaristic policies? Did the International Olympic Committee do enough to speak out against the conspicuously impending horrors of Nazism? In retrospect the answers are clearly no; at the time, however, there was already far too much evidence that should have precluded attendance under the circumstances readily apparent.

For those inclined to forgive the International Olympic Committee its decision to award the Games to Germany (the IOC decision was made before Hitler assumed the Chancellorship in 1933), we should recall that the IOC would subsequently award the 1940 Winter Olympics to Hitler’s Germany (though the 1939 invasion of Poland seems to have been too much even for the IOC).

What is often lost in present debates and newspaper editorials is that the primary call is for a boycott not of the Beijing Games as a whole, but of the opening ceremonies. The world’s Olympic athletes would not be denied the chance to compete for medals and the honor of their sport. Yet even if the distinction is recognized, attempts to defend such a targeted boycott are just as often met with the thoughtless mantra of “don’t politicize the Games.” This of course ignores just how deeply political these Games have become. They are China’s post-Tiananmen coming-out party, an effort by Beijing to take what it believes is its rightful place on the geopolitical stage. They are in this sense, in their larger ambitions, aptly compared to the 1936 Olympics and Hitler’s attempt to demonstrate Aryan supremacy. To be sure, the crimes of Nazi Germany, which lay primarily in the future, were themselves genocide on an unprecedented scale, while China’s present actions represent deep complicity in Khartoum’s savagely genocidal counter-insurgency war in Darfur. But this difference cannot obscure the profoundly political nature of the two Olympiads or the shared triumphalism meant to overwhelm criticism of abhorrent domestic and international policies.

Darfur

How, then, to assess international advocacy efforts to hold China accountable in its unique role as Olympic host? In particular, how can we speak fully and reasonably about the moral claims Darfur makes upon us in the context of China’s role in Sudan? Again, I leave aside comparable questions about China’s appalling domestic human rights record, its half century of conquest and repression in Tibet, and its support for such regimes as the Burmese junta and the despotic Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Darfur’s claims are of the highest order. The genocidal ambitions that have produced such staggering human suffering and destruction in this tortured region must compel the deepest moral consideration. Approximately half a million people have died from violence and war-related disease and malnutrition since the start of major conflict in 2003. More than 2.6 million people have been forced from their homes, most losing everything as their villages have been destroyed on a clearly ethnic basis. Khartoum’s deliberate, widespread, and systematic targeting of the non-Arab or African tribal populations in Darfur is a matter beyond reasonable dispute, even if a peculiar intellectual diffidence prevents certain organizations and institutions from inferring that such destruction meets all the terms specified by the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The overwhelming majority of displaced people are now in camps, often without adequate food or clean water or security. Some 250,000 have been turned into refugees in neighboring Chad, where Darfur’s genocidal violence has continued to bleed with evermore destabilizing consequences. Even as the UN’s World Food Program has just announced that it will soon have to cut food rations by half, 4.4 million people in Darfur need humanitarian assistance.

China and Sudan

China has played a key role in sustaining the Darfur genocide and the enormous risk to regional security in the center of Africa. Beijing has over the past decade been the Khartoum’s primary supplier of weapons and weapons technology. Many weapons of Chinese manufacture continue to find their way into Darfur despite a UN arms embargo on the region. Amnesty International has reported compellingly over the past year on the deadly flow of Chinese weapons, including military aircraft, into Darfur.

China has dominated the oil development consortia, mainly in southern Sudan, and done so in a way deeply destructive of southern civilian lives and livelihoods. As China’s thirst for crude oil grows by more than 10 percent a year, Sudan has emerged as its primary source of offshore oil production. More than two-thirds of Sudan’s oil is imported by China, which shows no signs of caring for the human costs of oil extraction.

China has provided as much as $15 billion in capital and commercial investments to the Khartoum-dominated economy in Sudan. It has insulated the Sudanese regime from its profligate ways -- massive external debt would be crippling without Chinese investment – and helped consolidate the regime’s stranglehold on national wealth and power.

Most consequentially, China has continuously blocked effective UN action on Darfur, threatening to veto Security Council resolutions, weakening others, and all the while refusing to countenance any form of sanctions in the event of Khartoum’s non-compliance with UN demands or agreements signed by the regime. Insecurity, which poses the greatest threat to civilians and humanitarians in Darfur, derives directly from the arrogant defiance that Beijing has for years encouraged in Khartoum’s génocidaires. Informed UN officials and Western diplomats make clear that China is the primary obstacle to generating serious diplomatic pressure on the regime to end its obstructionist ways. Nine months after passage of the Security Council resolution authorizing 26,000 civilian police and troops, with a robust mandate to protect civilians and humanitarians, only an ill-equipped third of the force is in place, most left over from the hopelessly inadequate African Union force in Darfur. The impending rainy season will soon make additional deployments logistically almost impossible. All the while security continues to deteriorate, threatening to force a large-scale withdrawal of humanitarian operations and wholesale human destruction

Denying Beijing

China’s complicity in all of this is too clear, too destructive, too deeply contravening not only of the spirit and charter of the Olympics but of all respect for international law. Denying Beijing the reward of its desired audience for the Games’ opening ceremonies, holding the Chinese regime relentlessly accountable for those actions enabling of genocide, makes both moral and political sense.

Though not nearly successful enough, the highlighting of China’s role in the Darfur genocide has already produced a number of unprecedented actions, including Beijing’s appointment of a special envoy for Darfur, voting for (rather than abstaining from) the resolution authorizing a Darfur protection force, and publicly declaring that Khartoum should show “more flexibility” in allowing for UN deployment.

This is not enough. But it is more than enough to demonstrate the efficacy of the current campaign to highlight China’s intolerable role in sustaining the Darfur genocide. The threat to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Games is at once morally compelling and politically efficacious. In the context of complicity in genocide, the crude mantra of “don’t politicize the games” becomes an even cruder moral acquiescence.

Eric Reeves is author of A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org).

2008 turns out to be a year of trouble for China

2008-05-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

2008 turns out to be a year of trouble for China
By TINI TRAN, Google News

BEIJING (AP) — China hoped 2008 would be a yearlong celebration, a time to bask in the spotlight of the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Instead, the Year of the Rat has also brought a wave of troubles — both natural and man-made — that are putting a heavy strain on the communist leadership.

The 7.9 magnitude earthquake that struck Sichuan province Monday, killing thousands, is only the latest.

China has long experience with large-scale disasters — from coal mine explosions to chemical spills to floods that displace tens of thousands.

The central government prides itself on its ability to quickly react, usually with deployments from China's huge military corps. The ruling party's mandate in part rests on being able to deliver aid in emergencies.

But China's capacity to control disasters and how they play out in the media is being stretched this year. Its leaders are grappling with the fallout from multiple problems in the information-hungry Internet age when they had expected to focus only on the Olympics.

"The Olympics are an important symbol of China's effort to ... get on the same gauge with the rest of the world. So they have attached a lot of importance to them," said Roger Des Forges, a China historian at University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

"But for most Chinese people, they are secondary to the quality of life that they are trying to achieve. So these questions of disasters are uppermost in people's minds, watching how the government is going to deal with them," he said.

China was quick to show its public response to Monday's quake. Just hours after it struck, Premier Wen Jiabao flew into Sichuan Province to oversee the emergency relief effort. Speaking from Dujiangyan City, where a high school collapsed, burying some 900 students, Wen acknowledged on national TV the task will be "especially challenging."

This year, China's problems began just before February's Lunar New Year, when the worst snowstorms in five decades hit the densely populated southern and central region. They left scores dead, knocked out power across cities, and stranded hundreds of thousands during the country's single busiest travel period.

Meanwhile, its leaders also battled decade-high levels of inflation and struggled to improve the nation's image as a global manufacturer following last year's tainted drugs and food scandal and defective toy exports.

In March, huge anti-government riots erupted in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking sympathy protests in Tibetan areas across western China. The violent protests were the biggest challenge to Chinese rule in the Himalayan region in nearly two decades.

The subsequent government crackdown brought sharp international criticism of Beijing's human rights record and its rule over Tibet. China has said that 22 people were killed, while Tibetan groups have said that many times that number died in the violence.

Thousands of troops were deployed across a wide swath of the country to tamp down unrest and restore order. But their massive presence continued to draw an unwelcome spotlight on China's harsh rule in Tibet.

The negative attention spilled over to the Olympic flame's around-the-world tour. Meant to be a feel-good kickoff event to the Beijing Games, the relay turned into chaos as pro-Tibet protesters mounted demonstrations from the very start of the ceremonial lighting in Greece, and at stops including London, Paris, and San Francisco.

The bad news kept coming. In May was China's worst train accident in a decade, leaving 72 dead and more than 400 injured when a high-speed passenger train jumped its tracks and slammed into another in rural Shandong province. Excessive speed was determined to be the cause, and five railway officials were promptly fired.

This month also brought a sharp rise in the number of reported cases of hand, foot, and mouth disease, a normally non-deadly viral infection that has killed 39 children this year and infected nearly 30,000 others.

