Olympic Forecast?

Grim. This is the 2^nd article this month from Time's Simon Elegant on the problems that the Beijing bad air quality poses to its citizens killing at least 1000 Chinese a day. A miracle is needed if the 2008 Olympics are to be held there. What to do?

Is Beijing clean enough to host an Olympics? Last week cast some serious doubts. In one 24-hour period, the city was enveloped by a dense, dirty gray fog and the air-pollution index hit 414 on a scale that tops out at 500. Authorities consider that level "heavily polluted" and recommended that citizens "avoid outdoor activities." The fog was so thick that municipal officials closed one of the city's main highways and scores of flights into the capital were delayed. (more)

China official admits to torture

Since 1996, torture is against the law in China. Does this make any difference? Not according to UN Envoy Manfred Nowak who revealed last year that torture is widespread after returning from a 2 week visit to China. This is not exactly the environment of choice for peaceful Olympics is it?

BBC: Mr Nowak said torture methods included electric shock batons, cigarette burns, and submersion in pits of water or sewage.

A butcher executed for murder in 1989 was proved innocent when his alleged victim was found alive, while a man was freed after 11 years in jail when his wife, whom he was accused of killing, was also found alive. (more)

China, organ harvesting and the Olympics

Stratfor has an amazing analysis of China's band-aid approach regarding their booming organ trade. I couldn't have said better myself.

Beijing's more open handling of the accusations, rather than simply ignoring or denying them, is an attempt to take the wind out of the sails of activists ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Though the report itself may have only minimal impact on China's activities, should the activists follow a tried-and-true pattern of targeting businesses and linking their relations with Beijing to the organ harvesting, a public relations campaign could cause some to rethink their sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics, undermining Beijing's image and cash flow. For China, admitting the problem may or may not be the first step toward addressing it, but it certainly is a way to reduce the potential for organ harvesting accusations to be a tool against corporate sponsorship in Beijing two years down the road.

BTW, Communist China doesn't want to be accused of genocide either. According to the Kilgour-Matas recent investigation report, it would appear that the main source of organs are harvested from unwilling people who belong to the peaceful movement of Falun Gong.

Stratfor: China's Pre-emptive Public Relations
November 17, 2006 19 52 GMT

Summary

China is stepping up efforts to deflect continued accusations that the country practices illegal organ harvesting from executed prisoners, including Falun Gong practitioners. Chinese Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu has again admitted there is a problem, though he claims it is the work of rogue surgeons, and said Beijing is taking steps to address it. China's more public and open approach is an attempt to deflate the issue before activists use the accusations in campaigns targeting the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Analysis

Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia-Pacific Region David Kilgour published a report in July on allegations of organ harvesting in China, focusing on reported activities against Falun Gong practitioners. The report was requested by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China, a nongovernmental organization with offices in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa. More widely circulated since its publication, the report is being cited by pro-Falun Gong activists, human rights activists and those who oppose the Communist Chinese as further indication of China's failings. There are some indications that activists also could use it as a tool to pressure the Chinese government by targeting major sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

This is a concern Beijing takes seriously. The Beijing Olympics are intended to showcase China as a modern and "big" nation, one in which the taints of the Maoist era and the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident are distant memories. Beijing wants the Olympics to serve as a focus for investment and as a way to engender social pride and unity. This latter point is critical as the central government struggles with economic and social disparity, corruption and rising domestic frustrations. In the anti-corruption fight, China's leaders have learned that, rather than ignoring or hiding the problem, exposing it reduces pressure and softens the social response.

Beijing is now applying that lesson to the issue of organ harvesting. Chinese Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu, a researcher in liver transplant techniques, has been the point man for this effort, and for the past year has been taking the issue public. Most recently, on Nov. 15, Huang spoke at a surgeons' conference in Guangzhou, admitting there was a problem with the harvesting of prisoners' organs, but saying it was limited to rogue surgeons, and not sanctioned by the state. Huang reinforced Beijing's call to end the "under-the-table [organ] business," and noted that most illegal-organ harvesting is done to supply organs to foreign patients -- a big business in China. The Chinese Health Ministry issued new rules on organ donations and transplants in March, which took effect in July, though initial reports suggest there has been only minimal improvement in controlling and monitoring the transplant activities.

Beijing's more open handling of the accusations, rather than simply ignoring or denying them, is an attempt to take the wind out of the sails of activists ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Though the report itself may have only minimal impact on China's activities, should the activists follow a tried-and-true pattern of targeting businesses and linking their relations with Beijing to the organ harvesting, a public relations campaign could cause some to rethink their sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics, undermining Beijing's image and cash flow. For China, admitting the problem may or may not be the first step toward addressing it, but it certainly is a way to reduce the potential for organ harvesting accusations to be a tool against corporate sponsorship in Beijing two years down the road

Olympic morality isn't cost effective

Rick Westhead is putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and shouts: “So much for the IOC's motto, Celebrate Humanity” and I can see why. YOU can help make the right changes happen. Make no mistake, the minute improvements that we might be witnessing right now are very short-term...what about apres the Olympics?

