Category: Boycott Beijing Summer Olympics 2008

If you haven’t read it already, make sure to check out Naheed Nenshi’s op-ed in yesterday’s Calgary Herald in which he articulately explains why he will be joining a growing list of Canadians in deciding to individually boycott the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Nenshi gives a shout out to bloggers who have jumped on the Boycott Beijing 2008 effort (this blog specifically. Thanks, Naheed!), but if you’re looking for more information on the Boycott Beijing 2008 movement you can check out my previous post, Laura at We Move to Canada, and Reporters sans frontières.

In more recent news, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has stated that he may boycott the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games in protest of the recent situation in Tibet.

“Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, has led a chorus of European criticism over China’s actions in Tibet, refusing to rule out a boycott of the Olympic Games opening ceremony.

The publicity gained by anti-China protesters abroad have generated a fiercer response to China’s actions in Tibet

“I don’t close the door to any option. I want dialogue to begin and I will graduate my response according to the response given by Chinese authorities,” Mr Sarkozy said.”

As fun as the Olympics Games are to watch and as great an opportunity they are for amateur athletes across the globe, I can’t help but be completely disturbed by the actions of the government of the People’s Republic of China in their recent military crackdown against the people of Tibet over the past couple weeks.

With a strong-arm crackdown on freedom of assembly and expression underway in the People’s Republic, there is no way that I can feel good about watching and therefore supporting the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

The list of injustices stemming from that country’s regime is long, but We Move to Canada has put together a list of reasons why not to support the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games:

Tibet: China’s continuing occupation of this sovereign, peaceful nation.

Darfur: China is Sudan’s largest trading partner and the main foreign investor in its oil industry. Most Western oil companies, under pressure from human rights organizations, have withdrawn from Sudan. And although we know that economic isolation and divestment can have a very powerful, positive effect (think South Africa), China continues to do business with Sudan, enabling slavery and genocide.
China: The list of China’s abuses of its own people is a long and shameful one.

— China executes more of its citizens than the rest of the capital-punishment countries combined and doubled. While China has a much larger population than those other countries, its rate of execution is still disproportionate. China has more capital crimes, and is believed to have more hidden executions and political executions, than any other country in the world.

— China jails (and also executes) thousands of activists, political dissidents, journalists, and ordinary citizens who attempt free expression. Reporters Without Borders is a good source for civil liberty and human rights abuses in China, as is Human Rights Watch.

— China’s labour laws are a sad joke. Factory conditions sound like something out of Dickens or Upton Sinclair.

— China pollutes water, air and soil with impunity, poisoning and sickening its citizens for generations to come.

So, when August 2008 comes around, instead of watching the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, I will be outside enjoying my freedoms of peaceful assembly, expression, and movement that the people of Tibet and the People’s Republic of China aren’t able to freely practice.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the hosts of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

BBC News has been covering the Tibet story better than any other news source I could find.

UPDATE: You can find video footage of the Tibet protests here.

(h/t boing boing)

ANOTHER UPDATE: According to The Telegraph, the United States has dropped China from its worst human rights list. Say what?

Even if you chose not to look at China’s record on human rights, there’s still some pretty dirty stuff going on in the People’s Republic and I’m sure all the Olympic-sized PR and spin won’t even begin to touch on these issues come August 2008.

This is why I was glad to see the New York Times publish a great series of articles on China’s short-term “green turn” for the 2008 Bejjing Summer Olympics, even though the outlook still looks pretty “grey” for China’s water, energy, bio diversity, and air pollution crises.

They have been an interesting read over the past couple weeks and I encourage you to take a look at them before the Beijing Summer Olympics begin in August 2008.

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