Only last week's feat by a team of Tibetan and Han Chinese mountaineers in bringing the Olympic flame up Mount Everest gave China the positive publicity it craved, three months to the day before the start of the games.

Beijing's leaders had carefully chosen Aug. 8 as the opening day for the 2008 games (8-8-08), believing that it was an especially auspicious day. Many Chinese people in this officially atheist nation remain highly superstitious. The number eight, "ba" in Chinese, is closely associated with prosperity and good luck because it sounds similar to the word "fa," which means rich.

China spared no expense on its Olympic debut, spending an estimated $40 billion on improving infrastructure and building sports venues. Its money was apparently well-spent. None of the venues, 31 of them in Beijing alone, was reportedly damaged.

Li Jiulin, a top engineer on the 91,000-seat National Stadium known as the Bird's Nest — the jewel of the Olympics — was conducting an inspection at the venue when the quake occurred. He said the building was designed to withstand up to an 8.0-magnitude quake.

"The Olympic venues were not affected by the earthquake," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee. "We considered earthquakes when building those venues."

Ultimately, the series of crises could prompt China to reassess its true priorities, said Des Forges.

"I think there may be some way in which these crises are reminding the government that, as important as the games are, there are perhaps more important issues that need to be addressed," he said.
Associated Press writer Stephen Wade contributed to this report.

The Twin Betrayals of the Olympics in 1936 and 2008

2008-05-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

The Twin Betrayals of the Olympics in 1936 and 2008
By Thomas Kleiber Special to The Epoch Times May 12, 2008

The Olympic Games were first held in Greece, the birthplace of democracy, and from the beginning have carried the message that nations should gather in peace and compete in sports. There is an inherent kinship between the peaceful Olympic Games and the peaceful ways of democratic and free nations, and the Olympics have had their finest moments when hosted by democratic countries.

The years 1936 and 2008 have in common the hosting of the Olympic Games by totalitarian regimes: Nazi Germany and Communist China.

Nazi Germany was a one-party regime, as is China today. Both the Nazi and Chinese Communist parties struggled to gain power and the Nazis endeavored, just as the Chinese regime is endeavoring today, to establish a good reputation by hosting the Olympic Games.

Nazi Germany invented the tradition of having a torch relay, which served to connect and bind as many countries as possible to the event in Berlin. It was a propaganda campaign, one that continues to have an impact.

China has taken the torch relay to the extreme by planning the longest torch relay ever in history, including going high up atop Mount Everest. At every step the Beijing torch is protected by "torch guards," whose presence is already a break with the Olympic spirit.

These totalitarian Olympics may put a parenthesis around the torch relay: After the protest-plagued 2008 Olympic torch relay, the IOC is considering ending the tradition that started in Berlin.

Before holding the Olympic Games Nazi Germany had started to persecute the Jewish community, although it did not begin the "final solution" until several years later. The Nazis didn't even dare to officially exclude Jews from participating in the Games (although Jews were prohibited from representing Germany in the Games).

The Chinese regime has not only started to persecute a group of people for their religious beliefs, but is even very frank about its policy of persecution. At the end of 2007 a spokesperson for the Beijing Olympic Committee stated that practitioners of the Falun Gong are excluded from all Olympic activities.

All human rights organizations and governments know that Falun Gong is one of the main victims of state-sanctioned persecution in China. Several thousand adherents have been tortured to death because of their beliefs.

In Nazi Germany, Dr. Josef Mengele started human experiments on Jews after the Berlin Olympics, during the Holocaust.

In today's Communist China medical doctors have for several years been extracting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for profit. The live organ harvesting is believed to have started in 2001, the same year that China won the bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Nazi Germany needed all countries to come to the Olympic Games in Berlin as a sign of the legitimacy of the Nazi regime. Nothing less is the case in China: The attendance of government officials from around the world at the opening ceremony is considered a measure of approval for the Chinese regime.

The fascist German regime and the communist Chinese regime would appear to be opposites, although similar in betraying the Olympic spirit. However, the communist regime in China has adopted so many capitalistic measures that it cannot be considered communist anymore. Since 1989 it has transformed itself into a fascist regime that uses the Communist Party to dominate society and ruthless capitalistic measures to provide sustaining fuel for the Party's rule.

Of course, the Chinese regime doesn't have a Führer like Adolf Hitler, who was the leader of a movement that sought to vindicate Germany's greatness. However, in China, the Communist Party plays a role similar to that of the Führer, demanding all serve it as the embodiment of China's national destiny.

In the debate about whether the Berlin Olympics should have been boycotted, some claim that Jesse Owens competing in the Olympics refuted Adolf Hitler's racist theories. However, Owens' four gold medals were not able to stop the Holocaust in which an estimated 8 million were killed. In looking back, we might ask if a boycott of the 1936 Berlin Games would not have been more successful in helping avoid World War II and the Holocaust.

In 1936, there were no precedents for how to deal with an Olympic Games held in a totalitarian country. In 2008, we once again face the question how to deal with a totalitarian host of the Olympic Games.

The Chinese regime argues that sports and politics should be separated.

The Olympic Charter speaks of placing "sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."

The Charter also speaks of "respect for universal fundamental ethical principles."

By describing as "politics" any objections to systematic violations of human rights that retard the harmonious development of man, deprive society of peace, destroy human dignity, and violate "universal fundamental ethical principles," the Chinese regime is not separating "politics" from sports. It is separating the Olympic Games from their hallowed purpose. And it is doing so even while increasing the persecution against groups like the Tibetans and the Falun Gong.

It is fitting that the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up under communism in East Germany, should be one of the first national leaders in her actions to show an understanding of the significance of the Beijing Olympics. She knows that basic human rights cannot be considered independent from other issues, much less the Olympics, and she has lead the way for other European leaders by announcing she will not attend the Opening Ceremony in Beijing.

In 1936 the world, when confronted with a betrayal of the Olympics by a totalitarian regime, failed to uphold the fundamental principles central to the Olympic movement. This year the world gets a second chance. The nations of the world may choose to participate in the self-promotion of a brutal regime and in doing so to betray the Olympic spirit or they may insist that the Olympics must be kept true to itself.

China's Olympic Lie

2008-05-12T02:50:00.000-07:00

China's latest virus: Better safe than sorry

2008-05-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

China's latest virus: Better safe than sorry
from The Economist May 8th 2008

Once bitten, twice shy: China's past transgressions in reporting viruses come back to haunt it in the run-up to the Olympics

IT IS all too reminiscent of an epidemic that paralysed Beijing and other parts of China in 2003. This month state-run television has been showing pictures of conscientious health officials and mask-wearing schoolteachers fighting an outbreak of disease by spraying disinfectant on every accessible surface. And, as they did in 2003, Chinese authorities are insisting that things are under control.

In 2003 the disease in question was the mysterious Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). As it turned out, the Chinese authorities were lying outright about where things stood. Their obfuscation made things much worse. In the end, SARS spread far beyond China, killing 774 people worldwide. This time the problem is a less exotic and better understood bug, called enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a dangerous form of hand, foot and mouth disease. This is a common childhood illness that sometimes kills but often is cured with no lasting harm.

China has reported 30 deaths in the current outbreak, centred in the town of Fuyang in the central province of Anhui. By May 7th China had reported a total of 15,799 cases. This was a sharp increase from the previous day's tally of 12,000. But officials said this was because surveillance was improving, not because the spread of the virus was accelerating.

There is no evidence of any systematic cover-up by the central government. But local officials took too long to sound the alarm. In Anhui ten doctors handling the outbreak were disciplined for misconduct and—fairly or not—China's poor track record on such matters leads to obvious questions about its openness and trustworthiness. But the World Health Organisation (WHO), which in 2003 struggled mightily with Chinese footdragging on SARS, now sees no indication of a cover-up. The WHO's China representative, Hans Troedsson, expressed concern about the unusual concentration of cases in Anhui, and about the occurrence of pulmonary and neurological symptoms not typically seen with hand, foot and mouth disease. But he also called for “the right perspective” in viewing the situation, pointing out that such outbreaks happen regularly in countries in the region.

Indeed, China last year saw a total of 80,000 cases and 17 deaths. But this year's outbreak has caused unusual nervousness because it comes just three months before the start of the Beijing Olympics in August. As the disease tends to peak in the heat of June and July, health authorities say that more cases are likely. Despite signs of new cases in two Beijing kindergartens, Mao Qun'an of China's health ministry insists the outbreak will have no impact on the games. An anxious nation and its visitors want very much to believe him.

Amnesty International Steps Up Pressure on China

2008-05-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International Steps Up Pressure on China
By Meredith Buel Washington 08 May 2008

Amnesty International is stepping up its criticism of China's human rights record as the opening of the summer Olympic Games approaches. With just three months to go before the opening ceremony, Amnesty said Thursday that China is intensifying its crackdown on human rights activists and those critical of the Beijing government. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel reports from Washington.

T. Kumar, the Advocacy Director for Asia at Amnesty International, told reporters during a teleconference that there has been a significant erosion of human rights in China as the beginning of the games approaches.

