1936 All Over Again?

On August 8, the 2008 Olympic Games will open in Beijing. The eyes of the world will be upon China, as tourists and television viewers from every country tune in. Hundreds of world leaders, including President Bush, will be in attendance. Medals will be won, records will be broken, and nations will rally around their Olympic heroes. But for democracies worldwide, it will be a moment of shame. By attending the Olympics, they will be tacitly endorsing China’s autocratic government, abuse of its own people, and its unsavory alliances. The United States should take a stand against China’s egregious behavior by boycotting the Olympic Games.

When China successfully bid for the Olympic Games in 2001, its government pledged to use them as a stepping-stone towards democracy. As Liu Jingmin, a top Beijing Olympics official, told the International Olympic Committee at the time, “By allowing Beijing to hold the Games, you will help the development of human rights.” But China’s words have not translated into action. Its people lack basic freedoms; thousands of reporters, political prisoners, and religious minorities languish in its jails and labor camps. Amnesty International estimates that China executes more people each year than the rest of the world combined. The government’s preparations for the Olympics have placed great hardship on the Chinese people, as over 400,000 people have been evicted from their homes to make way for stadiums and new highways. Few receive compensation, because in China, most land is “collectivized” and technically belongs to the central government. These injustices have continued to occur despite China’s earlier promises to move towards democracy.

Domestic dissatisfaction reached a crescendo last month with Tibetan protests against Chinese rule. To quell the protests, the Chinese army entered Lhasa, and began firing upon protesters, killing over 80 people. The Dalai Lama has called China’s actions a “cultural genocide.”

Worst of all, China, as an ally of oil-rich Sudan, holds responsibility for the Darfur genocide by association. Its investment dollars and arms sales support the Sudanese regime, allowing it to continue its brutal war against Darfur. There must be meaningful consequences to China’s disregard for human rights.

America faced a similar dilemma before the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics. Adolf Hitler used the Olympics to positively portray his regime to the world much like the Chinese government is doing today. Hitler intended for the Berlin Olympics to vindicate Germany as a nation of peace and tolerance. The Nazi government softened its racist campaign, removing anti-Semitic posters from tourist attractions. The American Olympic committee, reluctant to mix politics and sport, decided to send a team to the games. Europe’s democracies followed America’s lead. The games went on, and Hitler was lauded for their success. The world in 1936 thus condoned the Nazi regime, just as we condone China’s abusive government today.

Unfortunately, it looks as though events are about to repeat themselves. As Pierre de Coubertin, creator of the modern Olympics, noted, “Holding an Olympic Games means evoking history.” Will President Hu Jintao refuse to congratulate a gold medalist who happens to be Taiwanese? Will China’s own “undesirables” be conveniently moved out of the television cameras’ sight?

Although most argue that politics should be kept out of the Games, it is not as though American boycotts of the Olympics are unprecedented. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. In response, the United States and most other NATO nations boycotted the Moscow Olympics the next year. By reducing the Olympics to a contest between Communist nations, the West was able to express its anger at the Kremlin’s misdeeds. If a host nation’s aggression against a neighbor warrants a boycott, surely a host nation’s aggression against its own people warrants one as well.

Already, public figures have supported an Olympic boycott. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, has put forth a resolution in the House recommending a boycott. Recently, Steven Spielberg, angry over China’s lack of action on Darfur, resigned as artistic consultant to the Beijing Games. Mia Farrow has praised Spielberg’s action, and termed the games the “Genocide Olympics.” Reporters Without Borders supports a boycott because of China’s jailing of dissident journalists. These people have all recognized that participation in the Olympics is a tacit endorsement of China’s current conduct; more politicians and organizations should do so as well.

This summer, thousands of visitors and millions of television viewers will get their first glimpses of modern China. They will see futuristic sporting venues, clean skies, brand-new roads, and smiling hosts. But after the Olympic flame is extinguished, and the victorious athletes return home, China will return to its abusive ways. Almost 75 years after our initial failure to stand against totalitarianism in the Olympics, we are about to be fall for the same trick. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on us.



Anthony P. Dedousis ’11, an editorial comper, lives in Straus Hall.