When the 2008 Olympics were awarded to Beijing seven years ago, it was claimed that the scrutiny entailed by hosting a major international event would create enormous pressure on the Chinese regime to improve its human rights practices. And this is partly correct - it has indeed created pressure. Unfortunately, it seems to have been in the wrong direction. According to a report [PDF] released today by Amnesty International, China's hosting of the Olympics has in fact made the human rights situation there worse:
It is increasingly clear that much of the current wave of repression is occurring not in spite of the Olympics, but actually because of the Olympics. Peaceful human rights activists, and others who have publicly criticised official government policy, have been targeted in the official pre-Olympics ‘clean up’, in an apparent attempt to portray a ‘stable’ or ‘harmonious’ image to the world by August 2008. Recent official assertions of a ‘terrorist’ plot to attack the Olympic Games have given prominence to potential security threats to the Olympics, but a failure to back up such assertions with concrete evidence increases suspicions that the authorities are overstating such threats in an attempt to justify the current crackdown.The report goes on to note that the regime is meting out particularly harsh treatment to those who link the Olympics with human rights. At the same time, they have increased their censorship and obstruction of the media. They do not want anyone to spoil their moment of glory on the world stage by listening to the cries of screaming victims or pointing at the pile of rotting corpses in the corner. The thought that they could avoid criticism by improving their behaviour seems simply to not have crossed their mind.
We should not be part of this problem. We should refuse to reward a country which so abuses human rights, and we should refuse to participate in an event which is being used as a propaganda coup by a totalitarian regime. The only moral response is to boycott Beijing.
