Defiant Chinese Harassed, Jailed Before Olympics; Crackdown Defies Vow Beijing Made to Be Host

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post, Page One

....The Olympic Games have become the occasion for a broad crackdown against dissidents, gadflies and malcontents this summer. Although human rights activists say they have no accurate estimate of how many people have been imprisoned, they believe the figure to be in the thousands.

The crackdown comes seven years after the secretary general of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee declared that staging the Games in the Chinese capital would "not only promote our economy but also enhance all social conditions, including education, health and human rights."

Now, human rights have been set back rather than enhanced, activists say. "The Olympics have reversed the clock," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based specialist for Human Rights in China.

Another foreign human rights advocacy group, Amnesty International, came to a similar conclusion in a report issued Monday titled "The Olympics Countdown -- Broken Promises."

"By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the Games seven years ago," said Roseann Rife, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific deputy director. "The Chinese authorities are tarnishing the legacy of the Games."...

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103717_pf.html

[lob1]

1. The Olympic committee had no choice but pick China. It seems

China makes all the starters pistols.

[Heywood J]

26. Eight years ago, we had the chance to have this Olympics in Toronto.

At least the athletes would have been able to breathe, dissidents wouldn't be crushed, and you wouldn't have to worry that you'd never return home...

[TomInTib]

2. Why the hell should/would anyone believe the Chinese? nt

[madeline_con]

3. Like we were supposed to believe tnem or something.

:eyes:

[Truth4Justice]

21. Yeah they are an outstanding example of honesty, havn't they? They are our friends, right?

choke and :puke:

[Odin2005]

4. China should have never been awarded the games.

Dictatorships and single-party states do not deserve to host the games.

[Kitsune]

5. This is turning out to be a huge PR disaster for China.

I'd like to say I hope this'll change things, even if the Olympics themselves didn't, but I'm not exactly holding my breath.

[Ian David]

6. When people collapse from monoxide poisoning during the 100 Meter dash? n/t

[ben_meyers]

7. I think I'll boycott the Olympic coverage

And the sponsors of this disaster in the making.

[WyldRogue]

8. I agree...

... how can anyone support the Olympics when the Host country is a trash pile of corrupt individuals?? I mean China has cracked down on everything... example, do you see ANY news coverage besides from the 'appointed' press areas that they 'allow'? You know, total restriction and rule over what they can and cannot broadcast or report?

Sadly for the first time in my family history, the Olympics will not grace any of our TV sets

[Odin2005]

33. It's because the IOC is a trash-pile of corrupt individuals.

As the scandal surrounding the Salt Lake City winter games shows

[Frisbee]

10. But how will you know...

who the sponsors are if you boycott the coverage? :crazy: :P

[ben_meyers]

13. Someone will post it someplace, they always do. n/t

[Frisbee]

16. 'twas a joke. (never said a good one) n/t

[Lithos]

9. Well, I'm shocked

Shocked I tell you to find severe repression in a dictatorial regime.

Stupid gits who believed China would do otherwise ought to have their heads examined.

[ckramer]

11. What's the matter with you guys? Jealous of China?

Olympics is about sports, there is no place for politics in it.

I don't know if the coverage from NBC this time would be good or not. But I'm ready to watch and enjoy it.

[dantyrant]

12. Thanks for that.

Seriously. The other responses here are staggering.

Look, no love lost for the Chinese and the repressive ways, but lets direct our attention at those injustices inside our OWN borders maybe?

Consider the Democratic Convention, where we'll have our very own spooks spying on American citizens, possibly using new 'non-lethal' crowd control technologies. Are people going to boycott Colorado? Or boycott DHS?

Understand that US media will pounce at any opportunity to scold the Chinese for their so-called human rights abuses. This would be fine if it weren't so disingenuous. Our leaders truly don't care about the rights of Chinese people, and neither does our media, and the sooner those of us on the Left recognize this the better off our arguments will be, because we won't get sucked into BS debates like this: should the US boycott the olympics? (HAHAHA... Maybe the Chinese should boycott our T-bills(and thus, funding our wars) because of Gitmo? Or stop buying Fannie and Freddie bonds?)

I'm tired of this shit, really. We need voters who are less susceptible to this nonsense (babies ripped out of incubators, and other such things they tell us to play on our emotions)

[Quantess]

32. it's called multi-tasking.

