(ITA - 2002- 1a Fase) Give Us the Olympics, or Wel

Give Us the Olympics, or We'll Shoot

By June Thomas
Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2001, at 10:00 a.m. PT

      With the International Olympic
Committee set to announce the 2008
Olympic Games venue on Friday, several
newspapers editorialized about Beijing’s
suitability. Canada’s Globe and Mail
admitted bias in favor of its hometown
(Toronto and Paris are Beijing’s strongest
rivals), but declared: “Regardless of who
the other contenders are, it would be
wrong to award the Games to Beijing... It
would reward an authoritarian regime
that tramples on the most basic rights of
the Chinese people.” The Financial Times
counseled the IOC members to ignore
political factors when making their
selection: “Despite the ugliness of the
Chinese regime, the world is willing to
deal with it in political, institutional,
cultural and economic terms. Why should
the Olympic Games be something
different?” An op-ed in the Sydney Morning
Herald argued that China doesn’t
“deserve” to host: “There is no point in
isolating China. It makes sense to trade
with China and to facilitate its entry into
the World Trade Organisation. But there
is no reason to indulge the Beijing regime.
“The Herald’s China correspondent offered
a pragmatic argument:
      “Giving the Games to Beijing will
probably do nothing to advance human
rights in China. The authorities will be
keen to keep a lid on dissent before the
Games. But not granting Beijing the
Games is unlikely to help promote greater
human rights in the short or long term...
Passing over Beijing may lead to a
hardening of China’s attitudes in its
relations with the West. It would certainly
lead to a binge of nationalistic outrage
with unforeseeable results. In a worst-case
scenario it may encourage China’s
leadership to speed up its plans to forcibly
“reunify” Taiwan with the motherland.”
      An op-ed in Hong Kong’s South China
Morning Post struck a similar note of
alarm:
      “By stirring up the public’s feelings to a
frenzy over the Olympic bid, the
Government plans to distract people’s
attention from the problems of rampant
corruption, a rising unemployment rate
and a lack of confidence in the Communist
Party. In the scenario that China loses the
bid, the government-controlled media will
direct the blame onto the United States
and Western countries and once again
incite anti-Western sentiments. With an
almost paranoid mentality that the whole
world is against them over their Olympic
bid, the Chinese Government will be more
militarily aggressive and refuse to
co-operate with the west on such important
issues as nuclear non-proliferation and
regional peace.”