Toronto Star:... It wasn't supposed to be like this. The IOC, after all, suggested years ago that awarding the Olympics to China would very well be a catalyst for change. ...

You don't have to be an actuarial tables expert to understand why Canada's largest insurance company, Manulife Financial Corp., is excited to be an Olympic sponsor.

The next edition of the Summer Games will be held in China, a land of 1.3 billion people that makes Canada and its 32 million look paltry by comparison, and it's a market that Manulife covets like no other.

As Manulife put it in a recent press release, the Beijing Olympic Games is, "the single greatest marketing opportunity this decade for companies wishing to establish leadership positions in Asia, and in particular the Greater China region."

Yet it's a disgrace that less than two years before the Games' opening ceremonies, the Beijing Olympics is shaping up to be a shameful missed opportunity for the likes of Toronto's own insurance giant.

Never before have western companies had the chance to foster meaningful human rights improvements in China. With billions of dollars worth of potential new business at stake, few major Olympic sponsors - others include adidas, Visa, McDonald's and Coca-Cola - seem interested in staring down the Chinese government and its Olympic organizing committee, insisting the country improve its human rights record if it wants to keep receiving sponsorship payouts.

Most sponsors, Manulife included, seem more interested in announcing new branch openings than they are in addressing the imbroglio that is China's human rights situation.

Earlier this month, for instance, a U.S. Congressional commission said it was deeply concerned about a "period of declining human rights for China's citizens." That was at about the same time as Amnesty International alleged the Chinese government is using the Games as an excuse to round up vagrants and send them to the countryside in advance of the Olympics.

In March, the BBC reported China's foreign ministry admitted organs from some prisoners are sold to foreigners who need transplants, although only in "very few cases." And that came on the heels of news that China last year executed at least 1,770 people, more than any other country in the world, although aid groups suspect the true number is higher.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. The IOC, after all, suggested years ago that awarding the Olympics to China would very well be a catalyst for change.

As Francois Carrard, the onetime IOC director general put it, the Olympic committee in awarding the Games to China is betting on, "the fact that in the ... coming years up to the 2008 Olympic Games, the interaction, the openness, the progress and the development in many areas will be such that the situation could be improved. We are making the bet that seven years from now we sincerely and dearly hope we will see many changes."

Yet Manulife and several other big-ticket Olympic sponsors clearly aren't interested in addressing that sort of change.

In response to questions about what human-rights role the insurer might play in China, Manulife's assistant vice-president Kim Griffiths said:

"We would like to ask that you contact the IOC to answer all questions relating to this issue."

It's not hard to read between the lines of Griffiths' comment.

"I honestly think every big company in the world desperately wants a piece of the economic pie there and is taking a `what we don't see can't really be hurting' anyone's type of approach,"

said Bob Stellick, a Toronto-area marketer.

So much for the IOC's motto, Celebrate Humanity.

CPJ raises concerns about press freedom in China

According to New China News Agency “being a reporter is the third most dangerous occupation in China.” It is no wonder that the Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the lack of freedom of the press and the safety of reporters in the lead to the 2008 Olympics. Is the solution part of the problem—we better check with the IOC?

After the meeting, CPJ’s Kramer said:

“We are very concerned that once the closing ceremonies are held and international attention fades, Chinese journalists will bear the brunt of official retribution for reporting any news that the government deems unfavorable. It is in the interest of the IOC to hold China to its promise of ensuring that all journalists, Chinese and foreign, are able to cover every aspect of the Games without obstruction or fear of reprisal."

In their 2001 bid to host the Games in the Chinese capital, Chinese officials gave explicit assurances of complete media access for all journalists in 2008. The CPJ delegation said the IOC has the obligation to raise media concerns with Chinese officials now because of China’s lagging record in meeting those commitments. Instead of the gradual reform needed to achieve those pledges, CPJ research shows that media conditions in China have worsened considerably since 2001. Chinese journalists are at much greater risk of administrative penalties and criminal prosecution as a result of their work. (more)

China athletes banned from commercial events

It’s not only dogs that are kept on a leash in China these days but athletes too! What to do?

"As for social events of necessity, approval from the administration is required," he said. "We permit no distractions." (more)

Dog owners bite back in China's great pet purge

China is killing oversized dogs and promoting a one-dog policy these days. This is one unhealthy way to celebrate the “Year of the Dog”. Beijing is already in the spotlight for animal cruelty and this one-dog policy won’t help their image any in the lead to the 2008 Olympics. The world’s pet lovers are watching and pointing the finger at China’s barbaric ways. It's time to take action.

