As much as China wants to show off its country to the world during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, activists want to take advantage of the opportunity to spotlight China’s human-rights abuses. Should China oppose or ignore the political attention?
Digital Journal — Mia Farrow is furious. And not because of the Hollywood writers strike. The legendary actress has her crosshairs set on China and she’s calling the upcoming 2008 Games “the Genocide Olympics,” saying China has tried to obstruct peacekeepers from curtailing the slaughters in Sudan. She also has harsh words for Steven Spielberg, who’s helping China direct its opening ceremony. She wonders if the famous director is aware China is bankrolling Darfur’s genocide.
Farrow is not the only activist calling out China as the prosperous nation sets the stage for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She is among many protesters who want to use China’s world spotlight as a chance to bullhorn to the world the many human-rights transgressions China has committed. On her website, Farrow wrote: “The 2008 Beijing Olympics really could become an occasion for pride and celebration, a truly international honoring of the authentic spirit of ‘one world’ and ‘one dream’.”
The Chinese government is spending $40 billion on the Games — four times the cost of the most recent Olympics — and the massive exposure of the events should turn all attention to the Far East. And with 20,000 foreign journalists in China, many activists are hoping to win the favour of reporters and photographers looking to write a story on something other than men’s basketball.
The politicization has already begun. Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists warned earlier that China has failed to fulfill pledges it made in order to secure the games. Reportedly, the Communist Party of China has upped the restrictions on who could report on the Games.
Six Tibet independence activists from the UK, US, and Canada were detained on August 7th, after rappelling from the top of the Great Wall of China with a 450-square foot protest banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008” in English and Chinese. – Photo courtesy Students for a Free Tibet
Activist Liu Xiaobo said recently:
I want to show that it’s not only the hope of the international community, but also the hope of Chinese people to improve their human-rights situation.There have been rumours of a Chinese boycott by U.S. and European activists unless the government exerts more pressure on the Sudan government to cooperate with peacekeeping forces to end the five-year violence afflicting the nation. China is a well-known trading partner with Sudan.
And Students for a Free Tibet are planning a demonstration march from India, where the Dalai Lama resides. They already stirred controversy when they unfurled a banner on the Great Wall calling for a “free Tibet.”
The tension bar will be raised even higher when Taiwan conducts its elections. China regards the island as a rogue nation and promised retaliation if Taiwan became more independent, but China is loath to do anything drastic before the Games. A war could also disrupt China’s economic boom, so Taiwan’s growing independence could ease by without raising Chinese hackles too strongly. Then again, China is unpredictable, its military strength is growing every year and it’s been battling with Taiwan for years, if not decades.
Olympics organizers face a problem: clamp down on protesters to push their messages out of a TV camera’s focus, or let the protests slide and risk an escalation in bad spin for the Chinese government. China doesn’t often give in to outside pressure, so its message-massaging will have to be even more impressive when the Games descend on Beijing. There will be protests and street activism but handling those rallies could set the tone for the entire Games.
China has long been touted as the next world superpower, praised for its economic might and technological innovation. Human-rights abuses can be read on page 2. But the 2008 Olympics has the potential to change what the media put above the fold — the inspiring displays of athleticism or the inspiring cries for revolution.