"It is only three months until the Olympic Games begin in Beijing and China's human rights landscape remains as bleak as ever. In fact hosting the Olympic games has become a thinly veiled excuse to crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly," he said.

Kumar says a quarter of a million people have been arrested and held without charges or trial in labor camps during China's so-called patriotic re-education campaign.

"One of the primary concerns is the detention and imprisonment of human rights defenders," he added. "There are numerous reports that Chinese authorities have arrested and imprisoned activists. These are lawyers, journalists and other activists who are fighting to change human rights in China. This is on the rise."

Kumar points to the sentencing of prominent Chinese activist Hu Jia to three-and-one-half years in prison on subversion charges.

He has urged visitors coming to Beijing for the summer Olympics not to forget human rights abuses during the pageantry of the games.

Last month prior to the release of an Amnesty report on alleged rights abuses in the run up to the Olympic Games, China lashed out at the group.

Officials said any attempt by Amnesty to pressure Beijing over the Olympics would fail. A foreign ministry spokesman also accused Amnesty of being prejudiced against Beijing.

As part of its ongoing rights campaign, Amnesty has called on the U.S. Olympic Committee to grant the group access to athletes for briefings about the human rights situation in China.

"We are not against the Olympics," he explained. "We are not even advocating a boycott. What we want is, we want U.S. athletes to know which country they are going in and what type of human rights abuses are happening there."

Kumar also called on large U.S. corporations sponsoring the Olympics to speak out against human rights violations in China.

China has resisted linking human rights issues with the Olympics saying such accusations politicize the games.

ABC news report Coca cola support China Killings in Tibet

2008-05-09T03:36:00.000-07:00

US Jewish leaders urge Olympic boycott

2008-05-09T02:13:00.000-07:00

US Jewish leaders urge Olympic boycott

By Michal Lando, THE JERUSALEM POST

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, US Jewish leaders from across the spectrum are urging Jews to boycott the summer Olympics in Beijing to protest China's human rights record and its assistance to Iran, Syria and Hamas.

A total of 185 rabbis and Jewish leaders so far have signed on to the appeal, which claims that China, like Germany in 1936, is using the Olympics to deflect attention from its record.

"We are deeply troubled by China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas," the text of a joint statement read. "Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today."

Spearheading the project is Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, a former chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, head of New York's Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue and the Ramaz School. It is based partially on research by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

The appeal seizes on the creation of a kosher kitchen at the Olympics village to attract Jewish tourists as part of a larger strategy to deflect attention from China's human rights record.

"Jews should not be party to the whitewashing of such a regime," the statement read.

Several representatives of Judaism's major denominations and institutions are signatories, including Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Neil Goldstein and Richard Gordon of the American Jewish Congress; and Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis.

Lookstein said the call for a boycott is limited to the Olympics and is not intended toward all dealings with China.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with people doing business with China, but the Olympics is not business, it is fun and pleasure," Lookstein said.

"They should not be able to be the center for the world's most famous sporting event, and Jews should be sensitive to that.

"I don't think people should spend their discretionary time or funds in support of an activity which serves to give legitimacy to a government which is doing some terrible things," added Lookstein.

"Are they analogous to the Nazis? No. But if they told Sudanese to stop genocide in Darfur, it would stop in a dime," he said. "Instead they are standing by while innocent blood is being shed."

Organizers of the petition say there is a lesson to be learned from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Shortly after the Berlin games, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told American Jewish leaders that he had been informed by visitors to Germany "that the synagogues were crowded and apparently there is nothing very wrong in the situation [of Germany's Jews] at present."

Rafael Wolff, director of the Wyman Institute, said totalitarian regimes have a record of using international events to whitewhash human rights abuses.

"Sadly, even presidents get taken in by propaganda," he said. "One hopes President Bush won't similarly fall for efforts by the Chinese government to soft-pedal their abuses today."

Take Action: No Olympic Torch in Tibet!

2008-05-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

Tell Coke: No Torch in Tibet!

Coca-Cola, one of the most powerful corporations in the world, is an official sponsor of China's torch relay. Please join Tibetans and supporters worldwide in calling on Coke's executives to use their influence to pressure the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to withdraw Tibet from the torch relay route. Click here to take action now (link is: www.studentsforafreetibet.org/coke)

Also, please keep the pressure on the IOC Executive Members, click here to contact them now. (http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/ioc_executive)

Spread the word by sharing the video above and Click here to learn more.

Beijing 2008: The Genocide Games

2008-05-06T00:16:00.000-07:00

Boycot the Genocide Olympics 2008

2008-05-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

CHINA'S GENOCIDE OLYMPICS

2008-05-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Olympic torch protests in Hong Kong

2008-05-02T07:39:00.000-07:00

After Troubled Tour, Torch Arrives in China

2008-05-02T00:58:00.001-07:00

Kin Cheung/Associated Press
Police officers prevented Leung Kwok-hung, a lawmaker and pro-democracy activist, from moving closer to the Olympic flame welcoming ceremony in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

After Troubled Tour, Torch Arrives in China
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and KEITH BRADSHER, The New York Times

The Olympic torch returned to China on Wednesday in preparation for its first relay on Chinese soil after a troubled worldwide tour.

There were no reports of protests, but several advocates critical of China had already been deported. The torch’s relay through Hong Kong will take place on Friday.

The torch’s arrival in Hong Kong has been depicted as part of a broader struggle over Hong Kong’s evolving role as an autonomous territory of China. The torch, traveling from Vietnam, landed at Hong Kong International Airport, where it was greeted by a marching band and flag-waving children dressed in red and white tracksuits, The Associated Press reported.

The torch was then taken to a welcoming ceremony at a cultural center.

On Saturday, the Hong Kong government denied entry to three Danish human rights advocates who had hoped to protest at the torch relay, detaining them for six hours and then putting them against their will on a flight to London. A Tibetan monk was stopped on arrival at the airport over the weekend and forced to fly elsewhere, according to the local news media.

On Tuesday, three pro-Tibet advocates were deported after they arrived at the airport in Hong Kong, The A.P. said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the Hong Kong authorities to allow protesters “to engage in peaceful demonstrations before, during and after the Olympic torch relay.”

Despite the deportations, local critics of China’s human rights record are still planning to demonstrate, and more rights advocates from overseas are expected to try to enter the territory of Hong Kong to hold their own protests, notably the actress Mia Farrow, who is now one of the most prominent critics of China’s role in the Darfur region of Sudan.

About 3,000 police officers planned to guard the torch during its relay on Friday, The A.P. reported.

The Hong Kong police authorities have been making extensive preparations to try to separate critics and supporters of China on Friday. “It has been, and continues to be, the Hong Kong Police Force’s policy to endeavor to facilitate, as far as possible, all peaceful public order activities,” the police said in an e-mail response to questions.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which commemorates the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989 and seeks human rights improvements in Hong Kong, held a small demonstration on Monday to protest the government’s decision to block the entry of the Danish advocates.

“It really hurts the image of Hong Kong as an international city when we start restricting freedom of access,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a union leader, Hong Kong legislator and vice chairman of the alliance.

Any protests that take place Friday could be an early glimpse of demonstrations to come during the Olympics in August. The International Olympic Committee moved all six Olympic equestrian events from Beijing to Hong Kong after Beijing failed to convince international veterinary groups that horses brought into mainland China could be kept free of equine diseases.

Groups critical of China are considering whether to hold protests at Olympic events here or in Beijing. Hong Kong has a tradition of tolerating peaceful protest, but Beijing will host more Olympic events, so protests there may receive greater attention.

Reached by telephone on Sunday night at her Connecticut home, Ms. Farrow said she had not been aware that rights advocates were being stopped at the airport. She still planned to fly to Hong Kong this week.

“I don’t think we have a choice; we have to go,” said Ms. Farrow, chairwoman of the advisory board of Dream for Darfur, a group that criticizes China for its diplomatic, military and commercial ties to Sudan.

The Hong Kong immigration authorities have a policy of not commenting on individual cases. But officials have said in recent weeks that any government has the right to refuse entry to those who may be disruptive, and they have denied suggestions that the city is taking orders from Beijing.

Before Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, the Chinese government promised to let Hong Kong run its own domestic affairs, including immigration policies, with considerable autonomy until 2047.

Chinese citizens and people of Chinese descent have shown up in large numbers at torch relay events from San Francisco to Sydney and have sometimes scuffled with critics of China’s policies in Tibet. Three Japanese citizens received blows when they tried to unfurl a pro-Tibet banner at the torch relay in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but suffered no lasting injuries, according to the Japanese Embassy there. Pro-China demonstrators also threw rocks, water bottles, and plastic and metal pipes at critics of China during the torch relay on Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.

Official Chinese news media have exhorted citizens in recent days to “defend the torch” in each city on the relay route. “We are worried that we may be confronted by these nationalists,” said Mr. Lee, of the Hong Kong Alliance.

