China Playing Hardball Before 2008 Olympics

The Olympic Games are a chance for athletes to shine and fans to see the world's best athletes, right? But the Olympics lost their innocence long ago as soon as comparing countries became commonplace. No matter that Australia (population, 20 million) won nearly half as many medals as the U.S. (population, 300 million) in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Commentators and fans keep counting as if relative size didn't matter.

Now sports fans will have to decide whether they will attend the 2008 Olympics being held under a darkening sky. This year, despite the pre-Olympic promise of the Chinese government to preserve human rights, the outside world keeps hearing about crackdowns on Chinese activists.

Use the internet to keep up with what is happening. For example, International PEN, the writers' organization promoting human rights, is publicizing the case of Shi Tao, now serving a ten year prison sentence in China. Shi, a journalist and poet, posted information on the internet about the Chinese Government's decision to suppress public mention of the Tianenmen massacre which will soon have its twentieth anniversary.

Recently, PEN sent Shi's poem "June" mourning the Tienanmen killings around the world in a virtual poem relay that "celebrates linguistic diversity and carries the torch for freedom of expression in China." "June" is being heard or read in 90 languages as it travels around the world. The poem will reach China as the Olympics begin.

PEN is also protesting a recent act by the government of Hong Kong which appears to be following the lead of the People's Republic. By legal agreement, Hong Kong is a Special Autonomous Region of China, outside the Chinese socialist economic system and autonomous in everything except foreign and defense affairs, but now the Hong Kong government has denied entry to a mainland China writer and several others scheduled to take part in a cultural conference.

CHRD (China Human Rights Defenders) is a second non-governmental organization using the internet to publicize the Chinese government's harsh pre-Olympics treatment of citizens who expose corruption, protest forced relocation from the countryside, and are outspoken in saying solving these problems are more important than the Olympics.

In April, the CHRD reported the sentencing of activist Hu Jia to 3 ½ years imprisonment and one year's deprivation of political rights, claiming he was "inciting subversion of state power." Hu is yet another Chinese citizen imprisoned for criticizing Olympic-related human rights abuses.

In addition, in Beijing the Chinese government is intercepting people from the provinces suspected of potential protesters, putting them in "black jails" (detention centers)

Meanwhile, CHRD reports one positive note. In Sichuan, a court has decided to hear the case of a villager suing the local government for forced demolition, a decision that may inspire other local eviction victims to follow suit.