Shame on China? Not for the Olympics

BEIJING - Boycotts and mini-boycotts. While the Chinese government may have its Tibet problems, its issues supporting the regimes in Sudan and Myanmar, its positions regarding Taiwan and a whole host of other things ... put all those aside for a minute. Boycotting the Olympics is no way to punish the leadership here. A boycott or mini-boycott would only be punishing the Chinese people and the athletes, both in China and abroad. Such action might produce the opposite of what it intends.

On August 8th, about 1 billion Chinese will be watching the Games, an event that will have cost them upwards of $40 billion by the time the torch is lit. Preparing for the Olympics has cost not only money, but time, energy, and lives. A large percentage of those 1 billion Chinese watching will be children, cheering on household names the likes of Wang Hao, Liu Xiang, and Guo Jingjing.

Would they even notice or care if the French foreign minister or some other VIP was not at the opening ceremonies? Likely not. Given the control the state has on the media here, they might not even know. A symbolic gesture? Only for home consumption. A full boycott? Yeah, that would be a bit different, but would probably only have any serious ramifications if a mass of countries said farewell to the Games. And that would probably be a disaster for China and the world.

I've been living in Beijing for a year now as of yesterday. It's sometimes extremely frustrating and a challenge, but more often than not it is a fascinating place to be. Part of that fascination is seeing how the Chinese prepare for the Games. To say they're very, very excited is an understatement. The success of the Olympics is what they're clinging onto most now. Inflation is up, snowstorms ravaged much of the southern part of the country in the first two months of the year, and the stock markets are straining from the global downturn. Take the Olympics away and it would be dire here indeed.

With all its problems, its government's awkwardness and sometimes baffling responses to world perception, China is increasingly opening up and becoming closer to what it probably should have been long ago. By China here I mean the Chinese people, not the government or leadership. I have a lot of my own qualms about that leadership for many reasons -- not just its handling of the Tibet issue -- as a lot of people around the world do. But a boycott wouldn't do anything to change how that leadership operates, it would only serve to push China to close in on itself. It would lead to the Chinese people to distrust the rest of the world more, as they long have, sometimes rightly so and sometimes not. It's not in anyone's interest to have a distrustful, nationalistic China out there. It's definitely not in the interest of the Chinese people or China's Tibetan population.

Past coverage of events in Tibet here and here.

News updates, Beijing time ...

9:30pm: Little Red Blog has some great links to some Tibet tweeter action, including this massive aggregation by a Chinese citizen journalist. I don't know much about twittering or tweeting so need to check this out.

Read more HuffPost coverage of China and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Comments

[totallyclips]

Taking the first step toward what has become 50 years of oppression, China's People's Liberation Army invades Tibet, killing more than 10,000. Repeated attempts by The Dalai Lama to negotiate with China are dismissed, the Chinese retaliate against the Tibetan resistance, killing more than 87,000.
Before the Chinese occupation, there are 6,000 Tibetan monasteries in Tibet. After the Cultural Revolution, there are six. Hundreds of thousands of Monks, Nuns and civilians are imprisoned or killed for wearing traditional hairstyles and clothing, engaging in traditional song or dance, or voicing their religious beliefs. Rituals such as prostrations, mantras, prayer wheels, circumambulation, throwing tsampa and burning juniper or incense are strictly prohibited. Anything representing the cultural identity of the Tibetan people is eradicated. More than 250,000 Tibetans die in prisons and labor camps. Tibetan women are raped, sterilized and forced to have abortions. Children are shut off from Tibetan culture and subjected to beatings by teachers and authority figures. China has inflicted severe damage to Tibet’s environment: Toxic waste is dumped into rivers; forests are clear-cut; endangered species are hunted for sport; and nuclear-testing facilities are built. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans die from famine and disease. The Chinese begin building facilities for the development of nuclear weapons and begin nuclear testing in the Tibetan plateau. In just 30 years, 25 percent of Tibet's forests are clear-cut, putting $54 billion into Chinese pockets. In the 1980s, this rapid deforestation causes 5 billion tons of soil to be lost to erosion every year, making the Yellow River flood. China currently has at least 300 to 400 nuclear warheads, many of which are in the Tibetan plateau. China declares in 1991 the "Year of Tibet" and begins bulldozing historic Tibetan buildings and homes in the Barkhor, the central square of Lhasa, Tibet's capital.

[batguano]

You make reasoned jugements why we should not boycott the Chinese games, but the other side of that coin is our silence. The Games are an honor to be given or withheld. In this case the Chinese are poking a sharp stick in the eyes of the world by their brutal repression of demonstrations and their occupation and colonization of Tibet. In addition they have stymied an end to the genocidal disaster in Darfur because they "do business" with Kartoum!? Add to these human concerns the role of China in the trade in endangered species for food, "medicine" and sexual "potency" aids for old men. Rhino's, Tigers, Elephants, Sharks and nearly anything that flys, crawls, swims or slithers is fair game to Chinese appetites and greed. Why should we be silent? Because the Chinese will be offended? Because the Chinese will lose money? That the Games are a sacrosanct venue that may not be sullied? BS! When China ends it's abuses and occupation of Tibet, starts to help find an immediate end to the killing in Darfur, stops selling poison toys and other products to our children and pets, and starts to be a positive force in global environmental and animal conservation and protection.....THEN I will support the Chinese Olympics!

[kaafir]

The author seems to suggest that a potential boycott of the Olympics in any form may hurt the "feelings" of the Chinese and that that has priority over the plight of the Tibetans who are being killed, tortured and arrested even as I type this comment. The Chinese dont do guilt like the west. What matters to the Chinese is a sense of honor and a boycott has the potential to make the Chinese feel insulted and make them understand that ignoring the concers of the world will cost them. Surely the lives of Tibetans is more important than the 40 billion dollars already spent or a gold medal for an athlete.

[dadw5boys]

Iraq was stting on top of 25 % of the worlds oil and the U.S. now owns Iraq.

Tibet would not secure it's borders to stop the flow of drugs and weapons into China bye the old camel trails. Now China owns Tibet.

What is the difference???????

[drumbeat]

A full boycott of the Olympics could well do more harm than good - but the proposal by the French that the European Union boycott the opening ceremonies is meaningful because China is playing as much if not more to a world audience than a domestic one - on the world stage the symbolic boycott is not inconsequential. It is also 180 degrees from the current position of the Bush administration where President Bush is scheduled at attend himself.