China Rejects EU Call for Talks With Dalai Lama as Interference Bloomberg

India should boycott Chinese goods The Economic Times

POLL: Should the U.S. boycott or protest the Olympic Games in Beijing because of China’s human rights record? Napa Valley Register

From the London Free Press: 

China has been repressing Tibet for almost 60 years and the rest of the world has not really cared that much.

That’s what makes calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics this summer so bizarre.

First, it won’t do any good.

Second, a boycott avoids the more significant question of whether economic sanctions should be imposed on China, as they were on South Africa during its apartheid regime.

Of course, unlike South Africa, cutting off trade with China would have a huge downside for western economies — which is why no one talks about it.

Third, boycotting the Olympics, assuming you’re not a world-class athlete, is a classic case of throwing someone else under a bus just so you can feel good.

Why should our Olympic athletes have to suffer for China’s actions?

They didn’t choose Beijing. The International Olympic Committee did (instead of Toronto, the second-place finisher for the Games) and when it did it was certainly aware of China’s dismal record on human rights — from Taiwan, to Tibet, to Tiananmen Square, to the repression of the Falun Gong.

Even the Dalai Lama, spiritual father of the Tibetan people, rejects a boycott of the Games.

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Apparently, times have changed. Today’s Olympic Games have become, at least in part, a high-profile venue for the conveying of implicit or explicit political messages, and a locus for a bevy of overlapping, sometimes competing forces and interests that may be athletic, political, economic or cultural, sometimes all at the same time.

With unrest in Tibet against the central Chinese government in Beijing still simmering, and related protests still unfolding around the world to call attention to China’s human-rights record, the thoughts some critics have voiced about a possible boycott of the Olympics that will begin in Beijing in early August appear to be starting to take concrete form.

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Bloodshed in Tibet is leading to new calls by human-rights activists and even some politicians to boycott the Olympics in China this summer.

But those calls have not come from U.S. leaders. Although Chinese police have killed at least 99 people in Tibet over the past week, President Bush reiterated that he would attend Opening Ceremonies in Beijing in August.

Is the harsh treatment of Tibet by China reason to withdraw from the Olympics? Or should the Olympic spirit of brotherhood and unity through competition transcend day-to-day politics and conflict? Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis, the moderators of RedBlueAmerica.com, weigh in.

Ben Boychuk:
A boycott of the Beijing Olympics would make good moral sense. The Chinese government is monstrous ― a nasty, repressive, exploitative regime with a shiny capitalist veneer. And let’s be clear: The point of the Games this summer is not to promote universal brotherhood or prod Beijing’s communist masters toward freedom so much as showcase emerging Chinese superiority as an authoritarian world power.

Ah, but Olympic officials, athletes and many government leaders scoff at such talk. “Don’t antagonize China.” “Boycott? Not a good idea.” “It would be counterproductive.” How so? If the idea behind letting Beijing host the Games was to encourage the Chinese to become a more “responsible” participant in the community of nations, that idea stands exposed as a fraud.

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The response to the Tibetan crisis in London, Paris, and Berlin, rather, is a call for “dialogue” between China and the exiled Tibetan leader, and”restraint” by Beijing.

A boycott of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games is being discussed as a leverage point in Austria, Belgium, Britain, and France – to be determined by how China handles the frustrations of its Tibetan minority.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has “left open the option” of boycotting the ceremony, Germany has blocked talks with China on economic development, and Britain’s foreign secretary, David Miliband, says that Tibet demonstrations will be authorized as the Olympic torch is carried through London on April 6.

Prince Charles, a friend of the Dalai Lama, had already decided in January not to attend the opening ceremony, he said, in a letter to a human rights group.

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Yet all that and more have been laid bare — and analyzed, discussed and protested — as the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing approach.

Winter or summer, the international participation in and attention on the Olympic Games provide what many activists see as the perfect stage to make their causes and concerns known.

As the Associated Press noted last week, Atlanta’s 1996 Summer Games drew protests after activists deemed as anti-gay the county in which the beach volleyball event was to be conducted. Environmental concerns and Aborigine rights were debated as Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Games approached.

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CHINA has rejected repeated requests from Australia to allow diplomats to visit Tibet, just two weeks before a visit to China by Kevin Rudd.

Australian embassy officials in Beijing made a written request to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Thursday but were turned down after China issued a blanket denial to all requests for foreign visits due to “safety concerns”.

It is understood the embassy followed up this third-person note with a verbal request on Tuesday, which was again refused. Australian officials are expected to keep pressing the issue, which threatens to overshadow the Prime Minister’s visit from April 9 to 12.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, has repeatedly called for restraint and expressed concerns about China’s response to protests.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush is using the prestige of his office on behalf of Tibetan protesters, but his direct appeal to Chinese President Hu Jintao lacks a trump card.

Through a White House spokeswoman last week, Bush made plain he would attend the Olympic Games in August in Beijing, the crackdown on Tibetan protesters aside.

Bush considers the games to be about athletics and not necessarily politics, spokeswoman Dana Perino said. For the Chinese, anxious to avert a public relations disaster, the statement undoubtedly was received with relief.

In the meantime, leaders of France and Belgium have warned they might boycott the opening ceremonies in Beijing to protest the way the Chinese are dealing with Tibetan protesters. But Bush hasn’t got that hole card to play unless the crackdown intensifies dramatically and gives him a credible reason to change his plans.

The Chinese already have suffered embarrassment over their treatment of Tibetan protesters in Tibet and western China. They look to hosting the Olympics as an enormous boost to their prestige.

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Bush believes that the Olympics “should be about the athletes and not necessarily about politics”, but he will probably make it a priority to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao during the Games to express his concerns, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Thursday.

“Any country who’s going to be hosting the Olympics will have a bright light shined upon it,” she said. “And it is a chance for that country to put its best face forward, and it’s also a chance for other countries to learn more about the country.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Wednesday night and urged restraint in responding to an outpouring of anti-government demonstrations in Tibet and neighbouring provinces over the last week, Perino said.

Bush was informed of the conversation on Thursday morning. Rice shared “our views and concerns about the situation” and asked that Chinese authorities refrain from violence, she said. Rice also urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush sharply confronted China’s President Hu Jintao on Wednesday about Beijing’s harsh crackdown in Tibet, joining an international chorus of alarm just months before the U.S. and the rest of the world parade to China for the Olympics.

In a telephone call with Hu, Bush “pushed very hard” about violence in Tibet, a necessity for restraint and a need for China to consult with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, the White House said.

After days of silence by Bush as other world leaders raised their voices, it marked a rare, direct protest from one president to another. As if to underscore how pointed Bush was, the White House said he used the call to “speak very clearly and frankly.”

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