...lets direct our attention at those injustices inside our OWN borders maybe?

[Occulus]

19. Go blather your apologies to the people China just put in prison.

For FUCK'S sake! Are you BLIND?

Or just too much of a varsity jock to care?

[Heywood J]

28. "Olympics is about sports, there is no place for politics in it."

Except when the athletes are going to choke from air pollution, be wiretapped, followed, and eavesdropped upon. Coaches are already telling athletes they have no expectation of privacy in their living quarters or anywhere else. This is, of course, assuming they don't get poisoned by the food or lead-encrusted surroundings. Some teams are bringing their own food, for that reason.

No, no politics at all.

[Odin2005]

34. The Olympics are inherently political, no matter how much they protest otherwise.

Why do you think the US boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow? And look how China is using the games to whip of nationalistic fervor.

[ReadTomPaine]

35. The Olympic games are intensely political

The modern incarnation of the Olympic games have been highly politicized for eighty years, going all the way back to Jessie Owens and the 1936 Berlin games. You are probably familiar with Jessie Owens and his host for those games, Nazi Germany.

There have been serious political boycotts, protests, violence and worse during virtually every modern Olympiad with the games in 1936, 1956, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1996 & 2004 being particularly vivid examples, not to mention the current furor we are seeing for '08.

Due to politics, the former Soviet Union didn't participate at all until 1952, and were immediately faced with boycotts in the '56 games. Then of course came the famous "black power" fist salute during the 1968 games in Mexico City that became the defining image of the Olympics for that decade. That was as political a statement as they come.

Just four years later, the infamous 1972 games in Germany lead to the violent deaths of over a dozen people during the Munich Massacre when the Palestinian group Black September took Israeli athletes hostage. Needless to say, that too was politically motivated.

Of special interest to apologists for the Chinese government would be the 1976 games- where the PRC itself forced Taiwan out until 1984 due to political reasons. I guess there is no place for politics in the Olympics unless China wants there to be. Then it's just fine.

The modern Olympics have always been as much about politics and nationalism as they are about sport. To argue otherwise is simple ignorance. Consider yourself schooled.

[ckramer]

37. Olympics could be political in the past, but it didn't have to be so

in the future. That's my point.

Why can we just let a sport event be a sport event?

[Book Lover]

39. Instead of telling us this, why don't you voice your concerns to the proper

Beijing officials? Let them know how wrong-minded they are to arrest these people, making the Games political. And please do let me know how far you get with that.

[frog92969]

14. Who's brilliant idea was it to let China host anyway?

The only thing the world should give them is the collective middle finger.

[Dreamer Tatum]

15. I amhoping the Games are a complete debacle in every way

just so that China will lose face. The only thing China values more than other countries' currencies
is face, and not losing any.

[Occulus]

18. As am I

I sincerely hope this Games is as colossal a loss of face as possible, and I sincerely hope his ruins China's international reputation for the foreseeable future. It would be even better if some star athletes decide to pull out.

That nation never deserved this event. Not in a thousand years.

[dantyrant]

20. explain please.

what are your selection criteria? Who 'deserves' to host the nations of the world for sports competition? This should be enlightening.

Have you tried talking to any of these athletes? I'm sure you'll have no problem convincing them to join your movement. After all, it's for a good cause. Pissing off China's a fantastic idea, but the icing on the cake is being able to delight in the misfortune of The Other, isn't it? Is that what we've really become? How sad.

[Occulus]

24. My ire has nothing to do with the athletes

and everything to do with the host nation.

My 'criteria', as you call it, is a negative list, not a positive one. Any nation engaging in massive, long term, unapologetic human rights abuses should be off the IOC list.

China did not, and never did, deserve to host the Games. Neither does Russia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, or Iran, and I expect you can figure out why.

Oh, and if you happen to be posting from China as a propagandist, shut the fuck up and get off our board. We are all well aware of the shills China is paying to post on sites critical of their hosting the Games, but unlike that country, we're free to say whatever the bloody hell we like about it.

Love how you bring up the athletes when I'm talking about the nation itself, though. Not even a good attempt at deflecting the argument.

"the icing on the cake is being able to delight in the misfortune of The Other, isn't it?"

Pathetic. I see right through you.

[dantyrant]

27. Wow.

You got me. Paid China shill, I am. lol tell me more!

Pray tell, might foreign nationals consider the US govt a massive, long-term, unapologetic human rights violator?