Jill Savitt, the executive director of Dream for Darfur, who plans to arrive here with Ms. Farrow on Thursday, said that it was in the interest of Beijing officials to encourage Hong Kong to allow advocates to enter. “They have just called more attention to their repressive policies than letting them in would have done,” she said.

Dream for Darfur had been planning to hold protests in Beijing, but is concerned now about the increasingly tough Chinese position toward protesters, and is considering whether to shift demonstrations to the Hong Kong events instead, Ms. Savitt said.

The Chinese government has said repeatedly that it is seeking peace in Darfur, and its top envoy for the region has made a series of trips in an effort to win an agreement among the various warring factions. But groups like Dream for Darfur hold Beijing responsible for providing military, diplomatic and commercial assistance to the government of Sudan, which the activists accuse of allowing and even encouraging widespread murders and other human rights abuses in Darfur.

Graham Bowley reported from New York, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong.

United States Should Boycott Olympics: Send Message to China and World

2008-05-01T02:27:00.000-07:00

United States Should Boycott Olympics: Send Message to China and World

According the American Heritage dictionary, fascism is a system of government marked by 1) centralization of authority under a dictator, 2) stringent socioeconomic controls, 3) suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and 4) a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. The Chinese autocratic regime gleefully fulfills this definition. China’s forced occupation of Tibet has led to the deaths of an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans. Additionally China’s direct support of the Sudan genocide blatantly continues. Within China's borders, compulsory family “planning” and forced abortions are universal. China has hundreds of forced-labor prisons, which hold political and religious dissidents. There are firsthand reports of physical and psychological torture, confessions forced by torture, live organ harvesting, and other inconceivable atrocities within these prisons.

America should send a message to China: we do not support you; we will not attend the Olympics.

Torch Nears, Posing Test of Autonomy in Hong Kong

2008-04-29T02:16:00.000-07:00

Torch Nears, Posing Test of Autonomy in Hong Kong
By KEITH BRADSHER , The New York Times

HONG KONG — The Olympic torch relay coming here on Friday, the first on Chinese soil, is turning into a broader struggle over Hong Kong’s evolving role as an autonomous territory of China.

On Saturday, the Hong Kong government denied entry to three Danish human rights advocates who had hoped to protest at the torch relay, detaining them for six hours and then putting them against their will on a flight to London. A Tibetan monk was stopped on arrival at the airport over the weekend and forced to fly elsewhere, according to the local news media.

But local critics of China’s human rights record are still planning to demonstrate, and more rights advocates from overseas are expected to try to enter the territory of Hong Kong to hold their own protests, notably the actress Mia Farrow, who is now one of the most prominent critics of China’s role in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which commemorates the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989 and seeks human rights improvements in Hong Kong, held a small demonstration on Monday to protest the government’s decision to block the entry of the Danish advocates.

“It really hurts the image of Hong Kong as an international city when we start restricting freedom of access,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a union leader, Hong Kong legislator and vice chairman of the alliance.

Any protests that take place Friday could be an early glimpse of demonstrations to come during the Olympics in August. The International Olympic Committee moved all six Olympic equestrian events from Beijing to Hong Kong after Beijing failed to convince international veterinary groups that horses brought into mainland China could be kept free of equine diseases.

Groups critical of China are considering whether to hold protests at Olympic events here or in Beijing. Hong Kong has a tradition of tolerating peaceful protest, but Beijing will host more Olympic events, so protests there may receive greater attention.

Reached by telephone on Sunday night at her Connecticut home, Ms. Farrow said she had not been aware that rights advocates were being stopped at the airport. She still planned to fly to Hong Kong later in the week.

“I don’t think we have a choice; we have to go,” said Ms. Farrow, chairwoman of the advisory board of Dream for Darfur, a group that criticizes China for its diplomatic, military and commercial ties to Sudan.

The Hong Kong immigration authorities have a policy of not commenting on individual cases. But officials have said in recent weeks that any government has the right to refuse entry to those who may be disruptive, and they have denied suggestions that the city is taking orders from Beijing.

Before Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, the Chinese government promised to let Hong Kong run its own domestic affairs, including immigration policies, with considerable autonomy until 2047.

Chinese citizens and people of Chinese descent have shown up in large numbers at torch relay events from San Francisco to Sydney and have sometimes scuffled with critics of China’s policies in Tibet. Three Japanese citizens received blows when they tried to unfurl a pro-Tibet banner at the torch relay in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but suffered no lasting injuries, according to the Japanese Embassy there. Pro-China demonstrators also threw rocks, water bottles, and plastic and metal pipes at critics of China during the torch relay on Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.

Official Chinese news media have exhorted citizens in recent days to “defend the torch” in each city on the relay route. “We are worried that we may be confronted by these nationalists,” said Mr. Lee, of the Hong Kong Alliance.

The Chinese Rioters in S.Korea

2008-04-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

The Chinese rioters attacked Tibetan violently in Seoul!!!

2008-04-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

The Chinese rioters attacked Tibetan violently in Seoul!!!

Olympic Torch news on the New York Times

2008-04-25T01:01:00.000-07:00

News about the Olympic torch, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Coca-Cola Faces Critics of Its Olympics Support

2008-04-25T00:55:00.000-07:00

Bradley C. Bower/Associated Press
Pro-Tibet demonstrators picketed and chanted outside Coca-Cola’s annual meeting in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday.

Coca-Cola Faces Critics of Its Olympics Support
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD , The New York Times
April 17, 2008

It is getting tougher to be a global brand these days. Just ask Coke.

As one of the most prominent sponsors of the Olympics, Coca-Cola found itself on the hot seat on Wednesday at its annual shareholder meeting in Wilmington, Del. Outside, protesters chanted and waved picket signs. Inside, they engaged the chief executive, E. Neville Isdell, in a rare public dialogue about China’s human rights record in Tibet.

“Will you tell the I.O.C. to stop taking the Olympic torch relay into Tibet, because Tibet belongs to Tibetans?” asked one protester in the audience, Lobsang Choefel, who described himself as a native Tibetan. He was referring to the International Olympic Committee.

Mr. Isdell — who had just described first-quarter results that rose on the strength of international sales in countries like China — stood firm. The torch relay “has symbolized openness, it has symbolized hopes,” he said. “I don’t believe that stopping the torch run is in any way over the long term going to be the right thing to do.”

The moment seemed to encapsulate the quandary the Olympics sponsors face as protests unfurl across various continents. In India, home to more than 100,000 Tibetans in exile and their religious leader, the Dalai Lama, even the official corporate sponsors avoided buying television and radio ads that were timed to the Olympic torch relay on Thursday, media executives there said.

And in China, a different sort of backlash has been taking shape — against the companies from countries that seem to be putting pressure on China. French companies like Carrefour are a particular target because of the mayhem during the Paris leg of the torch relay and because the French president has said he may skip the opening ceremony in Beijing over China’s human rights record.

“I think boycotting Carrefour is a peaceful and polite way to express our anger, our Chinese feelings got deeply hurt by France,” said Li Meng, a 25-year-old mechanic who is selling T-shirts in support of the boycott movement in the city of Yantai, in eastern China. “France humiliated China during the torch relay and keeps making trouble for the Olympics.”

American brands like McDonald’s and KFC have also been named as targets of a boycott because some American politicians seem to be supporting the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing blames for instigating violence in Tibet to disrupt plans for the Olympics.

No one knows whether there is widespread support for the boycotts, but the opposition comes at a time when many of the world’s biggest brands — including Coke — are expanding aggressively in China and planning huge sales and marketing campaigns to coincide with the Olympics.

Coca-Cola’s most recent quarterly results suggest the extent of its reliance on the Chinese market. During the first quarter, Coke’s unit case volume sales in China were up 20 percent in the quarter, one of the highest figures from any country. Over all, the company’s net income rose 19 percent in the quarter, to $1.5 billion, from $1.26 billion a year ago.

Bill Pecoriello, research analyst at Morgan Stanley, estimates that 5 to 6 percent of Coke’s total revenue comes from China (Coca-Cola does not break out the figure).

The importance of China for Coke should increase, Mr. Pecoriello said. He estimated that Coke sold 1.2 billion cases in China in 2007 and forecast that it would sell 1.5 billion cases there in 2008. That compares with larger but slower-growing sales in the United States: 5.4 billion cases in 2007 and 5.45 billion cases in 2008, Mr. Pecoriello said.

Neither Coca-Cola nor any of the other Olympic sponsors has flinched in its public support for the games, but the groups that are protesting China’s policies in Tibet and Darfur are vowing to step up their pressure. This could lead to showdowns, or even to a possible whipsaw for the companies if Chinese youths start protesting en masse in the other direction.

“We’re not asking Coke to solve Tibet’s problems,” Lhadon Tethong, the director of an organizing group called Students for a Free Tibet, told Mr. Isdell at the shareholder meeting on Wednesday. “We’re not asking you to do anything else but tell the I.O.C. this is not the time for the torch to go to Tibet.”

Ms. Tethong added, “You have influence, and you know you have influence. Please don’t hide behind a spin.”

