On can only laud such candour and honesty, and would hope that democratic politicians around the world had just a hint of such courage to speak out, and then action accordingly.
Here is an interesting contribution on this subject:

http://one-just-world.blogspot.com/2008/07/letter-to-hu-jintao-president-of-china.html

The Olympics should be beyond all politics in all circumstances. Period.

Politicising the Olympics ruins the Olympic spirit and ideals on which it was founded. Congratulations, you commentators are exploiting the Olympics are hypocrites and are all succeeding in your endeavours.

I don’t support a boycott and I want the Beijing Olympics to be a success.
But the Games are a chance, while the world is watching, to press China for change.

Without change China will carry on executing more of its citizens than any other country in the world, it will continue censoring the media and the Internet and it will continue locking up and torturing those who try to stand up for their rights and the rights of others.

To stand up for human rights is to stand up for the values enshrined in the Olympic Charter.

http://www.uncensor.com.au

i have to agree. i definitely will be watching the games, how couldn’t you. i also feel a real sense of sadness for Chinese people who are in prison for expressing an opinion online. i never think twice about telling people the way i feel. i would hate to think of what it would be like if i did. thats why i think we should show our support for people like Shi Tao and Hu Jia. lets keep watching the chinese government and their human rights policies after the olympic torch is gone.

I think the Olympic spirit is a myth. Berlin in 36, London in 48, Mexico in 68, Moscow in 80, Los Angeles in 84, Sydney in 2000 and now Beijing (to name just a few) show that it is not really about the ideals espoused in the Olympic charter. Indeed those ideals are a smokescreen for the reality. As Orwell said the Olympics is war without shooting.

It is about the host country showing it is a serious competitor in world affairs. Often the host country is an imperialist and/or colonialist ratbag. Other times the Olympics are run by imperialist wannabes, or those whose ruling elites want to show the world they are now players in the game of global economc competition.

This has nothing to do with human rights. Indeed real human rights is the enemy of global expansionism.

I also doubt Falun Gong is much of a threat to the CCP. I do think however that the rapid industrialisation of China has created a massive working class (about 400 million and growing daily). This class has the potential to challenge and defeat the CCP. The Communist Party is creating its own gravedigger.

The Olympic Spirit is dead and buried.This happened when it was prostituted and raped by international politics and the IOC was to blame for allowing it to happen.
The next venues should be in North Korea and then Burma and lets not leave Saudi Arabia out of it ...oh and also Iran.

Maybe later on there will be a second tier Olympic moveent for the really free countries of the world to which this lot will never be invited to appear and the IOC will be only a bad memory.And a bad smell!!

socratease