[Occulus]

30. We're not currently hosting the Games

and we didn't promise to curtail our own known record of rights abuses in preparation thereof.

You're being an apologist for China's behavior, and that's just as bad.

Oh, and: you missed my 'if'. Reread the post.

[Occulus]

40. .

oops

[Truth4Justice]

22. I agree with you 100 percent. I hope it goes down in flames. nt

[ckramer]

38. I called that small-mindedness

It would be sad if the mainstream democrats should embrace that attitude.

[Scairp]

17. Duh

Anybody could have predicted this turn of events, so why in the hell the Chinese were ever even given consideration to host the games is beyond me. You cannot hold the Olympics, an event that by definition is supposed to promote peace, goodwill and freedom, in a Communist country that suppresses the rights of it's citizens, as well as anyone who visits. There won't be any uncensored Internet access for anyone, including journalists covering the games. The ones who are there are already complaining about lack of access or very slow access, designed to discourage use of the Internet and free reporting of anything going on outside of the games.

[Heywood J]

29. Some Communist party censor will be sitting there going over each journalist's reports

as they go through the connection. China already has a ridiculously large paid staff whose job it is to monitor and censor traffic. You can bet that journalists who carry notes home will be searched.

Here's an interesting link for this: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C07%5C31%5Cstory_31-7-2008_pg2_13
http://www.smh.com.au/news/off-the-field/chinese-netizens-rail-against-great-firewall/2008/08/01/1217097494319.html

[Dorian Gray]

23. More proof

that they shouldn't have been allowed to host the games

[Doctor_J]

25. Chinese govt is tough - here the dissidents would just get sent to 1st Amendment Zones

:shrug:

[pacalo]

31. I just read an article in Sports Illustrated about China/US's "ping pong diplomacy" in the '70's.

Found it online; here's an excerpt:

On April 4, 1971, at the World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan, Cowan emerged from a practice venue. A member of the U.S. team, he had just rallied with England's Trevor Taylor and, hoping to catch a ride to the main stadium, flagged down a shuttle bus bearing the tournament logo. Climbing aboard, he found it filled with the Chinese team, which, as a condition of its participation, had been promised exclusive lodging and transportation.

From Cowan's shoulder-length hair and floppy hat, the passengers knew they had an exotic interloper in their midst even before spotting the usa on the back of his warmup jacket. Cowan, 19, leaned against the closed door of the bus for lack of a seat and, facing the mute stares of his fellow passengers, broke the silence. "I know my hat and hairstyle and clothes look funny to you," he said in English. "But in the U.S. lots of people look like this."

Zhuang, a 30-year-old, three-time world singles champion, watched from the back, listening to an interpreter's translation as the American held forth to no response. After a half-dozen years' absence from international competition, the Chinese had agreed to send their table tennis players to Japan in what they called the spirit of "friendship first, competition second." Yet on orders from Chairman Mao they weren't to pose for photos, exchange flags or initiate conversation with Americans. Indeed, Mao had once said, "Regard a Ping-Pong ball as the head of your capitalist enemy. Hit it with your socialist bat, and you have won the point for the fatherland." As Zhuang says today, "At that time we were still in the Cultural Revolution. Any exchange with Westerners would be (attacked) with vicious labels, such as 'treason' or 'spy.' So when this American guy got on the bus, nobody dared talk to him."

Yet in the awkward space of those moments, Zhuang felt himself torn. What of the charge to the team to put "friendship first"? What of the core teaching of Confucianism, in which he'd been raised, which holds nothing more precious than harmony? For all Zhuang knew, this American had boarded the bus to offer a greeting, and as the team's most accomplished player, the Chinese star felt a particular responsibility to reply in graceful kind. "I was thinking, China has been well-known as a country of hospitality for more than 5,000 years," he says. "If everyone ignores that American athlete, it would be ironic. Then I looked at him and thought, He's not involved in issuing policy. He's just an athlete, an ordinary person."

More

[Hugabear]

36. Is this kinda like how foreign journalists were promised complete freedom of press?

And now China is going to restrict what internet sites they can use?

I bet that before the Olympics are over, more than one journalist will be asked to leave the country for running a story that China doesn't approve of.

[snooper2]

41. I saw a clip of some lady covering the games this weekend...

She was in the big open square and said people were laughing, the skies were clear...It was a glowing report :rofl: