[+/-] : Pro-Tibet groups call for Olympic boycott

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/

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[+/-] : No Torch Through Tibet, say NYC Tibetans

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.


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[+/-] : Behind the music

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."
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[+/-] : BEIJING: WE ARE READY

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.
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[+/-] : Students’ body asks athletes to quit Games

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.
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[+/-] : Internationally Exhibited Hawaii Artist Cancels 'Goodwill Tour' to China

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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Contact:

Aelbert Aehegma
kealakekua, HI 96750
United States
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[+/-] : 2008 turns out to be a year of trouble for China

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.
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[+/-] : The Twin Betrayals of the Olympics in 1936 and 2008

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.
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[+/-] : Take Action: No Olympic Torch in Tibet!

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....
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[+/-] : CHINA'S GENOCIDE OLYMPICS

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[+/-] : Olympic torch protests in Hong Kong

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[+/-] : After Troubled Tour, Torch Arrives in China

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.
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[+/-] : United States Should Boycott Olympics: Send Message to China and World

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....
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[+/-] : Torch Nears, Posing Test of Autonomy in Hong Kong

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.
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[+/-] : The Chinese rioters attacked Tibetan violently in Seoul!!!

The Chinese rioters attacked Tibetan violently in Seoul!!!...
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[+/-] : Coca-Cola Faces Critics of Its Olympics Support

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.

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[+/-] : Foreign Press Set for Curtailed Everest Torch Trip

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.
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[+/-] : Boycott Opening Ceremonies

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.
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[+/-] : Torch lights up China's shame

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.

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[+/-] : China's Olympic Shame

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.
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