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China Is Accused Of Human Rights Abuse. Don’t Expect Anyone To Lose Sleep Over It.

July 30, 2008

Great Wall Of China Amnesty International has accused the Chinese leadership of breaking its promise to improve the situation with human rights given seven years ago, when the country had won the right to stage the summer Olympic Games.

In its report the human rights organisation has pointed out that the Chinese authorities were continuing to suppress political dissent and prosecute and punish people for their views and beliefs. In fact, as Amnesty pointed out, the situation has become even worse in the run up to the Games. It called on the Chinese government to release political activists and allow local and foreign journalists to report freely from China during the Games.

While Amnesty’s intentions to highlight human rights abuse in China are understandable, I do not think that anyone in Beijing will lose any sleep over the latest accusations. Even though they are coming days before the official opening of the Olympic Games. At best, some junior government spokesman will deny Amnesty’s accusations, but none of the big boys would be burning the midnight oil and thinking of a proper response. And why should they worry about all this ‘nonsense’ when the first athletes have already arrived and the build up to the Games has reached its climax? Not to mention that most of the world leaders have already confirmed their intention to come to Beijing.

Although it has to be said that an expert from the obscure China Society for Human Rights Studies has already responded to Amnesty’s report and stated that the majority of Chinese people did not agree with its findings and that the human rights situation in the country was getting better and better. He is an expert on human rights, so he must know what he is talking about.

I have said it many times before and I will say it again: Chinese leaders do not care what the whole world thinks about their human rights record; or any other record for that matter. They are not at all worried that many people outside China think that it is not right to hold Olympic Games in a country notorious for its breaches of civil liberties. No, the Games are viewed by the Communist Party leadership as a great opportunity to impress the domestic audience. Look how strong and powerful we have become, is the message going out from Beijing to all the cities, towns and villages across China. Despite all attempts of our enemies to prevent us from staging the Games and calls to boycott them they are still taking place. Long live the Communist Party of China! Long live our glorious leadership! Down with the enemies of China!

And the thing is that this sort of propaganda works very well indeed. If you think that the Chinese people are preoccupied with the problems of human rights abuse and the criticism coming from the outside – rather muted criticism I would say – you would be wrong. Hundreds of millions of them will watch the Games and feel proud for their country. And the Chinese leaders will score so many political points that once the Games are over they can really tuck into the opposition, so to speak, and get all those troublemakers sorted out once and for all. No one inside the country would mind much anyway, and as for the outside world, well, Beijing will say something like: so we lied in 2001 when we promised to improve our human rights record when you gave us the Olympics. So sue us.

And no one would be able to do anything about it in practical terms. Sure, China’s world standing may suffer a bit after the Games are over, but most Chinese people would not be aware of it. They will watch the state television channels, hearing all those wonderful stories about the whole world being all excited about the way the Olympics in Beijing were held. And, most importantly, they will believe in all of this.

The Chinese Communist Party has pretty much won the Games before they even started. The only thing that can slightly dampen the jubilation would be a great performance by U.S. and athletes from other countries who would be able to set new world records and collect enormous number of medals, overshadowing their Chinese competitors. But something tells me that the great Chinese medicine has already been hard at work to see to it that the Olympic Games would become the ultimate celebration of Chinese sport.

– End –

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