Mr. Isdell — who will be succeeded by the company’s president and chief operating officer, Muhtar Kent, by the time the Olympics start in August — responded politely and at some length. “I want to thank you for your clarification and also for your declared integrity,” he said, adding that, technically, the route of the torch was not governed by the I.O.C., but by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. On a philosophical note, Mr. Isdell added, “We still believe that the torch is a light of hope, and we trust that’s what it will be as it goes every single place in the world.”

In the future, Mr. Isdell suggested, the company does still want to buy the world a Coke. “We are already a sponsor of the Olympic games — wherever they may go — through 2020, and I trust that will continue through 2028,” he said.

Last week, several other sponsors, including Visa International, McDonald’s, Johnson & Johnson, Anheuser-Busch, Bank of America, Home Depot, United Parcel Service and AT&T reaffirmed their support of the Olympics and said that their marketing plans had not changed because of the protests.

“As critical as Tibet is, I think sponsors are looking at the situation saying, ‘We’ve still got days to go,’ ” said Damien Ryan, director of Ryan Financial Communications, a Hong Kong media relations firm that has sponsors as clients. “Things can change quite quickly, and from their point of view, they realize that Beijing has got a long memory.”

David Barboza contributed reporting from Shanghai and Heather Timmons from New Delhi.

Bracing for Games, China Sets Rules That Complicate Life for Foreigners

2008-04-25T00:49:00.000-07:00

Christie Johnston , The New York Times

Outside a visa application office in Hong Kong. China has imposed new restrictions on visas that concern many foreigners.

Bracing for Games, China Sets Rules That Complicate Life for Foreigners
By ANDREW JACOBS for The New York Times

April 24, 2008
BEIJING — In little more than 100 days, China will open its arms to a deluge of foreigners, many of whom will be pleasantly surprised to find a dizzying array of designer boutiques and painfully hip martini bars that divert expatriates and middle-class Chinese in this once dowdy capital.

But even as Beijing is promising to welcome 1.5 million visitors to the Olympic Games, public security officials are tightening controls over daily life and introducing visa restrictions that are causing anxiety among the 250,000 foreigners who have settled here in recent years.

The visa rules, which were introduced last week with little explanation, restrict many visitors to 30-day stays, replacing flexible, multiple-entry visas that had allowed people to remain for up to a year. The new rules make it harder for foreigners to live and work in Beijing without applying for residency permits, which can be difficult to obtain. The restrictions are also complicating the lives of businesspeople in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore used to crossing the border with ease.

“I can’t begin to explain how serious this is going to be,” said Richard Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. “A barrier like this is going to have a real ripple effect on business.”

The government wants to present a blemish-free image of Beijing for the Olympics. Police officers have cleared away street beggars and closed down shops selling pirated DVDs, while also forcing some migrant workers to go back to the countryside.

Over the last month the police have raided bars and clubs suspected of harboring drug dealers. An operation two weeks ago that netted a group of French teenagers has provoked charges of heavy-handed police tactics.

Other restrictions can seem random, like a decision on Wednesday that forced the cancellation of a popular music festival a week before its start. Organizers of the eight-year-old event, the Midi Festival, said officials had told them they were concerned about security. More than 80 bands, many of them from abroad, were scheduled to perform.

But most of the fear and consternation has been prompted by the new visa rules, which have thousands of foreign residents scrambling for black market documents — or contemplating leaving. Residents who in the past could apply locally to extend yearlong tourist or business visas have been instructed to return home and apply for the short-term visas at the Chinese Embassy in their home countries.

Some, like Desmond McGarry, a jazz musician who has lived here since 2002, said they would probably leave. For Mr. McGarry, returning to Canada would mean abandoning his apartment and a network of friends. “It’s been very comfortable until now, even if we existed in a gray zone,” he said. “Maybe I’ll leave and try to come back in the fall when things calm down.”

The new visa rules come at a time of heightened tensions in Beijing and other cities, where public anger has been directed at Western governments and overseas news organizations seen as sympathetic to Tibetan independence. Over the last week, that discontent has fueled demonstrations at the French Embassy in Beijing and at outlets of Carrefour, a French supermarket chain whose executives have been accused of aligning themselves with the Dalai Lama. Some foreign residents are nervously awaiting next Thursday, the first day of a planned Carrefour boycott.

Although the majority of foreigners say they have seen no change in the behavior of their Chinese neighbors and co-workers, some French residents complain that nationalist ire is seeping into their daily lives. One businessman who plays tennis at a Chinese sports club said acquaintances refused to join him on the court last weekend.

More ominously, the owner of a popular French restaurant here said he was denied a visa extension on Wednesday by an official who simply told him, “It’s because you’re French.” The man, who asked that his name and business not be printed for fear of antagonizing the authorities, said he was in a panic. “My whole life is here,” he said.

Most Westerners readily acknowledge that they enjoy privileged lives, including unspoken immunity from the tangle of rules that can complicate the lives of average Chinese.

That may be about to change. Last week English-language signs began appearing on Beijing streets and in high-end apartment buildings directing foreigners not staying in hotels to register with the police. The regulations, which are not new but are rarely enforced, promise steep fines for those who do not comply.

Because the government has not issued formal guidelines about the new visa rules, rumors and uncertainty have been rife, and travel agents say that a handful of tourists have been denied visas without evident rationale.

Cloris Yip, the manager of Smiley Travel in Hong Kong, cited the example of two tourists, a Swiss and a German; the Swiss citizen received a 30-day visa while his German companion was given one for five days. The men, she said, canceled their trip.

“Maybe the Chinese government is not so happy with the Germans right now,” Ms. Yip said. “Maybe they think some foreigners want to protest Tibet during the Games. Either way, you cannot argue or negotiate.”

Businessmen are also feeling powerless. Hong Kong executives accustomed to visiting mainland factories or construction projects every few days are now spending one day each week waiting for new single- or double-entry visas.

“Everyone is affected by it, and they are very unhappy,” said Seth Peterson, a vice president of Techtronic Industries Company, which manufactures vacuum cleaners and power tools in southern China.

Asked about the restrictions, Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, insisted that there had been no change in visa rules. “The Chinese people will welcome foreign friends in a warm, enthusiastic and open-minded way,” she said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Whether or not these are just temporary measures, those who depend on foreign expertise for their businesses say the impact has been real. Collin Crowell, the managing editor of City Weekend, an English-language entertainment guide in Beijing, said the new requirements were causing consternation among the magazine’s freelance writers.

And Raluca Riquet, an event planner who is organizing art shows for the summer, said she was struggling to find curators with valid visas.

“We’ll find a solution, but it’s not so easy,” said Ms. Riquet, who holds dual French and Romanian citizenship. “The government really wants to control everything and everybody before the Olympics. For us foreigners, it’s a really big change.”

Foreign Press Set for Curtailed Everest Torch Trip

2008-04-25T00:42:00.000-07:00

Foreign Press Set for Curtailed Everest Torch Trip
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
April 25, 2008

BEIJING (Agence France-Presse) — A group of foreign reporters prepared on Thursday to go to Tibet to cover the ascent of the Olympic torch to Mount Everest. They were the first overseas journalists allowed into the riot-scarred region in a month.

China plans to take a special high-altitude Olympic torch to the summit of Everest, the world’s tallest peak, in May, and had invited reporters from around the world to cover the event as a triumphal symbol of Beijing’s role as host of the Olympics in August.

The media delegation was to leave Beijing on Friday for the tightly managed trip. China made late changes this week to curtail reporting, in the wake of unrest in Tibet.

Olympic officials said no coverage would be allowed of a mountaineering team’s departure from base camp with the torch, tentatively set for Saturday, nor of anything unrelated to the torch.

Reporters have raised concerns about their health because a new schedule calls for a trip of about three days through Tibet to the Mount Everest base camp. The journalists said that ascending too quickly to the camp’s elevation of 16,900 feet could cause severe health problems.

Experts say the trip from Beijing, which is near sea level, to such a high altitude should not be made in less than a week.

Officials denied that the plans had been changed in response to the unrest in Tibet. The Olympic torch has become a magnet for protests against China’s crackdown on Tibetan unrest and China’s human rights record.

The trip appeared thrown into further chaos early Thursday when the organizers of the Olympics suddenly set a Thursday morning payment deadline for air tickets to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. An Olympic official charged with collecting payments then inexplicably refused to accept fees from some news organizations. Later, several were invited to go ahead with the trip. The New York Times was not invited to participate.

Some news organizations decided not to participate. Agence France-Presse decided not to send a reporter, mainly because of health concerns.

China tightened control on Tibet after anti-Chinese rioting broke out in Lhasa on March 14, spreading across the Tibetan plateau, and expelled foreign reporters and tourists from the Himalayan region.

Reporters Without Borders, which advocates press freedom, has echoed widespread calls for unfettered news media access to Tibet. Human rights groups continue to report disturbances and arrests in the region.

”Things are clearly far from being back to normal as the authorities claim,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The few reports emerging suggest a very different situation, one of arrests and a climate of fear in the cities and around the monasteries.

