China and the Olympics

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Thanks to Cranach: The Blog of Veith for the link to the article here.

Here’s an excerpt from an article written by a Chinese who was willing to go to prison as a consequence of the article.

Please be aware that the Olympic Games will be held in a country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion, no independent courts, no independent trade unions; where demonstrations and strikes are prohibited; where torture and discrimination are supported by a sophisticated system of secret police; where the government encourages the violation of human rights and dignity, and is not willing to undertake any of its international obligations.

Please consider whether the Olympic Games should coexist with religious persecution[,] labor camps, modern slavery, identity discrimination, secret police and crimes against humanity.

As the Beijing Olympics slogan says, we live in "one world" with "one dream." We hope that one day the Chinese people will be able to share universal human rights, democracy and peace with people from all around the world. However, we can see that the Chinese government obviously is not yet prepared to honor its promise. As a matter of fact, the preparations for the Olympics have provided the perfect excuse for the Chinese government to restrict civil liberties and suppress human rights!

A certain former president whose Sunday School class I attended (see here) once boycotted the Olympics for less (see here). Do we have the moral courage to do it again?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Is it me, or is there some similarity between the 2008 Games and the 1936 Games? In both cases, we see a fascist government willing to suppress the individual freedoms for the good of the state.

BTW, one of the lasting gifts of the Berlin Games is the Torch Run.
April 11, 2008
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