Changing China
Giant on the move
Politics and the Olympics over the years
WASHINGTON – The Olympics are supposed to be all about sports, not politics, right?
Wrong.
Although the Games began in 1896 with the hope that sporting events between nations could bring about a more peaceful world, they have not escaped politics.
Over the past 112 years, nations have boycotted the Games for political reasons, others have been denied entry by the International Olympic Committee and in 1972 Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian insurgents.
Click here for a photo slideshow “Politics and the Olympics”, narrated by noted American sportswriter Frank Deford published by the U.S.-based Council of Foreign Relations.
More on China’s ’08 generation
The Beijing bureau today continued its look at China’s ’08 generation, 19 years after the crushing of the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square and 64 days before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Read Lucy Hornby’s piece about the challenges facing China’s college graduates here
Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang were Chinese Communist party leaders who wanted freedom for all citizens of China-including the Tibetans, and the people who demonstrated in Tianenmen Square and who were killed or jailed for it. They were kicked out of their leadership roles by the hardliners, kept incommunicado, and placed under house arrest for the remainder of their lives. To this list, we must now add Hu Jia, prominent Chinese human rights activist, who has recently been sentenced to 3 1/2 years for advocating freedom, equality under the law, human rights, and environmental justice.
Young adults in China today know nothing of this, because the Chinese government propaganda machine has vilified the hundred thousand patriots who demonstrated for freedom that day, and dismissed them as a few anti-social hooligans. This process is, of course, taking place today in China, only it is currently directed against the Tibetan demonstrators and the Dalai Lama. If the Tiananmen Square demonstrators had been successful in reforming the Chinese government, I doubt if there would have been the demonstrations in Tibet, because the people of Tibet would probably have had far fewer grievances.
Having deposed party officials who favored truth and justice, the Chinese communist party is promulgating lies that justify their repressive policies.
Chinese nationalists all seem to believe their government’s big lie-that Tibet is an historical part of China. Tibet is no more a part of China than France was a traditional part of Germany when the Nazis invaded it.
“The so-called Czecho-Slovakia ceased to exist. In a single night a nation vanished that in reality had never been a nation.” -Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. Does it remind you of the Chinese government discussing Tibet? It should!
“Protest begins at Home”
“This ‘Shut up and play’? That’s not okay. That’s not the Olympics.” So wrote Sports Illustrated’s Aditi Kinkhabwala, joining a rising chorus of sportswriters criticizing the pre-emptive repression of speech of Olympic athletes.It’s no doubt worthy of their ire.
The British Olympic Association told its teams in writing that they are forbidden to speak out “on any politically sensitive issues.” Other countries have done the same.
Canadian Olympic Committee President Dick Pound made crystal clear to the Canadian Olympians, “If it is so tough for you that you can’t bear not to say anything, then stay at home.” USA basketball and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “None of these athletes [has] a responsibility to be political. They have the responsibility to represent their country.” And International Olympic Committee head Jacques Rogge has also said that “political factors” need to be kept away from the games.
To read the rest of this article, see http://www.indypendent.org/2008/07/18/pr otest-begins-at-home/