Unless you’ve been holed up in a Chinese prison for the past seven years, you probably know that Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Olympics in August. And unless Chinese troops have been cutting off your TV and Internet for the past month or so, you probably know that the worldwide torch relay leading up to the Games has been widely protested almost everywhere except North Korea.
Protests turned violent as the torch was carried through London, Paris and San Francisco, and there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of other small protests throughout the world.
There have been calls for world leaders to boycott the August 8 Opening Ceremonies, and even for a complete boycott of the Games themselves.
I don’t claim to know what the perfect solution would be, but a boycott isn’t it. I don’t see any way a boycott would have a positive effect – China isn’t going to all of a sudden change its policies and the only people hurt by it would be the athletes who certainly don’t have any say over China’s Tibet and Darfur policies – and, really, what’s a few no-show world leaders going to do that hasn’t been done already?
In fact, I think the worst thing that could happen to China is already happening. After years of saying it would improve human rights, the Chinese government is being exposed and ridiculed in the international media. A broad discussion of the issue will do more to force positive change than any Olympic boycott would.
Whenever the Olympics become political, nothing ever comes of it, other than denying athletes the chance at gold that they’ve earned. The biggest legacy of the 1980 and 1984 boycotts is not positive political change but the diluted Games.
Violent protests are not the answer either. The backlash against the attack on a wheelchair-bound torchbearer in France led to counterprotests, took the focus off Tibet and garnered China sympathy points. The biggest news in the past week or so has been the French government trying to avoid a diplomatic crisis in China, instead of the Chinese government trying to deal with one in Tibet.
I don’t have any problem with protesting the Chinese positions on Tibet and Darfur. I don’t even have a problem with protesting along the torch route. In fact, I’d even encourage it. Just don’t get in the way of the torchbearer or impede the relay in any way. Not only will it not do any good, but the torchbearers are the wrong target. They didn’t choose the Olympic site any more than the athletes did. I know that if I were given the opportunity to carry the torch, I wouldn’t turn it down.
With the Olympic Trials coming to town this summer, I have no doubts that Eugene residents will live up to their reputation as activists. I would be disappointed if they didn’t. I just hope that they do it in a respectful and tactful way. Don’t become the story, don’t interfere with the athletes and don’t interfere with the athletics.
That won’t help anything. In fact, it would be counterproductive.
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