Foreign journalists last were allowed to enter Tibet for a government-led news media trip to Lhasa in late March.

President Bush: Boycott Olympics Opening Ceremony

2008-04-24T23:06:00.001-07:00

President Bush: Boycott Olympics Opening Ceremony
Target: President George Bush
Sponsored by: Care2

When China was awarded the 2008 games seven years ago, the international community expected that this opportunity would help improve China's human rights record. Yet the world has witnessed exactly the opposite. Despite rallying cries around the world, China continues its harsh crackdown on protesters in Tibet and internal dissent, most recently by imprisoning noted human rights activist Hu Jia. But with the blazing tour of the Olympic torch, millions of protesters from Paris to San Francisco have been speaking out passionately for human rights in China, Tibet, Darfur and Burma. President Bush has a unique opportunity to speak out for those who are silenced. By boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, President Bush can join other world leaders in urging China to stop its repression of activists and work to improve human rights at home and in Darfur and Burma where China wields great influence.

Boycott Opening Ceremonies

2008-04-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

Boycott Opening Ceremonies
Set aside Tibet and other legit grievances.
Make Chinese action on Darfur a condition of attending.

Jonathan Alter NEWSWEEK

It's a 100-day dash, and the world had better get at least a silver. In the time before the Beijing Olympics opens in August, the West has a chance to bring China further into the community of responsible nations. If we fail, we may spend the rest of the 21st century regretting that we didn't use some leverage when we had it. Half a dozen European leaders and the Democratic presidential candidates are urging a mini-boycott of Beijing's opening ceremonies. They're right to do so; it's the best shot we've got.

After promising Jacques Rogge and the International Olympic Committee that it would respect human rights, at least until the Games end, the regime moved in the opposite direction by stepping up its harassment of dissidents. While showing some important signs of maturity in joining regional efforts to deal with North Korean nukes, the government has found it hard to break bad habits: it took the bait in Tibet, indulging in stale denunciations of the Dalai Lama after cracking heads in the worst violence there in 20 years; it continues to back the military thugs in Burma, and promises of unfettered international press coverage and Internet access are proving worthless.
So are the efforts of the regime's public-relations geniuses. Just as images were being broadcast of the latest Olympic sport (hide-and-seek with the torch and demonstrators on the streets of San Francisco), China made a big announcement. More than three dozen Islamic extremists of Chinese extraction had been arrested and charged with plotting to kidnap athletes when they arrive in Beijing. Could be legit, but I wouldn't bet the subprime mortgage on it. The timing is highly suspicious.
The worst example of Chinese global irresponsibility is in Darfur. Andrew Natsios, President George W. Bush's special envoy in the region, is praising China's efforts to push the Sudanese regime to end the war and ease the plight of 3 million refugees. Where's the proof? China buys two thirds of Sudan's oil and thus calls the tune there. But it continues to violate the United Nations arms embargo by shipping weapons to Sudan, which are then passed on to the Janjaweed goons who, by some estimates, have killed or intentionally starved to death nearly half a million people. And they've raped on a scale the Chinese should remember from their own World War II experience with the Japanese in Nanking. Those vehicles the soldiers use for their genocide are called Dongfeng military trucks.
Foreign-policy realists say that human rights are important but should be far down the list of American issues with the Chinese—below restraining nukes (China has influence in Iran as well as North Korea), climate change (on average, one new Chinese coal-fired plant opens there every week) and balance of trade (the company you work for may be in hock to a Chinese bank). But these concerns are interrelated, and can be addressed only when China moves beyond lip service and actually abides by the norms of what, for lack of a more felicitous phrase, we call the global community.
Bush's private phone chats with Hu Jintao every six weeks aren't getting that done, but shaming the Chinese by withholding athletes from the Games won't work either. The insult would be felt not just by the Chinese government but by nearly all the Chinese people, who have made astonishing progress in the past three decades and deserve the recognition the Games offer. This isn't exactly the best time to make enemies of a billion more people around the globe. Their nationalist fervor and hair-trigger resentment of foreign intervention in Chinese affairs is grounded in bitter historical experience from the imperialist opium wars forward. So any comparison to the 1936 Games, when Hitler had been in power only three years, is misplaced. This is a coming-out party for a country, not for a murderous regime in power for 60 years.
There's a middle ground in all this, and that's where the threat of head-of-state no-shows at the opening ceremonies comes in. The beauty of the idea, first raised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is that avoiding this mini-boycott will require the Chinese to sit down with all the European countries now considering it, and to do so outside the stultifying confines of the G8 summit.
The best way forward would be to temporarily set aside Tibet and the many other legitimate grievances animating the flame-chasing demonstrators in cities around the world and focus on Darfur. Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times proposed a conference on genocide, with the intriguing idea that it be held in Rwanda, site of the worst mass killing of the past 25 years. If a meeting were held somewhere, if China signed a meaningful agreement and if the commitments were carried out on the ground in Darfur, then all the presidents and prime ministers show up in Beijing and watch the parade.
That's a lot of ifs. While the Chinese don't want their party spoiled, they aren't about to lose face by being forced to capitulate. But let's remember how high the stakes are. We have a window of only a couple of decades at most before China dislodges us as the largest economy in the world. At that point, it will either be a responsible (if likely still undemocratic) superpower, or it will be moving the planet in an authoritarian direction. The Olympics may be the world's last lever. A medal—maybe even a Nobel Prize—for the diplomats who can pull it properly.

Torch lights up China's shame

2008-04-18T22:24:00.000-07:00

Torch lights up China's shame

EDITORIAL of Bangkok Post, April 18 2008

The Olympic torch continues its perilous journey to Beijing, making a stop in Bangkok over the weekend. Last month, environmentalist M R Narisa Chakrabongse, one of the six torchbearers chosen to carry the flame through Thailand, withdrew in protest against China's crackdown on dissidents in Tibet.

M R Narisa's decision preceded the growing international call on Beijing to take concrete steps to save the Olympic Games from turning into a national embarrassment for China. The best way they can do this is by heeding the Dalai Lama's request to open a dialogue on Tibet.

The Games were created to build "a peaceful and better world" through sports played with the "Olympic spirit" of mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair play, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As the host of this world-renowned sporting event, China has every reason to follow in that spirit.

The Dalai Lama has shown great courage in his proposal for a discussion over the possibility of Tibet having some autonomy over its social and cultural life - a proposal many of his own people view as too mild. Instead of condemning the spiritual leader as the hand behind the chaos, China could have gained the trust of Tibetans and the international community had it shown a willingness to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

While China would insist on its need to keep its vast territory whole as one country and press on with the Olympic activities despite the outcry, pro-Tibet protesters have every right to counter this global roadshow. If the tug-of-war is allowed to continue, it is the spirit of the Olympics that will be disgraced; so will the credibility and prestige of China.

China wanted to host the Olympic Games to show the world that it is an increasingly important player in the international community. But to do that, it must begin to adhere to international norms on democracy and human rights. The Games are a symbol of world unity, but the spirit of the Games doesn't simply mean holding hands and looking past grave human rights abuses. It also means standing up for the values that we, as a human race, hold dear.

The Olympic torch run has so far shown the success of those who want to prove this. Through London, Paris and San Francisco, the torch was met with pro-Tibet protesters who managed to put the heat on image-conscious China to take real action on easing its tight grip on political dissent. In doing so, the protesters have inspired countless stories on Tibet and a focus on China's other human rights abuses. Anti-junta activists in Burma have belatedly sought to use the Olympics to highlight their plight.

It is good for our world to join together in sport, to find common ground where much divides us. It is not the protesters that continue to divide the world on China, but rather China's hard-line approach to Tibet, Taiwan and others who question the regime.

On the global stage, China cannot manage the show like it does routinely at home. Beijing must realise that the world does not accept its human rights policies, even if it is essential to continue doing business with China.

Hopefully, the international uproar will prompt China to realise that the status quo is unacceptable. China should take steps now to open a dialogue with Tibet, end its weapons sales to Sudan and withdraw support for Burma's generals. Otherwise, the protests will follow the torch all the way to Beijing.

China's Olympic Shame

2008-04-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

China's Olympic Shame
Thursday, Apr. 10, 2008 By SIMON ELEGANT/BEIJING

Why didn't they see this coming? Despite more than seven years' worth of meticulous, down-to-the-last-detail planning that has gone into the Beijing Olympics, China's leaders have seemingly been caught off guard by the most predictable of challenges: discontent in Tibet and international condemnation of Beijing's record of repression. The extent of their surprise can be gauged by their reaction--a brutal crackdown on dissent at home and a deaf ear to criticism from abroad--which is more reminiscent of the heavy-handed communist regime of old than the modern, moderate Beijing that the Olympics are meant to showcase.

China's response to the mid-March riots in Tibet has galvanized its critics around the world, who intend to use the run-up to the Olympics as a showcase of their own. The Olympic-torch relay has been hounded at practically every step--in London, Paris and San Francisco--by pro-Tibet activists. In the French capital, security officials were obliged to turn off the flame on several occasions to protect it from protesters. Even before it arrived in the U.S. on April 8, activists unfurled FREE TIBET banners from the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge. On April 9, San Francisco police were forced to shorten the relay in the city, citing security concerns. Beijing vowed to proceed with the relay unchanged, but more protests are expected in the 15 places the torch will visit before returning to Chinese soil on May 4.

So far, Chinese authorities have responded to the clamor by further tightening the clamps on domestic dissent. On April 3, prominent human-rights activist Hu Jia received a 3 1/2-year prison sentence on charges of inciting subversion of state power. Hu's conviction, apparently stemming from articles he wrote and interviews he gave linking the Olympics with human rights in China, was the latest in what rights advocates in China say is a string of detentions of activists all over the country. Beijing is also applying pressure on China's huge online population of some 230 million, which is often cited as the country's most powerful force for greater openness. Thousands of websites have been shuttered, and government control and blocking of sites outside China have intensified in recent months. As Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International, put it in a report released April 1, despite assurances by both the International Olympic Committee and Chinese officials that restraint would be exercised, "the crackdown ... has deepened, not lessened, because of the Olympics."

The question is, Why? Given the international scrutiny of Beijing's actions, the hard line has left many observers puzzled. The wiser course would seem to be a more measured response: to practice better crowd control, manage the media better, try negotiation instead of knee-jerk repression. But China's rulers have shown little such dexterity. Some of the reasons are straightforward. The Communist Party is deeply secretive and highly bureaucratic, and its members are steeped in a long-standing culture of self-preservation. "Part of the head-in-sand problem has to do with entrenched bureaucratic interests," says China expert Perry Link of Princeton University. Officials who have devoted most of their careers to defending authoritarian rule "can't stop chanting that mantra without puzzlement over what to say instead and without a bit of panic about their own rice bowls and even, almost, their own identities," Link says.

Leaders like President Hu Jintao are of a generation that received a Soviet-style education in the 1950s. "They don't have the knowledge or imagination to make better decisions," Link says. They operate under a system of collective decision-making that constrains the state's ability to be flexible in the face of new challenges. "Like the bureaucrats beneath them," Link says, top officials "are frightened about their own positions and don't want to be seen as making 'mistakes,' especially mistakes of softness." This insecurity underlies the central government's heavy-handed tactics and rhetoric, even though repression reduces the country's stature in the global community. "When the rest of the world looks at China, they see this increasingly powerful and confident country," says Wenran Jiang, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. "But when the Chinese leadership looks at the country, they see the exact opposite: weaknesses everywhere, rising inflation and civil unrest, environmental disasters and corruption. So the overall mentality of the central authorities is very insecure and nervous." In the case of Tibet, Chinese leaders are now trapped by their own words, which have fueled nationalist sentiments among ordinary Chinese, who believe that Tibet is Chinese territory. Any appearance of compromise by Beijing would likely be intolerable to the public.

China's problems are not confined to Tibet. There have also been rumblings in the far-western Xinjiang province, populated largely by the Uighur Muslim minority group. Protests by hundreds of Uighurs over religious issues were reported by rights groups in late March. The Chinese press has meanwhile reported several recent clashes with separatist rebels in the province, and in early March the press reported that a Uighur woman had attempted to bring down a domestic passenger jet with a homemade bomb. Add to that widespread discontent over issues such as corruption and rapidly worsening inflation (the price of pork has gone up two-thirds in the past year), and you have the makings of a perfect storm.

It's a storm that threatens to blow in just when everyone's watching--and deciding whether to participate in--China's Olympics. The Prime Minister of Poland has already indicated he will boycott the opening ceremony because of events in Tibet; French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he wouldn't rule out a similar move.

The authorities will no doubt make it virtually impossible for journalists to enter Tibet in the months leading up to the Olympics. But it remains unclear exactly how they intend to deal with the estimated 30,000 foreign reporters expected to witness the event, all of them eager to take advantage of Beijing's regulations specifying that they can interview any Chinese people who agree to talk. "They still don't have any idea what is going to hit them," a senior Western academic with close ties to the upper echelons of the Beijing establishment said months before the Tibet eruption, "or how bad they will look to the outside world." They're already starting to find out.

Ten Reasons Why the Free World with The Leadership of America Must Boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in Communist China

2008-03-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Ten Reasons Why the Free World with The Leadership of America Must Boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in Communist China

By Demetrius Klitou

1) Human rights are practically non-existent in Communist China
Religious persecution, imprisonment and murder of non-violent political dissidents, torture, organ harvesting and sentences to hard labour are widespread.

2) The lack of freedom of the press and safety risks for foreign reporters
Many foreign websites are banned from being visited within China, foreign reporters are prohibited from interviewing anyone without previous permission from the government, and the content of all broadcasting is severely restricted. Foreign news media reporters have been arrested and sentenced to prison under vague and wide-reaching security laws.

3) The 1980 Olympic Games in Communist Russia were boycotted by 64 states, under the leadership of the U.S.
Beijing is not any different from Moscow in 1980, which was also the capital of a Communist police state.

4) Communist China constantly threatens to attack Taiwan
China's government passed a law that explicitly calls for military intervention in response to any intention by the democratic government of Taiwan to declare independence. Military manoeuvres indicate that the Communists' military is preparing to enforce this law.

5) Beijing has the most polluted air in the world
Studies and satellites photos have proven that Beijing suffers from extremely high nitrogen dioxide levels, vitally dangerous to the health of the athletes.

6) China is plagued by widespread social, political, and economic unrest
A surge in huge land grabs and forced evictions by the Chinese government for reasons of economic expansion and Olympic Games preparations have sparked thousands of protests. The government has murdered hundreds of protesters.

7) The Chinese have been bribing and threatening large numbers of members of the International Olympic Committee
A number of U.S. Representatives, for example, Congressman Tom Lantos, have stated this on national television.

8) A boycott has some potential to serve as a strategy to encourage human rights in China
Only the greedy and foolish global elite think this is true the other way around.

9) Holding the Olympic Games in Communist China contradicts the Olympic Charter
The Olympic Charter defines the philosophy of Olympism as the "respect for universal fundamental ethical principles" and its goal of promoting "a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."

10) Don't repeat the errors of 1936 when Nazi Germany was allowed to host the Olympic Games
The Olympic Games will give Communist China the same propaganda tool Nazi Germany enjoyed. Not since 1936 have the ideals of Olympics been so trampled upon.

Demetrius Klitou is the author of the book The Friends and Foes of Human Rights, available for purchase at www.ebookmall.com. He holds a BA in International Area Studies and a MA in Diplomatic Studies. He will be pursuing a LL.M. in Public International Law at Leiden University.

Published June 28, 2006 by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the side" of the students in Tiananmen Square — standing for democratic reform, human rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news; to support a stronger China policy; or get more information, see http://www.chinasupport.net.

Tibet Adds Pressure for Olympic Sponsors

2008-03-20T23:02:00.000-07:00

Tibet Adds Pressure for Olympic Sponsors

By Joe Mcdonald, Associated Press

McDonald's, Coca-Cola and other sponsors paid tens of millions of dollars to link their names with the Beijing Olympics. Now they're trying to mollify activists pressing for change on Tibet, Darfur and other issues, without angering China.

They have expressed concern over Tibet. Some talk privately to Beijing organizers. Samsung Electronics Co. called off a Beijing news conference scheduled for Friday on the torch relay. But sponsors insist they should stay out of politics.

"We all have to be careful about how we talk about this," said Chris Renner, president for China of sports marketing consulting firm Helios Partners. Its clients include sponsors Volkswagen AG, computer maker Lenovo Group and mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd.

The Olympics almost always attract activists interested in leveraging the popular event to publicize their causes.

At the 1996 Atlanta Games, sponsors faced boycott calls after a county where the beach volleyball event was to be held enacted a measure deemed anti-gay. In Sydney in 2000, there were protests about the environment and Australian aboriginal rights.

But the Beijing Games have generated more heat, in part because of an array of activist groups long critical of China's policies - and newer ones focused on its economic and diplomatic clout.

"Everybody knows we're pretty much on the biggest platform you can pick," Renner said.

Sponsors were already on the lookout for controversy over Sudan, a diplomatic partner and Chinese oil supplier, as well as press freedom, human rights and Tibet.

After protests last week by Tibetans against Chinese rule - and Beijing's crackdown - sponsors said they were watching events closely.

A few have turned to public relations specialists for advice, said a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Coca-Cola Co., Lenovo, McDonald's Corp. and others said this week they plan no changes in strategy.

Likely to face immediate pressure could be Lenovo, Coca-Cola and Samsung, the three sponsors of the Olympic torch relay. The worldwide trek begins this month and will pass through Tibet and up Mount Everest.

Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, or BOCOG, vowed Wednesday that the anti-government riots in Tibet last week and a subsequent crackdown by authorities would not disrupt plans for the torch relay.

"We know the incidents are the last thing we want to see, but we firmly believe that the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region will be able ensure the stability of Lhasa and Tibet, and also be able to ensure the smooth going of the torch relay in Tibet," Jiang told reporters.

