Should China have been allowed to host the Olympics?
By Sam
Earlier this week, Chinese officials detained six Americans for protesting Chinese rule in Tibet. This is the latest round of aggressive action taken against foreigners during the Olympics. As the New York Times details:
Two photographers at the scene for The Associated Press were also roughed up and taken into custody, according to news agency reports and press freedom advocates. After the photographers were questioned separately for 30 to 40 minutes, the police confiscated the memory cards from their cameras.
In the past month, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China has received dozens of complaints from overseas journalists who were detained, trailed or had equipment damaged by the police.
Chinese citizens have also felt the government’s heel during these games. Although the regime invited discontented citizens to apply for official permission to protest within designated areas, not a single application has been approved as the government claims that they opted to simply address the concerns of aggrieved parties. In a bizarre and disturbing twist, two women who ignored the regulations and protested against displacement from their homes to facilitate redevelopment were sentenced to “re-education” in a labor camp. Both of the women are in their late 70s.
China’s repressive approach to free expression does not come as news to outside observers (or its own citizenry). Despite assurances that the Olympics would herald a new era of openness in the communist government, was awarding the games to China tantamount to complicity in its authoritarian tactics?