Michael Sheridan: In an echo of the days when Chairman Mao denounced his foes as “running dogs”, hundreds of angry pet owners confronted the police in Beijing yesterday in a protest against the regime’s new “one-dog policy”.

Eighteen people were arrested in noisy scuffles as about 500 dog owners gathered in a rare unauthorized demonstration near Beijing Zoo.

Several of the middle-class protesters wore badges that read “stop the killing” and waved furry stuffed toys in the hope of softening the hearts of the riot police and plain-clothes security men who surrounded them.

One complained that the pet-lovers’ protest was treated as if Beijing were under martial law. Police cordoned off the area, massed hundreds of reinforcements in nearby streets and tried to stop photography and filming.

In cities all over China, dog lovers have been outraged, as police have swept through districts killing unlicensed dogs and confiscating others in a nationwide purge of the animals. (more)

China, the real threat - Boycott China!

This is an excellent piece by Roland Watson of Dictator Watch reminding everyone to keep our focus on China and to boycott the 2008 Olympics.

Excerpt: Diplomats are still ignoring the reality in North Korea, that a modern day Hitler has nuclear weapons, as a means to avoid their personal failure to stop the proliferation. Further, international business is the single driving force behind diplomatic engagement. The main reason why no one has stood up to North Korea is that they don't want to imperil business relations with China. Jacques Chirac just visited China, and was obscenely given a 21-gun salute at the 1989 killing ground, Tiananmen Square. He received billions in business contracts, and pledged to end Europe's weapons trade ban. (The E.U. also recently sent a delegation to meet President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan, responsible for the genocide in Darfur.) American businesses want a piece of the pie as well (one recalls Bill Gate's April 2006 house party for President Hu Jintao), and lobby Washington to ignore China's serial human rights abuses. They call it diplomatic engagement, but what is really happening is that the politicians and businessmen have been blinded by greed. "It shall be the policy of this Nation to regard any nuclear missile launched by Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." "The greatest danger of all would be to do nothing." The United States has announced that it will defend Japan, and also South Korea, against North Korean aggression. This is insufficient. President Bush, personally, should declare that any detonation of a nuclear device, anywhere in the world, will be met by swift and decisive retaliation against North Korea – and China.

[...]

The challenge, of course, is how to help the North Koreans win their freedom. A good place to start is to force China to end its support for Kim. Without China to lean on, his regime would fail. Conclusion It is not only nuclear proliferation for which China is responsible. The country, including through its leaders and companies, commits all manner of abuses. It continues to develop chemical and biological weapons. The repression and colonization of Tibet has accelerated. Taiwan remains under threat. Its factories are sweatshops, and the rivers, land and air are poisoned. (Chinese air pollution even reaches North America.) Dissidents, including religious adherents and the followers of Falun Gong, are imprisoned and killed, as are rural and worker protestors. China also reportedly executes more prisoners than the rest of the world combined. Beijing says that it disagrees with the West on the issue of human rights, but this is a mischaracterization. The subject is not open to debate. China is wrong. It's treatment of its own people, and derivatively of the people in the repressed societies that it supports, is wrong. The country backs many of the worst regimes on the planet, including North Korea, Burma, the Sudan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and Zimbabwe. It consistently blocks Security Council action on such countries. China is not a member of the U.N. to help it achieve the organization's goals; it only uses the U.N. as a means to its own ends. Through its veto power, it is effectively the dictator of the Security

To repeat a long-standing Dictator Watch imperative, China must become a democracy. The best and certainly the least violent way to trigger this is to disrupt its economy. It is hard medicine, but it's what the patient needs. Boycott China! (more)

Internet Enemies – RWB Online Protest

Target the Internet black holes by entering an online contest organized by"Reporters Without Borders”. This is the very first 24-hour online demonstration against Internet censorship. In China you can go to prison for posting your views on a blog. Here’s how it works.

RWB: The general public, Internet users, bloggers, journalists, students - everyone is invited to register their opposition to censorship with a simple click. The Reporters Without Borders website will be given over to this protest from 11 a.m. on 7 November until 11 a.m. on 8 November. (more)

"We have, of course, North Korea, where there's no Internet,” added Lucie Morillon, with the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders. “We have Cuba, where Fidel Castro has been making sure that most of the people cannot have access to the Internet. We also have countries such as China, which is the biggest prison for cyber-dissidents, and a champion in terms of Internet censorship. A lot of technology has been put together to make sure that information about Tiananmen, or Falun Gong, or human rights, democracy, is being censored." (more)