Illegal arrests, forced labor camps, brainwashing centers, organ harvesting, torture, murder, no freedom of press, Internet blockades, widespread corruption, and nepotism.
Critics say Beijing is light-years away from the Olympic Charter, which speaks of "the harmonious development of man," and "promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
When, in 2001, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Beijing the 2008 Summer Games, it might have hoped the decision would encourage Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders to clean up their dismal human rights record.
But every major group monitoring human rights in China has reported an increase in abuses since 2001. Some groups suggest that the international sporting fraternity is being wooed so successfully by the Chinese regime that the reality of deteriorating rights practices is being ignored.
The Chinese communist regime continues to: execute far more people every year than the rest of the world combined; arbitrarily imprison and torture people who peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression and association; torture and persecute Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, House Church members, and Uighur Muslims; and tighten media control over foreign and native journalists.
Even Beijing's Olympic preparations themselves have become entangled with abuses. Hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents are being evicted from their homes without compensation in order to make way for development related to the Games, according to a joint statement by human rights organizations. Those who dare to protest are often persecuted.
1936, Berlin: The Olympic movement was discredited when it allowed the Nazis to make the Games a spectacle in glorification of the Third Reich. The Games were opened by Adolf Hitler and many teams gave the Nazi salute. The star of the Games was black American Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals.
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1964–1992: South Africa was banned from the Olympics until its apartheid laws were repealed.
1972, Munich: Palestinian militant group Black September raided the Israeli team's headquarters and murdered 11 Israeli athletes and a police officer. The Games continued with backing from Israeli officials but the Israeli team returned home.
1976, Montreal: New Zealand was in the middle of Olympic controversy after touring South Africa to play rugby. The IOC refused calls to ban New Zealand from the Games, which were subsequently boycotted by 25 African nations.
1980, Moscow: More than 50 countries boycotted the Games in a U.S.-led exodus after the Soviet regime invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Then U.S. President Jimmy Carter threatened to withhold funding and revoke the U.S. Olympic Committee's tax exemption if it did not comply.
Last month an international coalition of human rights organizations issued a joint statement accusing the IOC of failing to protect Olympic ideals, and calling on national Olympic committees, athletes, and sponsors to take action.
A group of human rights organizations that includes Olympic Watch and Reporters Without Borders said in a joint statement that despite human rights activists' efforts, "the IOC has refused to face the reality in which Beijing 2008 is to take place." The current IOC leadership may be "either too cynical, or too incompetent, or both, to protect the Olympic ideals and take a clear stance on the continuing human rights abuses in China," it added.
The coalition calls on "National Olympic Committees and individual athletes to start discussing ways how they can protest the conditions under which the 2008 Games are to take place," with one option being a "full, publicly stated boycott of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games."
Propaganda Tool?
China, which returned to the Olympics in 1984 after a 32-year absence, has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the medal tally, albeit tainted with charges of widespread steroid use by athletes. In Athens 2004 China sat second only to the United States, with a haul of 32 gold medals—a far cry from its modest five in Seoul's 1988 Olympics.
The upcoming 2008 Beijing games are important to the Chinese communist regime's efforts to portray itself as a force for civilized progress. The coalition of human rights organizations is thus painting Beijing 2008 as a "tool for domestic and international political propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party."
"In 2008, the international sporting movement must refuse to tolerate one of the world's bloodiest dictatorships," the coalition said.
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