[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

Originally posted by Janet Kenny:

I was thinking more of the actual athletes who attend the games instead of boycotting them. They can be effective.

I'm sorry to be dogging you, Janet, but this is just so gosh darn easy to refute.

Beijing has heavily pressured the IOC and many Western governments to prevent athletes from criticizing China or its foreign policies during the Games. But the regime itself has not sworn off political statements. When the Olympic torch passed through the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last month, the local Communist Party leader delivered a speech excoriating the Dalai Lama and proclaiming that "China's red flag ... will forever flutter" above Tibet.

And if someone DOES manage to raise a fist or an unfriendly flag - there's virtually no hope it'll get shown on the airways, anyhow.

With three weeks remaining until the opening of the Olympic Games, China's Communist leadership is relentlessly pursuing a strategy doomed to failure. Through censorship, visa restrictions, intimidation and brute repression, China's leadership is trying to prevent any public expression by Chinese citizens or foreign visitors that conflicts with the image it wishes to project to the world - that of a "harmonious" society. In pursuit of this goal, China is blatantly violating the promises it made when it was awarded the Games, including that it would allow unrestricted media coverage. And it is setting itself up for a political and public relations disaster when - as seems inevitable - a dissident message evades its censors and security thugs.
To fulfill its pledge to the International Olympic Committee, the government of Hu Jintao lifted some restrictions on foreign journalists in January last year. Last week, under pressure from the IOC, it agreed to allow live satellite uplinks from Beijing. But as the Games approach, intimidation of both the international and domestic media has intensified. Many visas for journalists seeking to travel to China before the Games have been withheld; correspondents based in China have been warned that negative coverage may cause their news organizations to lose accreditation for the Olympics. According to The Human Rights Watch, 10 foreign correspondents, including representatives of the Associated Press, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, have received death threats because of their reporting on the recent violence in Tibet. Travel to Tibet remains severely restricted.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_9933853

edited to add from The Washington Post, July 19, 2008

YENGISHAHAR, China -- Shortly after dawn on July 9, the local government here bused several thousand students and office workers into a public square and lined them up in front of a vocational school. As the spectators watched, witnesses said, three prisoners were brought out. Then, an execution squad fired rifles at the three point-blank, killing them on the spot.

The young men had been convicted of having connections to terrorist plots, which authorities said were part of a campaign aimed at disrupting the Beijing Olympics by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, an underground separatist organization here in the vast Xinjiang region of western China. The group has long fought for independence on behalf of the region's Muslim Uighur inhabitants.

The public execution of the men was a dramatic example of the massive, unforgiving security operation that has been mounted in China to protect the Beijing Games from what Communist Party authorities describe as an urgent threat of violence and anti-government protest.

"Especially as the Beijing Olympic Games draw near, a range of anti-China forces and hostile forces are striving by any means and redoubling efforts to engage in trouble-making and sabotage," Yang Huanning, a vice minister of public security and an anti-terrorism specialist, said in a declaration to the Public Security Bureau's newspaper.

With the Games three weeks away, the precautions already have proved so sweeping that some observers question whether the sense of fellowship and fun that is supposed to accompany the Olympics can survive. Alongside the crackdown against Muslim extremists here in Xinjiang, for instance, have come confusing new visa restrictions, multiple roadside checkpoints, reinforced pat-downs at airports and subway stations, and raids on bars popular among foreigners. The result has been an atmosphere of coercion, not celebration.


Meanwhile, China's leaders have extended the scope of their concerns to include peaceful political protests. In public and private comments, Chinese officials have seemed just as determined to prevent pro-Tibet demonstrators from unfurling banners in front of television cameras as they are to head off hotel bombings by Muslim extremists, according to Chinese specialists and foreign diplomats.

The Beijing Public Security Bureau warned recently on its Web site that any demonstration must have prior approval from authorities, in effect banning anti-government protest.

Aware of the misgivings about overkill, Chinese authorities have said their top priorities must be to guarantee the safety of Olympic athletes and spectators, and to prevent political protests from ruining the display of international harmony long promised to the Chinese people.

Security officials have displayed equal zeal in seeking to make peaceful but embarrassing protests impossible during the Games. Under the newly rigorous visa restrictions, Chinese consular officials abroad have been told to refuse entry to anyone who "may do things that are harmful to China."

Television networks that spent millions of dollars on broadcast rights are still negotiating the extent to which they will be able to do live shots from Tiananmen Square. The iconic esplanade in central Beijing was the site of the June 4, 1989, crackdown against pro-democracy protesters; it would be an ideal site for foreign or Chinese demonstrators seeking to take advantage of the world's attention during the Olympics.

At a negotiating session July 9 with the International Olympic Committee, Chinese officials said live broadcasts from Tiananmen would be allowed only from 6 to 10 a.m. and 9 to 11 p.m. Beijing time. Only correspondents would be allowed to speak, they said, not invited guests who could make political comments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/18/AR2008071803356.html?wpisrc=newsletter&sid=ST20080 71803460&pos=




[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited July 20, 2008).]

[David Anthony]

I've been boycotting Australia for years now because of their ungentlemanly approach to cricket--sledging in particular--that and it's a long way to travel.
I have to say my strategy has yet to bear fruit; in fact I'm not sure they've even noticed. But I live in hope.
Best regards,
David

[Janet Kenny]

Lo,
I've been asleep and won't be able to read your posts for a while.

I did notice that you pulled out Chinese earthquake fatality statistics to contrast with New Orleans fatalities.

My point was that China rushed to help survivors.
I'm not denying the shocking building scandal which was revealed by the quake.

If you have time do listen to that audio of the third Reith lecture.

Edited in: Lo, Nobody knows when a quake is coming. I grew up in a country which has so many they call it the "shaky isles". Quakes just come. BOOM.


****
David, we did notice and we're terribly, terribly hurt.
Janet

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited July 20, 2008).]

[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

Chinese officials assured news organizations "complete freedom to report" when bidding for the games seven years ago. The International Olympic Committee received further such assurances in April. But Kevan Gosper, a senior member of the IOC, said this week that the promise will apply only to sites related to "Olympic competitions."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25932817

[Janet Kenny]

Lo,
I'm no apologist for the behaviour of the Chinese leaders nor for the complex corruption that has infested Chinese life on all levels.

I am totally opposed to capital punishment of any kind. I am in favour of free speech. Despite the previous Australian government's brutal detention of Asylum Seekers I am against the imprisonment of innocent people especially children.

I am also depressed by the Olympic Games which seem to distort everything.

I am against any self-gratifying gestures which will harm even more people than are being harmed already.

Janet

[Gail White]

I'd have to admit that my motive for staying out of dictatorships is physical fear rather than moral principle. Especially where the Middle East is concerned.

But if I were young enough to carry an oxygen tent around with me, I'd take a chance on Tibet this year.

[Catherine Chandler]

Gail's right. I travelled to Uruguay a week after the golpe de estado in July 1973 and feared for my husband's life, though he wasn't a Tupamaro. We went because his father was ailing (July is also winter down there). I vowed never to go back until the dictatorship was over, and that's what we did.