About a month ago, I wrote about the growing movement to boycott Beijing’s Summer Olympics, on the basis of its support for brutal regimes in Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere — and its none-too-pretty human rights record at home. I was convinced that a boycott is a bad idea and still am, but pressure is building for governments around the world to keep their athletes at home.
From William Pesek’s editorial at Bloomberg.com:
[A] novel suggestion for a mini-boycott of the Olympics by VIPs at the opening ceremony is making the rounds. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, a founder of Doctors Without Borders, said the idea is “interesting.”
Reporters Without Borders is urging heads of state, heads of government and members of royal families to boycott the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.
[China] bid aggressively for the Olympics and argued the games would hasten the development of human rights. Tell that to imprisoned activist Hu Jia, whom Reporters Without Borders calls a “prisoner of the Olympic Games.”
Officials in Beijing say activists shouldn’t politicize the summer games, even though Chinese authorities have used them for political gain all along. Anyone who thinks Beijing 2008 is about sports isn’t being realistic.
All that is true, and from Moscow to Munich to Los Angeles, the Olympics have often been as much about politics as they are about sport. Certainly that’s true in Beijing as well, where an emerging world power fought hard to host the Games and mark its grand entrance as a real-deal player onto the international scene. Now, its wish granted, Beijing will host the Olympic torch this summer — a symbol of unity and universal brotherhood and a grand, flaming statement of what humanity can be.
But in what seems like a great cosmic irony, that flame’s journey to Beijing will include three days in the winding, weaving mountain passes of Tibet, culminating at the summit of the mammoth Mount Qomolangma. The torch isn’t there yet, but already it’s illuminating the region, its light reaching into the deepest, darkest corners of the media in China and around the globe. Politicians worldwide face petitions for boycotts of the Games, and every day our local newscasts contrast the Olympics with clandestine footage of Tibetan uprisings, recorded secretly on cell phones and beamed to television studios half a world away. From the CNNs, BBCs and Al-Jazeeras of the world, to little sites like this one, to dissenting voices inside China itself, people are taking notice, informing themselves and coming together to apply the only tool that can bring change to the image-conscious country: shame.
China’s support for brutish dictatorships — like that of so many Western countries — is nothing new, and scarcely made headlines until Beijing was awarded the Olympics. Its human rights abuses were largely ignored by the world media and politicians alike, as they stumbled over each other to proclaim China the next world leader by 2012, or 2020, or 2025… If China does one day take on that role, we may be glad we opted for engagement over isolation, inclusion over a slap in the face.
For now, by torchlight, the world is watching China.
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