winning the right to hold the 2008 Olympic Games, China

One year down, six to go:
a year on from winning the right to hold the 2008 Olympic Games,
China is still crushing dissent

A Free Tibet Campaign Report documents common attributes shared by Chinese government and IOC: unelected, unaccountable, plagued by corruption and obsessed with 'stability'Press Release, 10 July 2002
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'Beijing 2008: Taking a Bet on the Olympic Ideal.'
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To mark the anniversary (13 July) of Beijing being granted the 2008 Olympic Games, Free Tibet Campaign has produced a report 'Beijing 2008: Taking a Bet on the Olympic Ideal.' This report documents the woeful lack of progress to date by China and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) towards realizing Executive Director Francois Carrard's infamous "bet" that the Olympics would be a force for good in China (see notes).
"Time is ticking away." said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. "Of course change doesn't happen overnight, but China isn't even going through the motions of making progress; rather it is striking out even harder against dissent. In the last twelve months, the IOC have refused to respond to our recommendations, which were made in good faith to try and avoid the IOC being severely compromised. Instead, the IOC is adopting China's tactics of dealing with international criticism: namely sticking its head in the sand and hoping that the criticisms will fade away."
Free Tibet Campaign calls on the IOC to apply the same duty of care to human rights as it does to the protection of the Olympic host city's environment. "If the IOC does nothing now, it will face increasing calls to remove the Games from Beijing" commented Ms Callaghan. "The IOC must take responsibility for its "bet", and one of the most positive steps the new IOC President Jacques Rogge could take is to set up a Human Rights Committee to advise the Coordination Commission."
Jacques Rogge, following the era of Juan Antonio Samaranch, has a mandate to expunge from the IOC the corruption that has plagued the organisation for so many years. Ironically, Beijing 2008 is another of Samaranch's legacies to the IOC; one which may prevent it from breaking free of the cycles of mistrust that have dogged its past. Worse than taking no action on Free Tibet Campaign's recommendations, the IOC is effectively encouraging negative behaviour on China's part by issuing a licence for 'zero tolerance' of protest. The host city contract contains a clause that there must be no demonstrations of political meetings held during the Olympic Games. In South Korea in 1988 and Mexico in 1968, peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed by regimes anxious to maintain a 'peaceful' Olympics. It is highly likely that the stability-obsessed Chinese regime will interpret the Olympic Charter's clause to promote a "peaceful society" as meaning a 'silent society', with freedom of expression rigidly controlled.
Last year, China argued that the decision to grant the Games should not be based on human rights, but was nonetheless quick to use the victory as an endorsement of its continued crackdown on dissent, thereby undermining the principles of the Olympic Charter. Vice Premier Li Lanqing announced after the decision that "we have won a great victory against Falun Gong...we have won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games. This shows that the international community has acknowledged the fact that China is marked by social stability and progress" (reported in The Australian, 23 July 2001).
Moreover, the Chair of the IOC's Coordination Commission which oversees Beijing's preparations, is labouring under the misapprehension that human rights have improved in China: "...we also acknowledge, as do nearly all governments, that there is already a positive trend of change within the country" (Letter from Hein Verbruggen, Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission to the International Tibet Support Network [ITSN], 20 June 2002). Free Tibet Campaign's report demonstrates that human rights have not only deteriorated further, but that governments recognise this deterioration. Beijing's one guarantee of media freedom is further away than ever. The report documents several examples of crackdowns on the media, most recently the blocking of BBC World Television.
"The more you think about it, the more obvious it is that the IOC and the Chinese government are perfect partners." said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. "Undemocratically elected, unaccountable, a history of corruption and an obsession with stability. Can the IOC make a break from its past or will the IOC and China spend six years telling the world to mind its own business if there are human rights abuses taking place in the name of the Olympics? If the IOC chooses this path, Free Tibet Campaign promises that it will face a very difficult six years."
For more information contact Anne Callaghan 020 7833 9958 Mobile 07905 922701.
Notes
1. Free Tibet Campaign is a member of the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN), a global body of Tibet related non-government organisations with a political mandate.
2. The report 'Beijing 2008: taking a bet on the Olympic Ideal' is available with photographs in pdf format or text-only format as a word document. It will be on Free Tibet Campaign's website, www.freetibet.org from 10 July 2002.
3. ITSN's recommendations are available separately from the report as a one page document. In addition to appointing a Human Rights Committee, and setting benchmarks to determine the basis for an eventual reconsideration of the location of the 2008 Olympics in the event of a lack of improvement or further deterioration of the human rights situation in China and Tibet, the recommendations to the IOC include:
Obtaining a written guarantee from the Chinese authorities that Chinese citizens and Tibetans will not be arrested for voicing dissent about the Olympics before, during and after the Games.
Making representations for the immediate release of Chinese citizens already arrested for actions related to the Beijing bid, including Shan Chengfeng, sentenced to two years in a labour camp.
Obtaining a written guarantee that all media will have full and free access to China and Tibet in the run-up to and during the Olympic Games.
Drawing up a code of conduct to guide IOC members, officials and sponsors, to prevent the IOC becoming a propaganda pawn for the Chinese authorities.
Raising the case of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama, one of the most senior figures in Tibetan Buddhism, was last seen in public in 1995.
4. IOC Executive Director Francois Carrard introduced the press conference held by the Beijing team on 13 July 2001 with the comment that there was only one issue under discussion: human rights, and that the IOC had taken "a bet" that the Games would lead to improvements in human rights in China and Tibet.
5. 1968 Mexico Olympics: between 100 and 325 protestors were killed in demonstrations ten days before the beginning of the Olympic Games. The then IOC President, Avery Brundage apparently warned the Mexican President that the Games would be removed from Mexico if there were demonstrations. (Andrew Jennings, The New Lords of the Rings, Pocket Books 1996, page 41)