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PAST ISSUES

The Beijing debacle

by Kurt Vaughan
Exchange Staff

     Should we support the Olympics in a country that brutalizes its own people? Since the early 70's with Nixon's first visit to China, we have had open ties with a nation that completely disregards the rights of its own citizens as shown in the recent protests in Tibet. So why are we hosting the world's most unifying event in a nation where crimes against humanity run rampant?

     China is our biggest trade partner yet still employs a government that oppresses and hampers the freedoms of its people. Many politicians have called for a boycott of the games this year in light of the escalading protests in the region of Tibet but to no avail.

     The traveling of the torch alone has caused multiple protests across the world as well as at on our home soil.

     In San Francisco, protests erupted while the Olympic torch made its only appearance on American soil. The Golden Gate bridge was the site of much of the planned actions where Tibet supporters according to the AP waved banners reading: "One World. One Dream. Free Tibet."

     Chinese officials have greatly denounced the protests that are being held around the world. Spokeswomen Jiang Yu said, "We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by Tibetan separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and law of Britain and France."

     Around the world people of all ethnic backgrounds are protesting the Chinese hosting the Olympics; but can you blame them? China currently supports the government of the Sudan who continues to brutalize and displace hundreds of thousands of people residing in its borders. This "genocide" continues to this day and has received far too little attention. So should a nation that has all but ignored an ongoing genocide be given the right to host an event promoting international peace?

     The questions raised above are just the beginning of the problem. In a situation much like the 1980 boycott of the Olympics in Moscow, there has been much less discussion or response to the constant criticism. The public as well as American government unfortunately is more concerned with cheap goods than with human rights.

     Possibly our growing debt with China is a factor in our truancy on the matter? You be the judge.