2008 is special for two reasons:
1) The Summer Olympics will be held in August in Beijing.
2) It's the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
And there seems to be an issue because:
1) The Olympics are a symbol of countries coming together from around the world to compete in peaceful, (fairly) fair athletic competitions. This is significant because, like the World Cup, it can be a place of competition and pride, but without the violence, anger and destruction which competition and pride often lead to. With the 60th anniversary of such a progressive document as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it seems even more symbolic that this year be representational of human rights and freedoms everywhere.
2) The Olympics will be held in China and China represents none of the above.
The recent outcry to boycott the Olympics this year from critics (including myself) stems from a variety of issues. However, this past week's events have been called from numerous others and brought relations with the Chinese to the forefront.
In Tibet this past week, protests erupted across the Tibetan Autonomous Region against the Chinese oppression and rule. Accurate numbers of those killed in the protests range from 4 (according to the Chinese government) and over 100 (according to human rights groups).
Here's what we do know: people have been killed and they were innocent.
Foreign journalists have been banned from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet and thousands of Chinese troops have moved into the region. The Chinese government cites some 20 Tibetans have been arrested in the protests and 150 or more "surrendered" to the government. I can't ever recall a time where I've been protesting and would willingly surrender. I've never protested to obtain my total freedom or an increase in cultural autonomy from an oppressive government, but I have a feeling the sentiment is even greater and people are even less willing to back down.
And it's not as if the Chinese government has the cleanest record on political decriers- most are tortured. China is so adamant about its position to control these areas, certainly political detractors won't be let off easily. There's also been what's called a "media blackout.", Youtube is censored and the internet is censored from the pictures of the protests and the issues. Talk about gross violations of freedom of speech and press. There's an archive of 44 photos here and here.
What is our role and the American government's role in this situation? Do we withdraw entirely and say nothing? Do we begin some heavy diplomacy? Do we call for boycotts of the Olympic Games? Why do we allow this? What does this say about us? About humanity?
It certainly is my belief that our own democratic republic must be preserved by fostering other democracies and democratic reforms throughout the world. I know some say we are pushing on government on other people- but in reality it's not that. I have yet to find or see or hear another form of government that better protects and allows for human rights than democracy. Sure we have our flaws, but when people were shot at Kent State during a Vietnam War protest, there anger and outcry was fully permitted. No one censored the pictures. No one acted like it didn't happen. Here we have a government that won't even let foreign journalists in and is reporting sketchy numbers at best. It won't even let the people of its country know that there are even protests in Tibet. I'm sure eventually they will find out, but by then it will be too late.
If we shall remember for a moment, however long ago and painful it might seem, that those who committed crimes in the Nazi regime and other oppressive regimes were still punished, even if they claimed they were just "following orders" and doing as told.
You are guilty if you know and say nothing.
When we look at those in not just Tibet, but in Taiwan, in Burma and in surrounding regions, we have to realize they are every bit as human and every bit as deserving of the rights we universally declare and hold dear. And they are certainly worth, at the very least, boycotting one Olympic Games for.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Let's not also forget the abuses of women and of female children. The ridiculous one-child law, etc...
Oh yeah- I could spend an entire day just listing the abuses China commits. Perhaps I'll write another blog focusing on a different aspect of human rights within China- I was focusing more on the Tibet situation and the Olympics this post.
This showcases the hypocrisy of all the countries that are still sending their athletes to the Olympics, for fear of angering China.
Sadly, we're one of the hypocrites. We also took them off our list of worst human rights abusers recently, just to keep them happy. Grr.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
--especially about Kent State... It's very true that no one government/country has a clean record, but it definitely helps that democracies--for the most part--have the liberty to look their problems square in the face.
I'm definitely boycotting the Olympic games too. Sports are infinitely less important than the issues in Tibet, and so many other beaten-down places, that we otherwise ignore. Thanks for writing this...
It'll be a miracle if China's citizens find out about it outside of knowing those who were directly involved. Unfortunately, many Chinese who have never left the country still have no knowledge of the Tienanmen Square Massacre in 1989. They take many pains with the media censorship there.
But I was amazed when I saw the protests on TV and the BBC World News secret coverage following the removal of all journalists. I'm not sure how it is now, but I know in 2003 you couldn't go there without being part of an officially sanctioned tour with an official (government-employed) tour guide going everywhere with you. I don't know how the BBC managed to film inside the TAR without the government knowing.
But what amazed me even more was the footage from before the reporters were given the boot. All those Tibetans with all those Tibetan flags!! Aren't they still illegal with the corresponding punishment of getting sent to the gulag for a couple years??
~~Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilites.~~
Gregory David Roberts
Quite frankly I am very pessimistic on this issue. China has shown its inhumane side on various occasions (Darfur, Tibet, etc). But it is a growing monster, economically at least.
China is quickly becoming the most powerful economic nation, and it can do what it wants. Is there a solution? Maybe a military one, but I haven't seen any real action against them from any of the world's powers.
China depends on the US to buy their goods- we could essentially find other countries to make the goods for us (or do it ourselves, shocker) of course with some serious economic hit sure. (Sorry WalMart.) But China needs somebody to buy all those goods or else they are nothing. Governments need bread and circus to survive, right? Well, once the people can't even get their bread filled, the circus crumbles real fast.
Militarily is just not an option, at least not now anyway. However, I just replied to a comment further down, that PR troubles is probably our best mechanism as of right now.
The Chinese armed forces might be sizable and motivated, but they would be wiped down in a total confrontation with the US.
The USA's military budget is not only the biggest in the world. Is bigger than the following 14 military budgets combined.
And even so, it takes the US a mere 2% of their GDP to fund its forces, vs a 17% of the Chinese GDP. In other words, the USA overpowers China several times, and with much less effort.
