Olympics a political turning point

By Wei Jingsheng

March 22, 2008 (Herald-Sun) - AS what the Dalai Lama has called cultural genocide goes on in Tibet, it is wholly unacceptable that Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, refuses - completely at odds with the spirit of the Olympics - to take a stand against the Beijing Government's crackdown on Tibetan protesters.

Far more than Steven Spielberg, who quit his advisory role for the Olympic celebration because of the Chinese Government's unwillingness to pressure the Sudanese Government on genocide in Darfur, the IOC has a special obligation to act.

Since promised improvements in China's human rights were a quid pro quo for granting the games to Beijing, how can it proceed as if nothing happened when blood is flowing in the streets of Lhasa?

If they don't move to put pressure on Beijing consistent with their obligations, they risk this Olympics being remembered like the 1936 games in Berlin.

Already, the spirit of the Olympics in Beijing has become associated with the word genocide by two of the world's top spiritual and cultural leaders.

Indeed, if the IOC and the rest of the world community does not pressure Beijing to stop the crackdown and improve human rights now, a boycott of the games will be seen as widely justified.

The Tibetans have long chafed under the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to exile in India, the protest of the Tibetans was harshly suppressed in a massacre that lasted more than a year.

Beginning then, more than a million Tibetans have reportedly lost their lives because of the Chinese Government's policies.

In 1989, it was the current Chinese Party leader, Hu Jintao, then in his capacity as a provincial leader, who suppressed yet another revolt in Lhasa by bringing in the military to kill people in the streets.

And, of course, the whole world knows what happened in Tiananmen Square that same year.

Clearly, without human rights and the rule of law, neither Tibetans nor the majority Han Chinese are safe from persecution at the whim of the Communist authorities.

The old lies and propaganda don't work any more.

In the past, many Han Chinese didn't know about the sufferings of the Tibetans.

Now thanks to travel, tourism, mobile phones and the internet, the majority Han understand that the Tibetan struggle against tyranny is the same as theirs.

Of course, as part of their peaceful face, the Chinese authorities have expressed their willingness to resolve the Tibetan issue through negotiation.

But, just as with the case of Darfur, there is no sincerity behind this willingness unless international pressure is brought to bear.

If there has been any lesson in all my years as an activist for democracy and human rights in China, it is that only international pressure coupled with internal pressure will yield solid results.

The reason for Jacques Rogge's unwillingness to pressure Beijing at this moment is so tragic it is that these Olympics are the turning point in modern Chinese history.

Having invited the world to polite tea by hosting the Olympics, the Communist Party rulers have turned their palace of power into a global glass house.

They can't any longer show the smiling face of a peaceful rise to the world and the stern face of brutal suppression at home.

The Olympics will force China to show its true face.
Only international pressure, by the IOC and others,
will make sure it is the face we want to see.

Wei Jingsheng, one of China's most prominent dissidents since 1978, lives in exile in Washington