Our Awful Situation

Archive for the ‘Olympics’ Category

China foresees Olympics unrest

Posted by patriot on July 5th, 2008

We’ll see how the summer games go…

A senior Chinese security official says the Beijing Olympics are threatened by sabotage and unrest, state media says.

Authorities also moved to sack officials blamed for a riot that torched a police headquarters.

The trouble in Guizhou province in the southwest on Saturday came as China seeks to quell any signs of unrest ahead of the Games in August.

Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning told police officials that the Games would be a target for forces hostile to China’s ruling Communist Party.

“The current international and domestic situation is full of complications,” Yang told the meeting, according to the People’s Public Security News.

“Especially as the Beijing Olympic Games draw near, a range of anti-China forces and hostile forces are striving by any means and redoubling efforts to engage in trouble-making and sabotage.”

Follow the money: Olympic protest movement turns its sights on to sponsors

Posted by Charlie Kilo on April 23rd, 2008

Taking a play from the Al Sharpton book of getting what you want:

The linked rings on every Chinese Coke bottle and the leaping athletes on each McDonald’s paper bag testify to the power the world’s biggest corporations believe this summer’s Olympics wields.

But having spent huge sums, the companies sponsoring the Beijing games are about to find themselves the targets of a new, more vigorous war on China’s human rights record by campaigners boosted by the success of protests along the torch relay route.

Yesterday a coalition of Tibetan groups warned Coca-Cola that it would be “complicit in a humanitarian disaster” unless it used its influence to ensure Tibet was dropped from the torch route. And tomorrow, Dream for Darfur will launch a critical “report card” on sponsors of the games.

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Hillary Clinton calls for Olympics boycott

Posted by patriot on April 7th, 2008

Clinton issued a statement calling for Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics:

The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership. These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.

I encourage the Chinese to take advantage of this moment as an opportunity to live up to universal human aspirations of respect for human rights and unity, ideals that the Olympic games have come to represent.

Americans will stand strong in support of freedom of religious and political expression and human rights. Americans will also stand strong and root for the success of American athletes who have worked hard and earned the right to compete in the Olympic Games of 2008.

First official boycott of Olympic opening ceremony

Posted by patriot on March 29th, 2008

From Germany:

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games’ opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown’s determination to attend the Olympics.

The groundswell of opposition is growing. China, who wants to sit at the table of industrialized, “free” nations (yes, free goes in quotes since most nations are anything but), is trying to save face with Tibet and show the world that it is civilized and human.

Yeah, right.

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