On the other hand, the concept of China "needing" of the US for survival, is arguable. It might be true as much as all capitalistic economies are interconnected, but China could find other markets for its goods, and the coercitive nature of its government makes its society more plastic to impose large-scale changes, if necessity arised. On the other hand, China is the biggest holder of US debt in the world. China has more interest in a healthy US economy (so that one day they can be paid back), than the other way around.
All of which, by the way, does not mean I advocate war in any way.
Even if the US sat on its ass and didn't grow at all, and the Chinese continued their unsustainable rate of growth forever (wrecking their environment, enslaving their population, preventing political dissent) , it would take about 20 years for China to overcome the US economically.
Both events are unlikely. Americans won't let themselves go to seed, and China cannot sustain this rate of growth forever before things start to break.
If you really want to furtherly cripple the tied down over worked and underpaid people of china be my guess. Protesting the games will just lean that much more vengance on the tibetan people due to the losses of some of the higher ups in china invested in the games. If anything its not the place to protest, if more people from around the world show up inside of china it might leak to the chinese(blindfolded) citizens all the information and rights the rest of the world is becoming aware of. When they see all the outsiders with smiles and free lifes it might make them finally get a sense of the reality beyond their confines.
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
I disagree with you only because Beijing, Shanghai, and other major metropolitan and tourist areas (like the Great Wall) are not where the problems are. Many of the factories and prisons are in much or rural China (aka the other 90% of land it encompasses.) No near slave-worker will even be close to the Olympic arenas if China has anything to say about. I've had friends who have gone over to Tibet before and they said someone from the government stayed with them or followed their group the whole time.
If you want to talk about reality constructed then here it is. China's metropolitan area and hypercapitalism youth is totally oblivious to the whole factory culture, etc. All they've seen is capitalism, earn money, good, and I didn't need any of those annoying civil liberties. So, there's been a very deliberate breeding of authoritarianism with earning money (for some folks.) Most who are educated or metropolitan raised have no idea of the censorship that takes place, the factory conditions, the miserable life many lead (people going 4 years wihtout seeing their children to earn a substantial wage), people who speak out against the government being tortured in prison, Tibetan people shot in a protest- none of them are going to see the happy little Westerners with smiling faces and then all of sudden rise up against the machine that is China.
Boycotting gives China a big PR disaster on its hand and has really built up these Olympic Games...how can it explain to its people why all the countries aren't coming? China has to play it carefully because if there is an obvious enough outrage (say brutal unprovoked killing in Tibet, Taiwan, other areas, other political prisoners) that even Russia can't be allied with it, China has the rest of the world to deal with. We can't take them on our own- of course not. But China can't take on the entire world.
China is not alone against the world. Russia, for example, sides with China in considering the Tibetan issue an internal affair, if for nothing else, to counterweight American influence.
By the way, China does not practice political assassinations in Taiwan, that I am aware of. Taiwan is, to all practical effects, a different country, although China claims it as part of its territory and maintains political and military pressure upon it.
That was jibber.. Oh no a PR disaster, chinas arrogance isn't even open to the thought of PR, its about the money they would lose on account of the PR that would hurt them.
By the way, where did I say anything about slaves? I was talking about the oppressed open mind of the middle class chinamen which will try to be present for the olympics, I know we're not raiding slave shops, I'm just talking about the fact that an isolated culture will be exposing it self to the world outside, which democratically will not be a downfall. You can through all the humanitarian examples you want, I understand the heartless, self- proclaiming as god dictator there. I know of situation, I am just saying, if you hit them where it hurts, they are more likely to hit someone else for their pains. It will just stunt the social reality china needs to come to being the largest single populous.
What are you pertaining to with that whole last paragraph about china taking on the whole world? Are you talking like a game of risk or are you talking about PR wise they can't cause an unroar? If you're speaking of the first, it would take like 30 nukes to level china(kill and radiate the populous) and we have 2400 of the finest(highest caliber) The whole world would roll into a crop scarcity if we even set off 5, the dust would block the sun. The world powers are all strong enough to make the world end with their nukes, so fighting the whole world isn't even a question of strength. If you're speaking of the second interpetation the world is plenty able to show its disfavor, that obvious, but formally boycotting is just rocking the boat more on something fragile already.
--
Everything, you have done, and will do, is chemically predisposed by matter, even the fact you are reading this message. You make no choices, only perceive a given reality.
I agree that China is not the ideal place to have the Olympics right now. With all the news that has surrounded them lately, it's causing protests and outcries from individuals who want something done about these issues. The fact that they barely pay their workers and that their environment is extremely polluted does not help their case.
I wrote a blog on the Olympics in Beijing a week or so ago. I was listening to my local news station last week and they were saying the air pollution is so bad over there the athletes don't even want to compete. Read my blog. Just... Yeah, I'm not going to beat a dead horse.
The Chinese people aren't completely oblivious. Those who read some newspapers do get information about the controversies. International TV stations do have segments about Taiwan, TIbet and even Christianity. It's not much and the people seem to shrug it off, but it is there.
Also, the people in the cities are so focused on material wealth that few recognize the struggles of their comrades.
I don't see China becoming a World contender on any level. I'll have to think out my opinion some more a make a post on it, but in general, the society is not built for it. The foundations are shaky and not everyone is winning in the money earning game. The main thing is their mindsets on themselves and others. We'll see what happens.
I'm going to ask around to see how oblivious people really are and then I'll report back on my blog.
Let's not forget that China counts with a huge supply of undocumented Chinese migrants, illegal in their own country, lacking the internal passport (hukou) that authorizes moving from the country to a city, for example.
They are an authentic subcaste, they live in fear of being aprehended by the authorities, take any menial job they can, and their children can't even enter the system and go to school, thus perpetuating the subcaste.