Right now, it’s easy to find a general sentiment along these lines:
Let’s leave the politics outside the door since that’s not what the Olympic is all about shall we? Even if the Chinese citizens don’t like their government, they would still want their Olympics to be the best. For the next couple of weeks at least, they would only care about their country being the best in the sporting events. Didn’t you feel that way back in Sydney Olympics?
I shan’t pay the author the dignity of linking to him, but it’s not hard to stumble upon rubbish like this. I’d very much like to see pimply middle-class fellows from Sydney telling those who were actually involved in the construction of infrastructure for the Olympics that all they should care about for a couple of weeks is nationalistic fervour in sporting events. Just seeing as many of said workers are actually Chinese ‘citizens’ who’ve been abducted from their families and homes in Western Provinces and made to work in Beijing as “indentured” labourers, under lock and key and the constant supervision of armed guards (in case anyone’s dim, we’re talking about slavery).
Max Dunbar links to a Guardian piece about author Ma Jian:
… Ma has heard of more sinister controls at work. ‘Street hairdressers have been given red armbands, and are able to report any misdemeanours or bad behaviour to the government – anyone who stands out from the crowd, anyone who might arouse suspicion, people who have come in from the countryside to petition the authorities about local injustices, people who are shabbily dressed – these people with red armbands have the authority to make citizen’s arrests or to hand them over to the police.’
Students on holiday have been told to stay in their home towns, he says; Beijing citizens have been informed it’s best to leave the streets clear for foreigners; artists have been prevented from returning to China or had exhibitions banned: ‘There are fascistic elements to it, this idea of the mass cleansing, the purging of the city, of the disabled and mentally unstable, of all subversives and outsiders.’
It’s dishonest to say that politics should be “left at the door”, and that people should reserve their criticism for the moment. Massive attacks on human dignity have been made by the Chinese government as a key part of their attempt to present an appealing face to the world for the Olympic Games. The extent of human rights violations that are the direct result of the Games means that a person who says politics should be kept out of the matter are not actually removing themselves from politics, but rather are taking sides in a political matter; they tacitly support the Party’s efforts by ignoring if not excusing them.
To truly have a neutral position devoid of politics, one would need to insist that both positive and negative viewpoints are not presented for the duration of the Olympics, which I doubt that anyone is willing to do. Ignoring suffering is a political position, not an apolitical one – it means alignment with isolationism and apathy.
I think that the defining struggle of the next few decades will be centred around the question of whether a liberal society is allowed to emerge in China as it ascends as a superpower and eventually even perhaps becomes the world’s only superpower, as the United States is today. A lot rests on this question, and it’s very important that those interested in universal liberty and human emancipation figure out what we can do to help those in China who share our values and our vision for the world to defeat the forces of corruption, totalitarianism, political ‘realism’ and violence.
