The Genocide Olympics

The China Daily website’s front page is running a story titled “Beijing hits out at Games boycott calls,” which, by not contradicting the story’s featured government official, by not acknowledging a link between China’s behavior and the ongoing genocide, criticizes those who’re calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics because they recognize that China’s continuous support for Sudan has allowed the genocide in Darfur to continue and who are aware of the fact that the best way to get China to shape up on the human rights scene is to shame it into doing so.

Here’s the article in full:

The Foreign Ministry Thursday hit out at calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics over China’s support for the Sudanese government.

Speaking at a press briefing spokesman Qin Gang reiterated China’s hope that peace will be found in Darfur.

On this issue, China shares the same goal as the international community and is making unremitting efforts to this end, he said.

He said China hopes efforts by the international community can improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur and help realize a lasting peace and stability in the region.

“We don’t think it’s appropriate to connect Darfur with the Beijing Olympic Games,” he said in response to a Wall Street Journal editorial on Wednesday which called for a boycott of the Games over China’s support for the government of Sudan.

“People who try to connect Darfur with the Olympics in an attempt to win ballots or increase their reputation are totally mistaken,” he said.

“We are confident we will hold a successful and high-quality Olympics.”

The official claims that China hopes for peace in Darfur and that China’s goals for the region mirror the international community’s. Let’s take a look at what China has done to help end the genocide:

1. It supports Sudan’s central government economically, buying 400,000 barrels of oil/day. That’s 80% of Sudan’s production. Moreover, China paid for Sudan’s oil pipeline. A lot of money to finance the Janjaweed.
2. China is the number one supplier of weapons to Sudan. Arms for the Janjaweed.
3. China has agreed to pay for and build a new presidential palace for Sudan.
4. China uses its UN Security Council veto to prevent humanitarian intervention and sanctions. For obvious reasons, China hates the idea of human rights intervention. Authoritarian states usually do.

Source: BBC Online

Not only China puts economics before human rights, by holding the Olympics and doing business in China, we of the international community do too. Yet, at the same time, we justify our actions based on the idea that by engaging China, we will ultimately change it for the better. This brings up a difficult question that James Mann poses in The China Fantasy, which has been on my mind recently:

“Private companies–including Internet firms like Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft–often use slogans like “engagement” and “integration” to explain why they have decided to do business in China, despite Chinese rules and laws that allow continuing censorship…Yet if [companies] are altering [their] rules to accommodate China…the question is, who’s changing whom?”

(James Mann. The China Fantasy. Viking: New York, 2007. p. 105)