This article on the deteriorating human rights situation in China caught my eye. The case for a boycott of the Olympics is growing by the day. With China's failure to curtail the worst excesses of the Burmese military regime and its ongoing violations in Tibet and against political dissidents, Beijing's much trumpeted 'arrival' as a good international citizen is a shadow play with sinister consequences for those subjected to systematic repression.
The international community needs to come to the realisation urgently that the Olympics provide leverage to ensure human rights and political reform are not just paid lip-service by China.
As the article says, "Next summer’s Olympics will showcase a China of glittering skyscrapers and overstuffed store shelves. But the government responsible for this economic miracle continues to imprison political activists, restrict religious freedom, tightly control the media and Internet, and protect its citizens only haphazardly from pollution and unsafe food and consumer products..."
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