2008 Olympics boycott talk — China vs. Tibet

A small news roundup …

• Reporters Without Borders: Beijing 2008
• The Economist: Still Simmering (March 28) and Welcome to the Olympics (March 27)
• Global Voices: Tibet Protests 2008
• BBC News: China Allows Diplomats into Tibet (March 28); excellent backgrounders in right-hand sidebar; Profile: The Dalai Lama

Update (3:20 p.m.):

James Fallows posted an interesting example of the Rashomon effect.

The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, carried this report yesterday:

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang on Thursday reiterated that China bitterly opposes any country’s interference in the Tibet issue. The matter is an internal affair.

Update (1:50 p.m.):

From The Washington Post: Fallout from Tibet Is Test for China’s Rulers –

With Tibet unrest having seized the public’s imagination abroad, the Chinese government already has lost its battle to keep politics out of the Olympics, said Li [Li Datong, a Chinese magazine editor who was fired in 2006 after an essay in his publication challenged the party's official history]. He said the government should brace itself for an onslaught of protests over Tibet, Darfur, human rights and other causes before and during the Games, both in China and outside.

“It’s over,” he said. “The Olympic Games have already been kidnapped by the Tibet issue.”

From The Economist: A Sporting Chance –

In some Western countries there have been calls for governments to back a boycott of the games. To heed such calls now would be misguided.

It would not only be counterproductive, encouraging a more intense frenzy of the xenophobic Chinese nationalism foreign reporting of events in Tibet has already provoked … It would also mean relinquishing one of the best levers the outside world has had in recent years over China’s government: its obsession with making a success of the Beijing Olympics.

According to an AP story, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she believed the International Olympic Committee made a mistake in awarding the 2008 Summer Games to China and had sponsored a resolution at the time expressing that view (what about the call for a vote on a similar resolution last week?).

However, Pelosi said it would be wrong to boycott the Beijing Olympics, the AP reported. Even though the Chinese government has failed to live up to its commitments to improve human rights conditions in China and Tibet, “I believe a boycott of the Beijing Olympics would unfairly harm our athletes who have worked so hard to prepare for the competition,” Pelosi said in a prepared statement, according to the AP story published in the International Herald Tribune.

Earlier (March 12), Pelosi said: “It is long past time for Beijing to make progress on a solution that respects the human rights of every Tibetan. The plight of the people of Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world and the United States must be prepared to confront the Chinese government when they violate the human rights of their people.”