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

Which really free countries might that be Socratease?

The US with its barbarous self-proclaimed right to invade, murder, rape and pillage throughout the world, Russia with is subjugation of the Chechens, Australia with its imperialist invasions in the region and murderous adventures with the US in Iraq and Afghanistan? There are no free countries, my friend.

Factual, well presented and informative article.

I am one of the many hundreds of journalists working in China, who have had their visas cancelled and ejected pre Games.

We were not surprised since China was stretching its security manpower to monitor the thousands of new journalists arriving for the Games and did not want others "free" to report on unauthorised events. While forcibly ejected from Tibet, Beijing granted unprecedented access and support to journalists to cover the May 12 earthquake providing invaluable international sympathy, support and aid. Forcible ejection followed the revelations of official corruption, shoddy building practices in public building buildings, including schools and hospitals, exposed by the quake, as well as preferential treatment, corruption and diversion of funds and resources in the aftermath.

The Beijing Olympics will go down in history as the Games that broke the mould of a happy fun filled atmosphere for spectators and athletes alike, highlighted by the Athens and then Sydney Games.

The Beijing Games will be remembered as one staged in an atmosphere of paranoia and controversy and now described as the "fun free or killjoy Games".

Outdoor events, music festivals and wandering music will be missing. So will the impromptu parties. China's "Anti-Fun Police" even vet lyrics and the production before approving any musical event. Even an encore requires advance approval.

While Beijing whines about "unfair and unfounded criticism", they can only blame their own policies and paranoia.

Beijing used the Tibet riots and unrest in Xinjiang to arrest and execute numbers of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, claiming them to be "terrorist cells". Any individual with the slightest association in criticizing the CCP have been either arrested or "relocated". The high profile media campaign focussing on numerous "acts of terror" provided "evidence" to support the massive security measures to ensure "social harmony" during the Games

contd

Contd

The inevitable backlash to such propaganda and many of the new problems is China's own doing. China has a history of accidents involving fires and explosions on public transport that are linked to passengers carrying volatile materials in their baggage.

State media focus on a spate of accidents labelled "terrorist activities" effectively created a "cry wolf" scenario jumped on by groups claiming responsibility. The effect was to give credence to the media terrorist attacks and undermine Beijing's claims of having "terrorist cells" under control.

Immediately, Beijing back flipped and revisited earlier stories and presenting scenarios of non terrorist causes.

Thanks expat China journo. Your comments chill the blood. It sure makes concrete the level of repression the Games have brought to China.

Another example - Mexico 68 when Government forces killed 500 demonstrators ten days before the Games began. The IOC covered it up.

If history is any guide the Chinese repression will be as hidden as that of the Mexican State's repression.