China unfit host

Terry Kerr Lincoln shares some of her insights about human rights violations committed by the Chinese regime in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics. China’s darkest secrets are out in the open and she paints a very damning picture. Why support the brutal dictatorship by going to the Olympics?

Red Orbit: "By allowing Beijing to host the games, you will help the development of human rights," Liu Jingmin, now vice-president of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee, said in 2001.

Events have proved this to be a lie. The reality is one of continuation of the labour camps, arbitrary detention and torture, oppression in occupied Tibet and of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, detention of internet dissidents at times aided by Yahoo and Google, greater restraints on press freedom, increased internet controls, and the passing of legislation threatening the destruction of democratic Taiwan.

The Olympic construction programme has seen the forced eviction of citizens without compensation, associated corruption and graft, and the persecution of any who dissent.

Lately, there are revelations of state-sanctioned organ harvesting of executed prisoners and Falun Gong followers, and reports of the shooting of Tibetans fleeing oppression.

The Olympic Charter speaks of promoting a society concerned with the preservation of human dignity. The International Olympic Committee should stop counting the dollars, show some morality, follow its stated values and reverse the decision to award the Olympics to Beijing.