Abroad, Tibet activists say they will protest along the torch route in India, Britain and elsewhere to highlight complaints that Beijing is degrading the Himalayan region's distinctive Buddhist culture.

"We have no plans to change any of our activities related to the torch relay," said Christine F. Lau, a Coca-Cola spokeswoman in Beijing.

Samsung said in a statement: "We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this."

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said Sunday the body is "very concerned" about Tibet. But the IOC insists it is not in a position to pressure China on political matters.

The Olympics is both a premier advertising platform in the fast-growing China market and a chance for sponsors to build ties with Chinese officials by backing a national prestige event.

The companies are counting on the Olympics to raise their profile in China, increase their market share in the country, and attract local partners, and they want to avoid jeopardizing access by doing anything that might upset communist officials. Licensing in China is highly subjective, and Beijing has retaliated in the past for unwanted foreign actions by canceling contracts or restricting market access.

Sponsor payments and other marketing revenues are expected to cover the games' operating costs, about $2.1 billion - a figure that does not include spending on venues and public facilities.

Until last week, the sponsors' biggest concern was pressure over Darfur.

Fronted by actress Mia Farrow and employing disciplined public relations strategies, Darfur activists have been prodding sponsors to lobby Beijing to help pressure Sudan to end the conflict.

Director Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic adviser to the games after pressure from Farrow, chairwoman of Dream for Darfur, which wants companies to lobby Beijing. It has warned China that it risks having its games remembered as the "genocide Olympics" and is issuing "report cards" to rate sponsors on their Darfur policies.

Dream for Darfur issued a "report card" in June on sponsors and plans to issue an update this month.

"The companies that get a C, D or F on this next report card will be the focus of our intensive activism between now and the games," said Jill Savitt, Dream for Darfur's executive director. She said the group will picket their headquarters and appeal to TV viewers to turn off their commercials during the games.

General Electric Co. scored highest at a C-plus in the earlier report, in part for donating medical equipment and aid to UNICEF, while Savitt said 13 companies got failing grades.

"The violence and brutality committed against the people in the Darfur region is appalling," said Deirdre Latour, a GE spokeswoman, in an e-mail. Still, she said, "It is not GE's role to use the games to influence government policy."

In the top tier of sponsors are 12 companies that reportedly have paid at least $100 million each to become Worldwide Olympic Partners.

Lenovo, the only Chinese company among the 12, took into account possible activism when it made its plans, said Robert J. Page, the company's Olympics public relations manager.

"All of these potential considerations are taken into the planning process," Page said. He declined to comment on violent scenarios, but said, "The potential for people to express their opinions is certainly something we have taken into consideration, and we would work with BOCOG on anticipating."

Lenovo hopes to use the Olympics to establish itself as a global brand following its 2005 acquisition of IBM Corp.'s personal computer unit. Asked whether the company worries about damage to its image, Page said, "That's not a concern at this point."

"There is no question that the Olympic Games are a powerful force for peace," Page said. "We believe that the games will focus on all the good that is being brought to China, and we are proud to support that."

Coca-Cola, Adidas AG and Omega, a unit of Switzerland's Swatch Group, say they have talked privately to Beijing Olympics organizers.

They declined to give details, but a BOCOG employee said sponsors have asked for information on China's position on Darfur and other sensitive issues.

"They have held intimate discussions with our sponsorship department to better understand the issues and how it may affect them," said the employee, who asked not to be identified further because she was not authorized to talk to reporters.

"It's obviously a fine balancing act that every single Olympics encounters," said Michael Payne, a former IOC marketing director who now works as a consultant. "The PR departments of each of the sponsors have got to be sensible in how they respond."

Robert A. Kapp, a former president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said it's possible that popular anger, particularly among Americans concerned with human rights, may become so severe "that some companies may face a very hard decision as to whether their highly visible support of the Olympics is causing so much damage that they need to reconsider their options."

"I could imagine some companies going back to their advertising departments and external PR advisers and seeing whether there are ways in which the company's presence in support of the Olympics can be reviewed with an eye toward these recent and tragic circumstances," Kapp said by telephone from Port Townsend, Wash.

"There may be different ways of presenting messages that would still support the Olympics, (but) would not cause undue anger and disenchantment among the people of China or at the level of the Chinese government," he said.

---

Associated Press writer Lindsay Holmwood contributed to this story from New York.

---

Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games: http://www.bocog.org

Dream for Darfur: http://www.dreamfordarfur.org

General Electric Co.: http://www.ge.com

McDonald's Corp.: http://www.mcdonalds.com

Coca-Cola Co.: http://www.coca-cola.com

Volkswagen AG: http://www.volkswagen.com

Lenovo Group: http://www.lenovo.com

BHP Billiton Ltd.: http://www.bhpbilliton.com

Adidas AG: http://www.adidas.com

Samsung Electronics Co.: http://www.samsung.com

Students for a Free Tibet: http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org

Omega Watches: http://www.omegawatches.com

China's Genocide Olympics

2008-01-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

China's Genocide Olympics

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

The Beijing Olympics this summer were supposed to be China’s coming-out party, celebrating the end of nearly two centuries of weakness, poverty and humiliation.

Instead, China’s leaders are tarnishing their own Olympiad by abetting genocide in Darfur and in effect undermining the U.N. military deployment there. The result is a growing international campaign to brand these “The Genocide Olympics.”

This is not a boycott of the Olympics. But expect Darfur-related protests at Chinese Embassies, as well as banners and armbands among both athletes and spectators. There’s a growing recognition that perhaps the best way of averting hundreds of thousands more deaths in Sudan is to use the leverage of the Olympics to shame China into more responsible behavior.

The central problem is that in exchange for access to Sudanese oil, Beijing is financing, diplomatically protecting and supplying the arms for the first genocide of the 21st century. China is the largest arms supplier to Sudan, officially selling $83 million in weapons, aircraft and spare parts to Sudan in 2005, according to Amnesty International USA. That is the latest year for which figures are available.

China provided Sudan with A-5 Fantan bomber aircraft, helicopter gunships, K-8 military training/attack aircraft and light weapons used in Sudan’s proxy invasion of Chad last year. China also uses the threat of its veto on the Security Council to block U.N. action against Sudan so that there is a growing risk of a catastrophic humiliation for the U.N. itself.

Sudan feels confident enough with Chinese backing that on Jan. 7, the Sudanese military ambushed a clearly marked U.N. convoy of peacekeepers in Darfur. Sudan claimed the attack was a mistake, but diplomats and U.N. professionals are confident that this was a deliberate attack ordered by the Sudanese leaders to put the U.N. in its place.

Sudan has already barred units from Sweden, Norway, Nepal, Thailand and other countries from joining the U.N. force. It has banned night flights, dithered on a status-of-forces agreement, held up communications equipment and refused to allow the U.N. to bring in foreign helicopters. The growing fear is that the U.N. force will be humiliated in Sudan as it was in Rwanda and Bosnia, causing enormous damage to international peacekeeping.

Another possible sign of Sudan’s confidence: an American diplomat, John Granville, was ambushed and murdered in Khartoum early this month. Many in the diplomatic and intelligence community believe that such an assassination could not happen in Khartoum unless elements of the government were involved.

Chinese officials argue that they are engaging in quiet diplomacy with Sudan’s leaders and that this is the best way to seek a solution in Darfur. They note that Sudan has other backers, and that China’s influence is limited.

It is true that since the start of the “Genocide Olympics” campaign (www.dreamfordarfur.org) a year ago, China has been more helpful, and it’s only because of Chinese pressure on Khartoum that U.N. peacekeepers were admitted to Darfur at all. But the basic reality is that China continues to side with Sudan — it backed Sudan again after it ambushed the U.N. peacekeepers — and Sudan feels protected enough that it goes on thumbing its nose at the international community.

Just a few days ago, Sudan appointed Musa Hilal, a founding leader of the Arab militia known as the janjaweed, to a position in the central government. This is the man who was once quoted as having expressed gratitude for “the necessary weapons and ammunition to exterminate the African tribes in Darfur.”

Other countries also must do much more, but China is crucial. If Beijing were to suspend all transfers of arms and spare parts to Sudan until a peace deal is reached in Darfur, then that would change the dynamic. President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan would be terrified — especially since he is now preparing to resume war with South Sudan — and would realize that China is no longer willing to let its Olympics be stained by Darfuri blood.

Without his Chinese shield, Mr. Bashir would be more likely to make concessions to Darfur rebels and negotiate seriously with them, and he would no longer have political cover to resume war against South Sudan. That would make long-term peace more likely in Darfur and also in South Sudan.

I’m a great fan of China’s achievements, and I’ve often defended Beijing from unfair protectionist rhetoric spouted by American politicians. But those of us who admire China’s accomplishments find it difficult to give credit when Beijing simultaneously underwrites the ultimate crime of genocide.

China deserves an international celebration to mark its historic re-emergence as a major power. But so long as China insists on providing arms to sustain a slaughter based on tribe and skin color, this will remain, sadly, The Genocide Olympics.